Thread: Ram Horns vs Shorty Headers

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The wrecking yard pieces are pretty ugly. For the same prices, I found cleaned up rams horns on Ebay, painted 1,200 degree paint. I looked at the Speedway units. Nice. Also, new, choice of SS. Just do not put any nice exhaust on an engine for break in. Due to red hot temps, breakin will turn
any this a diff color (ie chrome and SS to blue).

I have yet to see any high temperature paint that stays good longer than a year. The ONLY coatings that seem to stand up are chrome, Jet-Hot Ceramic, or stainless steel headers.

Well the weather was nice today so I decided to cut reliefs out of the inner edges of the fenders around the two center tubes of my existing ceramic coated headers. That saves about $400 for the rams horns and now I can proceed with installation of the steering column.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

Well the weather was nice today so I decided to cut reliefs out of the inner edges of the fenders around the two center tubes of my existing ceramic coated headers. That saves about $400 for the rams horns and now I can proceed with installation of the steering column.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Pictures Don----we want pictures---

OK Brian, Thanks for all your good suggestions. I had problems with my camera; it seems to need fresh batteries to download to the PC. Anyway after my previous adventure with cutting fiberglass I was VERY aprehensive about this simple relief and yes it did not go perfectly but the relief will be inside of the edge of the hood. For the folks following Bebop construction the good news is that the Brookville motor mounts seem high enough that there is good clearance between the tube header and the frame rail. From the Bebops point of view the fender edge covers the frame rail with an excess of about 1/2" more or less. I cut a pattern from cardboard but even then my hand is not very steady with the Dremel carving tool. I am sorry to make a big deal out of this but I hate to cut up the 'glass, especially after painting! Here is the first picture showing the problem with the tube header touching the edge of the fender edge. As far as I know, fiberglass will burn and the combination of motor vibration and a hot tube rubbing the 'glass would have made a mess here.

OK, I should not make more out of this than necessary, but looking at other buildups which are of much higher quality I was reluctant to cut the painted 'glass but something had to give AND even if I gained 1/2" with the Speedway rams horn at the outer dimension, the problem here is the lower edge and it is not clear to me that the rams horn would solve this problem after spending $350 plus shipping. So with input from the wife's checkbook balance, I decided to make the "$400 relief". Here is a second picture at an angle showing the new relief-notch as well as a peek at the universal joint on the Vega box. The flex joint is slightly behind the bolts on the header-connector and completely clears the connector flange. On a previous post someone suggested the good idea of using a wooden dowel for mockup so you can see that if the dowel was a D-bar, I can bring the column down at a fairly steep angle and use only one universal joint at the bottom to still clear that back spark plug. Hey, how about that 3/8" manifold bolt next to the dipstick, I guess you all knew that is fun to tighten. According to the Chilton's '63-'82 Corvette manual (the block is a '76 Vette 350, slightly upgraded) the manifold bolts should be torqued to 20-22 ft-lb. so I set the wrench to 21.5 ft-lb and if the aluminum gaskets leak I will try DennyW's suggestion of putting on wet gaskets. The only good that comes out of my angst here is that it should clear up the argument that tight-fit tube headers DO fit a Brookeville Vega box installation for a SBC. As for the Bebops edge, I should have trimmed this before painting but we have heard that before! I was able to touch up the edge of the 'glass with a good matching rattle can color using my finger for a paint brush. As Dave Severson told me two years ago the first build has a few errors and if I did this again I would buy the cheaper full stainless steel tubing headers and maybe if the ceramic coating does not last that is an option that would fit with the plumbing I have now. Just for the record, those stock rams horns on Brian's Wild Canary really look good and should last a long time but you can see the straight-down part of the connector causes a clearance problem that seems to be fixed with the tight-fit tubes. In fact I have more nostalgic respect for that kind of an installation as to how it would have been done back in the '60s but at my level of skill I am thankful for all the aftermarket refinements available now! Well maybe my angst has served to clear up a clearance question, sorry about my stress! Just as the $3K T-bucket buildups went way over budget I started out to build this roadster for under $20K, HAH! Still I am trying to be aware of costs, thanks for all the help I get from this FORUM!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don---Looks like a million bucks!!! Ya done good!!---Brian

Don, if your exhaust gaskets leak I would suggest using stock Fel-Pro gaskets. I've never had a leakage problem with them.