I've learned a LOT cruising these forums and have a gained a lot of insight into these cars. I'm usually a Buick guy ... 1972 GS 455 and 1987 Grand National... so a lot of my A Body (and to a lesser extent G body) experience translates, but the Olds 350 seems to be a bit of a step child as far as headers go.

I searched these forums and lots of threads about beating the crap out of BBO headers or the eBay headers, but then an occasional mention of "mine fit fine" without any part numbers or even brand?

My W-31 has some sort of headers on it and they sound good (slight leaks), but I think they fall into the "bashed to fit BBO" category since they seem to hang low and I can see the BFH customization on the tubes to clear the upper control arm on the pass. side and looks like more near the starter.

I'm looking for something really designed for the 1970 chassis/small olds combo? I've looked at ARHs (had those on a couple of my LS powered vehicles and they are super nice... but $$$$$$), Kooks and so on, but would really like to just get some ceramic coated mid-level headers (Hedman, Hooker, Flowmaster, Flowtech?) that don't require a bunch of contortions and bashing to make them fit.

Ministarter is an option (and oil filter) but hate the thought of buying $500+ headers and then banging on them with a hammer.

Any specific recommendations, reviews (for or against)? Hate to plow old ground, but figure you guys would know....

 

Those posts about beating the crap out of BBO headers to get them to fit don't really translate to SBO headers.

Anyway, on two of my 350 cars I used Heddman headers and didn't have to really beat them up - just slightly flatten one tube so it had adequate clearance for the end of the drivers side lower control arm. I didn't do that on the first set and it eventually wore a hole through the tube.

If you want coated headers, maybe buy headers, install and clearance them where necessary, then send them out to be coated. That way you won't damage the coating.

 

Exactly what I wanted to know! Cool! Which Hedmans?

I actually have a local guy that can do like "Jet Hott" style ceramic coating, so I think I have the covered ... 58060? 58066 seems to be the coated version?

 

58060 I guess. I bought them back in the 1990s so I don't really remember the part number.