Hi, I have a 68 442 with a 455 in it can someone please recommend some headers that will work without scraping?
Thanks,
Dave

 

Thornton Shorties

 

Shortie headers provide all of the expense and leaking gaskets of real headers without the pesky extra horsepower. If you want to be a poser, get shortie headers. If you want an actual power increase for your money and effort, get real full-length tuned headers. ARH are the best and priced accordingly.

 

American Racing Headers tuck up as tight as I’ve seen. Have installed half a dozen sets or so. Best fitment by far.

 

That might depend upon your vehicle’s ride height. I’ve seen some cars with the 4 wheel drive look and others that are dropped significantly.

 

I've got Hooker 3902s on my '68 4-4-2, 400CID, 4spd. They do not scrape the ground and only had minimal interference on the bell crank.

 

Chinese 250 dollar stainless works for cheap.

 

I have the Doug's headers on my 72 Supreme. Fit perfectly.

 

I use these also, drops some weight, are very well built and clean up the bay nicely.
never had a leak yet and have certainly not ground them off on the road..hehe

Is this for street or strip, if strip then you should read the performance section of this site.
What have you done to the motor.
1.Bore/ Stroke or stock
2 upgraded cam or race cam or roller cam. (Where is its power band)
3 roller rockers
4 intake/ carb upgrade
5 ported heads

it all plays into any results from the headers
Dont forget, a lot of people online will post up a dyno comparison chart from full length to stock or shorties, but almost all of them are tested with open exhaust. You might see a nice 7-10 hp gain over shorties or 15 hp gain over stock, but if you put on a corker exhaust, you just wasted your time and money. A lot of the basic super turbos to keep the noise down don’t flow enough to see the full gains so you will need something a little louder.

you will need open, cut outs or a really free flowing muffler to get all the benefits.
I used the Dynomax ultra flo which are straight through with no restrictions, sound great but will drone…ugh
i now use the Dynomax 17792 turbos to try and not restrict flow. They are 3” full internal with directors. I had to weld on 2 1/2”reducers to attach to my system.
I made a cruiser though, a 30 over 455, mild cam, roller rockers and ported heads.
honestly I think I get more out of the heads than any header would net me.
Mine now runs way better than my 69 HO with D heads unported and same power train/ gears and weight.

make sure to get some performance baselines of your car before the changes and then go check again after the headers. Chassis dyno, Track it, Gtech, or Draggy if you have a safe place to practice.

They will make numbers on a dyno, you need the whole package to make big gains on the street though, oh and they sound great….just some thoughts.
66 sport coupe races his car with the Chinese headers still and it moves quite well!,