I'm kinda bumed out with these long tube hooker headers

by alive 75 Thu Mar 14, 2013 1:07 am

the left side hangs to low and you can see it looking at the side of the car from a few feet back,, it would be way cooler if they both hung the same way,, I installed a g-force cross member so I had 2 cut outs to keep my exhaust tucked up, I will scrape the collector on the street in certain places. I'm going to be installing new high lift coil springs at all 4 corners so that should stop the street scraping, but i still can't get over seeing one pipe hanging under my car, I still have my stock manifolds but am leaning more towards installing a shorty style set of headers because they sound cool. just wish those long tubes fit better..

by 77mali Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:00 am

What brand are they? That's kind of odd.

I have Hooker long tubes & were in good shape so I'm reusing them- if they hadn't been I would have gone the shorties route.

by ant7377 Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:56 am

My dynomax headers do that too. I dont know why but its been pretty rare that Ive scraped them so maybe its not hanging as far as it seems.

by thatfnthing Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:59 am

I had seen a lot of long-tube headers bashed in, which is one reason why I went with Doug Thorley Tri-Y's -- they don't hang as low, and two-into-one takes up a lot less space than four-into-one. They finally lost their chrome plating after 20 years, so I had to paint them, but they're still in great shape.

by LSANTI76 Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:15 pm

Same experience here with long tube headers. 14 years ago I switched them out with Sanderson's shorties. Great product. No leaks.
'75Alive...If you haven't already purchased springs...I have some Moog #5032 that I purchased new & ran roughly 2500 miles on them before removing them. They raised my Malibu 2 inches higher than factory height. Higher than what I had wanted. Anyway I would make you a deal if you were interested. PM me if you are interested & want more details.

by carcass Thu Mar 14, 2013 5:58 pm

I don't think its uncommon for headers to have poor manufacturing tolerances.
My buddy just got a set of Hooker long tube headers for his 76 Camaro and the passenger side collector was pointed up towards the floor so much so that a pipe could not be connected due to the collector pointing directly at the transmission crossmember.
Our standard exhaust guy up in Marysville Wa put the car up on the rack and inside of three hours had the situation fixed, he literally bent the collector into the appropriate position to match the drivers side, actually he bent the tubes going into the collector to make the collector position properly.
My suggestion is to have a competent exhaust guy cure the ailling collector they have the technology,, not raise the car to fix poor header manufacturing.

by carcass Thu Mar 14, 2013 6:00 pm

and theres no doubt you get what you pay for in headers, I don't know what level of Hooker headers you bought but the cheapies are just that.

by 77mali Thu Mar 14, 2013 6:29 pm

The Hooker long tubes I have were cast in 1993 & they sit even with each other- although they are lower to the ground than I'd like. I had another member here make a repair to one of the tubes on the R side as it looked as if someone at one time "persuaded it" for clearance. I would recommend Hooker for sure- 20 years is a long time for an aftermarket exhaust manifold. They were quality built then, don't know about now but I suspect they still are, but looking at the prices on some that are coated, etc...I don't want to find out. Laughing

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/KeywordSearchCmd?storeId=10001&catalogId=10002&langId=-1&Ntk=all&Jnar=0&Ne=1%2B2%2B3%2B13%2B1147708&searchTerm=hooker+2451

If you search by model year (I entered 73 Monte Carlo) all of this comes up.
http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/MkMdlYrSearchCmd?searchType=MkMdlYrSearch&Nty=0&catalogId=10002&Jnar=0&Ne=1%2b2%2b3%2b13%2b1147708%2b2&langId=-1&MODEL=1536827&storeId=10001&YEAR=1536534&MAKE=1536682&N=1536827+4294916253

by carcass Thu Mar 14, 2013 6:46 pm

Hooker makes several "grades" of headers most likely in different facilities/and or countries. Material quality, header to head flange thickness differences, tube to collector weld differences, tube and collector thickness differences, collector to exhaust flange differences.

A guy can't rely on one hooker header part/type to fit the same as another part/type number. They will and do last differently and fit differently.
My buddies 76 Camaro Hookers had a header to head flange that was so far from flat that bolting it to the head required great difficulty resulting in multiple sets of ruined graphite header gaskets.

The header flange was more boomerang shaped than flat, #3,5 pipes hit the head while #1,7 pipes were a long ways from the head. Quality does make a difference big time in headers and big companies like Hooker make many levels of bad to good sets. Not only that but sometimes a cheap set may luck out while another cheap set will be junk. Not fun stuff.

Also the part numbers that cover multiple body styles and years of cars, will vary in the way they are bent from another part number/style/coating/stainless even if JEGS applications seem the same for that other set.

by 77mali Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:01 pm

Jegs was just for some sort of price reference. I don't know how long it's been but Hooker is now owned by Comp Cams. I would hope that they follow high QC standards, as they are a pretty respectable company.

Mine were Mexican Made & I like them but your right- any of them can be defective or contribute to a situation like you described no matter what brand.

by ant7377 Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:26 pm

Its like the damn number 6 header tube that is too close to the plug wire boot and you really have to twist your hand in there to get the plug out and also use a heat wrap "sock" on the boot,drives me nuts. The hanging proble on mine is the whole header not just the collector. I might go for a better set soon.

by WyldeBill66 Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:58 pm

On my headers, no idea the brand name, the drivers side drags on dips in the road and speed bumps, while the passenger side is OK. Granted the car is way too low in the front, but the drivers side is the only only side that drags.

by chevy76monteman Sat Mar 16, 2013 1:17 am

alive 75 wrote:the left side hangs to low and you can see it looking at the side of the car from a few feet back,, it would be way cooler if they both hung the same way,, I installed a g-force cross member so I had 2 cut outs to keep my exhaust tucked up, I will scrape the collector on the street in certain places. I'm going to be installing new high lift coil springs at all 4 corners so that should stop the street scraping, but i still can't get over seeing one pipe hanging under my car, I still have my stock manifolds but am leaning more towards installing a shorty style set of headers because they sound cool. just wish those long tubes fit better..

I bought a pair of ceramic coated Flowmonster mid-length headers for my '86 Grand Prix (originally for the Monte, but plans change) and I love 'em. They only sell them for SBC, though.

http://flowmonster.com/i-6322350-flowmonster-ceramic-coated-mid-length-headers-small-block-chevy.html

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