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Ever install a set of Hotpower Co's. Megaflow Maxipad killer 8-into-2 race headers in your Mopar? Uh, we've been there, done that! After removing the steering column, both torsion bars, the steering center link, the starter, motor mounts, and maybe the engine, etc., you finally get 'em in there. But when you went to reinstall all those "useless accessories," they all—each and every one—hit the headers. So you marked the interference points, took 'em out, heated, hammered and, mainly, cussed up a storm. Finally, after turning the bolts 1/16th of a turn at a time, you got 'em "in." So you had the local exhaust guy weld up a set of collector-to-pipe pieces, and headed for the track. Man, like, is the car ever fast! But on the way to the track, it started misfiring. Umm...the plug wires are fried. Then, a week later, the started was toasted. And you hadda take the left header back out to make room to wiggle the starter free. Two weeks later, another starter.And you couldn't help but notice the cat-crushing, mole-mashing, armadillo-attacking ground clearance reduction. Then you went down to the Dairy Queen for cruise night. Pulling into the driveway, you heard that unmistakable, gut-wrenching sound of the headers hitting the macadam. Sure enough, two bottom piped on each side are flattened, and now they hit the steering again. Plus, the flange gaskets were beginning to leak, and your squeeze wanted to know what that duhzzz-duhzzz-duhzzz sound was. What to tell her? Hassle after hassle—finally, just before school started, you borrowed BillyJoeJim—Bob's acetylene torch and cut the suckers out! Back to iron manifolds, and God help anyone who even mentioned Hotpower Co. while you were in earshot—or pistol range. Yeah, headers and Mopars are like oil and water—they seem unlikely to ever mix completely. The torsion bars are one reason, and the horizontal-facing exhaust ports on all wedge motors are another. And poor header design is a third. Personally, out of sheer desperation, we paid $2,400 for a set of decent-fitting Tri-Ys for our Green Brick smallblock '69 Valiant! And that's a lot of coin in anyone's book, unless your name is Peterson. Back in the late-'80s, a misguided friend of ours bought a Mustang GT. For the '80s, it really wasn't such a bad car—surely more recognizable to us than Ma Mopar's turbo-twinkie offerings of the era. But it had 4-lug wheels, Pinto breaks and rather flaccid suspension. Hey, at least it was a V-8, and the power was put to the pavement via the back wheels. And you could actually do a burnout! But when I opened the hood—voila! Look at those headers! Call them "tubular exhaust manifolds" or whatever you want, but they were awesome. The fit! No burned plug wires! No rattles! No leaks! Okay, so they are not 2" primary, 4-into-1, equal-length tuned full race headers. But they are there. They stay there. And they work—a helluva lot better than iron logs. Maybe you're giving up 10 or 15 horsepower over the "Hotpowers." SO WHAT? You can live with them—day in, day out, year after year. It took another 10 or 15 years, but finally someone listened. Two outfits did, actually: Hedman, an old-line SoCal header manufacturer, and upstart Schumacher Creative Services, out of the Pacific Northwest. Each of these outfits took radically different approaches to the same problem, namely, that of designing headers that actually fit Mopars (big blocks only, for now), and do not leak, scrape, rub, cut, fry, or require 63 hours and pulling the engine and fenders to install. The Hedmans (#78070) are a takeoff on the Mustang idea: 4-into-one, but pay no attention to tuning. They clear everything, and can be installed in an hour if you're slow. Now, that's not to say that they are perfect. Our photos and captions will point out the few trouble spots, and an extremely slick idea we had for improving them easily and cheaply. But if you've ever installed any headers in a Mopar before, these will be a dream come true. They use 1.875-inch primary pipes, and a 3-inch, 3-bolt collector flange—so these are significantly better flowing than even the best-ever Max-Wedge exhaust manifolds. We'd guess that these will be good for a 30-HP boost on a typical near-stock 440, and the price on these is amazingly low, even with the premium ceramic coating that we sprang for. The Schumachers are Tri-Ys, very similar to what we had built for our smallblock. They also simply drop right in—no contortionists need apply. They even use an absolutely stock Mopar 2.5", 2-bolt flange, just like what bolts up to the famous HP manifolds. The head flanges are also super thick (an amazing 0.375"), guaranteeing zero leaks—you could probably get away without gaskets! The Schumachers use a smaller 1.75-inch primary pipe, so you wouldn't want these on a 500-inch stroker, unless you're using it for towing, motorhome, etc. But with the 4-into-2-into-1 design (intermediate pipe is 2.00"), midrange gets a big boost, making these just the ticket for 3.23-geared daily drivers with reasonable cam specs. These are super-premium, extra-beefy headers, built to last a lifetime. With the chrome plating we opted for, they'll probably outlast iron manifolds. And while they can't be considered dirt cheap, especially compared to Hedman's bargain-basement prices, they are still only a small fraction of what we paid for our custom Tri-Ys a few years back—and probably built better, too. We installed each header, in place of iron hi-po manifolds, on a '67 B-body with a 383. We carefully documented problem spots, which were extremely minor. Check the photographs and captions for the blow by blow. Incidentally, the Schumachers also for E and, yes, A-bodies, while the Hedmans are cataloged for B and E use only. (We think there's an excellent chance that the Hedmans would also be fine on A-bodies, they simply have not been test-fitted yet. And both easily clear all accessories, power steering, 4- speed or TorqueFlites, etc. One thing's certain: Either of these headers will make you smile—especially if you suffered through installing something like our mythical Hotpowers.
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Hedman installation omitted |
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