I have a customer looking for long tube headers for his 79 malibu with a small block. He was sold flowtech 31104 but has clearance issues with the clutch linkage. Anyone been down this road before? Are we gonna be stuck with a mid length?
Headers to fit with mechanical clutch linkage?
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As far as I know Hedman is the only one I know of out there. I used them when I converted to the 305/4 speed 20 years ago.
That was quick!
Looks like 68310 says it will work. Guess we'll start there.
Thanks!
Looks like 68310 says it will work. Guess we'll start there.
Thanks!
I had the same problem with my big block and Hooker # 2455 headers.
My buddy and I cut the clutch Z bar apart and moved it around until it cleared the headers.
It took a bit of playing with it to get it to it fit.
Guy
My buddy and I cut the clutch Z bar apart and moved it around until it cleared the headers.
It took a bit of playing with it to get it to it fit.
Guy
I have the Hedmans on mine and the fit well and clear the z bar. I am one of those that despises hydraulic clutches for many reasons which is why I stayed with a mechanical linkage.
i have hedmans on my mechanical linkage equipped car. It fits after clearancing one of the primaries.
The Hedmans went on in fine once the z bar and oil filter were removed. The only modification I had to make was to bend/pull the passenger side header closer to the engine as the collector was touching the frame by the lower control arm bracket.
No, the 68310's won't fit, at least not without a lot of grief. I went down this rabbit hole with my own Project and have posted pictures in a series of threads tagged Project Regress. Between my speed shop and my own efforts I was able to learn that the Hedmans will fit only if the front motor mounts are changed. The frame portion is okay but the clamshell interferes heavily with the driver's side pipe. As noted previously, UMI does make mounts that allow both the Hedmans and Flowmasters to fit but...…..
The but here is those mounts are only the first issue. You might get lucky with the hedmans once you get past the front mounts but you could also find that the tubes on the driver's side have another problem. Specifically Number five crashes into the front pair of mounting tabs for the lower control arm and slightly less at the back pair. The Flowmasters are no better, in fact, my Flowmasters now have a serious dimple in the number five tube just to deal with that need for clearance. The dumb thing is that Hedman will not include any type of disclaimer concerning this problem. I only found out about it when I visited the OPGi website and took a peek at a header sale they were running and there it was, a list of what fits what. What compounds the whole thing is that, today, I slipped under the Monte to install the starter motor and figured that I would probably have to back off the mounting bolts to get the header to move enough to ease the starter past it like I had to do with the Hedmans I've run in the past. Not necessary. The starter eased into place like it was made to do it. Super stupid part of all this is that the interference issue could be solved by exchanging the routes of two of the pipes as they make their way to the collector. Same foot print for all the pipes, just exchange how they lay. Why or how the engineers missed this one is beyond me unless this is a farm job and the work is getting done somewhere else. It would be nice to correct the problem but I don't Tig and these pipes are both S/S and ceramic coated. The TIG can be learned but that coating could cause me a world of grief if it isn't removed down to bare metal and then how do I get it replaced?
Good Luck with your search and if you are successful would you post the part number and MFGR to add to the local data base?
Nick
The but here is those mounts are only the first issue. You might get lucky with the hedmans once you get past the front mounts but you could also find that the tubes on the driver's side have another problem. Specifically Number five crashes into the front pair of mounting tabs for the lower control arm and slightly less at the back pair. The Flowmasters are no better, in fact, my Flowmasters now have a serious dimple in the number five tube just to deal with that need for clearance. The dumb thing is that Hedman will not include any type of disclaimer concerning this problem. I only found out about it when I visited the OPGi website and took a peek at a header sale they were running and there it was, a list of what fits what. What compounds the whole thing is that, today, I slipped under the Monte to install the starter motor and figured that I would probably have to back off the mounting bolts to get the header to move enough to ease the starter past it like I had to do with the Hedmans I've run in the past. Not necessary. The starter eased into place like it was made to do it. Super stupid part of all this is that the interference issue could be solved by exchanging the routes of two of the pipes as they make their way to the collector. Same foot print for all the pipes, just exchange how they lay. Why or how the engineers missed this one is beyond me unless this is a farm job and the work is getting done somewhere else. It would be nice to correct the problem but I don't Tig and these pipes are both S/S and ceramic coated. The TIG can be learned but that coating could cause me a world of grief if it isn't removed down to bare metal and then how do I get it replaced?
Good Luck with your search and if you are successful would you post the part number and MFGR to add to the local data base?
Nick
My set of Hedmans were the 68310 & never had any issues with the mounts or frame for clearance. They do note that aftermarket heads with more that 2 deg + or - offset angle at the exhaust port surface/flange than stock will create clearance issues. I would say they are using '88 & older heads as the base of the stock surface/flange angle.
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