How To Install Exhaust Headers

Here&8217s the complete tti...        read full caption Here’s the complete tti exhaust system, from headers to tips. Their headers aren’t "full race" or "equal length" for maximum horsepower, but they’re not far off. Frankly, we didn’t care--any tube header is going to out-perform stock iron manifolds, and on a street car that sees occasional drag strip duty, that’s fine, and that’s where the majority of our readers’ cars are. You don’t need race headers on the street, but you don&8217t have to live with restrictive iron manifolds anymore, either.

Okay, which would you rather...        read full caption Okay, which would you rather have on your hot rod, knowing that both fit in the stock location and both have good ground clearance?

Even factory Hi-Po cast iron...        read full caption Even factory Hi-Po cast iron manifolds aren’t exactly a picnic to install. While the passenger side slips right in, the motor mounts have to be loosened and the block rocked over about half an inch to get the driver&8217s side manifold in or out.

Mike had asbestos shielding...        read full caption Mike had asbestos shielding on the manifolds to protect the plug wires, which weren&8217t that easy to get on the plugs, even when using stock wires with regular ends.

The tti instructions are actually...        read full caption The tti instructions are actually the first we’ve seen in a while that walk you through everything and don’t miss much. Begin by removing the starter, oil filter (in our case, the car’s owner had installed a remote filter, so we removed the whole housing), and disconnect the drag link from the Pitman arm and driver’s side tie rod. Be sure to first disconnect the battery. It&8217s also not a bad idea to remove the spark plugs for added clearance.

Next, unbolt the engine mounts...        read full caption Next, unbolt the engine mounts and jack the front of the engine up a few inches. Watch firewall clearance: you may need to remove the distributor cap or whole distributor; however, we didn&8217t need to.

Use a block of wood between...        read full caption Use a block of wood between your jack and the oil pan to keep from crushing the pan.

You slip the headers into...        read full caption You slip the headers into place from underneath the car. We&8217re spoiled and have a lift, which made the whole thing a ton easier. However, you should be able to clear everything with tall jackstands.

The passenger side header...        read full caption The passenger side header slips in place pretty easily. However, the driver’s side has a more creative route due to clutch or shifter linkage, the starter, and the steering box. The rear-most tube is separate, and is a slip-fit into the collector. It wraps around the torsion bar, between the bar and the frame rail. This is where the second man comes in. The only way to connect everything together and make it all fit correctly is to slip the main part of the header up into place, then get the back tube into place, slip the tube into the collector, and then bolt the whole header to the head as though it were one piece. If you try to bolt the first three tubes in place first, you won&8217t be able to get the fourth tube in.

You need the second person...        read full caption You need the second person to hold the header at an angle from above while you make the fit. Do it this way and it’s a ten minute deal. Do it any other, and you’re there for hours. It all fits, but there&8217s only one way to get there!

Here’s the other tip--there&8217s...        read full caption Here’s the other tip--there’s a nice "window" in the tubes to slip the starter through, but with the header bolted in place there isn&8217t enough clearance to get the snout into the bellhousing. So, before you bolt the header to the head, make sure the starter is back in place. We did notice that a high-torque mini starter would probably clear with the header in place, which would make any future starter maintenance a breeze.

The passenger side of the...        read full caption The passenger side of the engine bay can only be described as cavernous--it’s the driver’s side that’s always a tight squeeze. Here you can see that everything fits, including the power steering box and auto trans shift linkage. The top power steering hose will have to be turned away from the header, but that’s just a matter of loosening the flare nut and moving it. We&8217re also going to reroute a section of the trans lines and move them a couple of inches away from the header.

Notice how thick the flanges...        read full caption Notice how thick the flanges are, and how easily accessible the spark plugs are--we marveled at how fast all the plugs went back in, including the back ones, especially compared to the iron Hi-Po manifolds.

Then it was off to The Muffler...        read full caption Then it was off to The Muffler and Exhaust Center, where we have all our exhaust pipes hung. The mandrel-bent pipes can be hung in your driveway, but John’s results are always much better than ours. Plus, it’s been our experience that even the best kits might require a small tweak here or there to clear obstacles peculiar to the individual car (like the electric fuel pump on this one). They&8217ve got the equipment, and the experience, to finesse pipes into place with a minimum of hassle. TMEC started by holding the H-Pipe in place to determine how much collector extension to remove. The extensions come with extra length, to ensure a good fit for the individual car. TMEC likes to move the equalizer tube as far forward as possible, to keep it from being right under the seals at the trans yoke.

After getting the H-pipe in...        read full caption After getting the H-pipe in position, the back of the system is put in place, over the axle tubes. The back of the car has to be in the air pretty high for this, either on tall jackstands or ramps.

Put the muffler in place....        read full caption Put the muffler in place...

...and determine how much...        read full caption ...and determine how much has to be trimmed from the end of the H-Pipe to make everything fit.

This is why we always have...        read full caption This is why we always have a muffler shop hang the pipes: They&8217re never this level when we do it ourselves, even with the lift we have in our shop.

After everything is fitted,...        read full caption After everything is fitted, it&8217s all tack welded into place.

Even though we welded everything,...        read full caption Even though we welded everything, we left the equalizer tube unwelded to make any future transmission removal or other maintenance easier. All of the clamps in the tti kit are this nice, and they’re more than adequate for the job. It&8217s just our preference to have everything welded. The kit also came with stainless steel, rubber-insulated hangers that bolted into the stock locations in front of and behind the axle housing, which we did use.

tti has three different polished...        read full caption tti has three different polished stainless tips available for all their tube diameters.

Mike Volpe, the car&8217s...        read full caption Mike Volpe, the car&8217s owner, agreed with us that it was surprising tti went to the trouble of manufacturing two tips that were so similar. We said we like the oval ones better, but Mike said he liked the squared-off ones better. That answered that!

Here it is, all buttoned up...        read full caption Here it is, all buttoned up and ready to rumble. If the headers and pipes hang down farther than a totally stock system, it isn’t much. We&8217re not concerned the least bit about them dragging on the ground.

As for the back, after all...        read full caption As for the back, after all the discussion we had with Mike about which tips to hang under the bumper, we couldn’t bring ourselves to have the muffler shop cut off the mandrel-bent down turns on the exhaust tubing--they really give the car a tough look! So we left them alone. Also notice how the tips are perfectly level and equal distance away from the license plate on both sides. The tti pipes are built on jigs, so they’re all the same, but getting them hung that precise takes a lot of patience, and even more practice--the final reason we always go to a pro shop.

Okay, we'll cut to the chase on this one: Everyone knows that tube headers, whether they're full-length, 3/4-length, shorty, or whatever, offer more power than stock, cast-iron exhaust manifolds. As all Mopar fans also know, putting headers on a Mopar, small block or big block, is a pain. Until now, there have pretty much been two styles of headers for Mopars: "fenderwell" headers and the equal-length, non-fenderwell type. Both had miserable fit designs. Fenderwell headers got their name because you had to hack a hole in the inner fenderwells of your car to route the rear primary tubes. These pipes then wrapped around the front frame rail and hooked up to the collector. This was the only way header companies could keep the collectors tucked up close to the floor pans of the car.

So why not just go with the regular style headers and bypass hacking the fenderwells? Back when the cars were new, there were no compromises in the hot rod community--you ran equal-length headers for the most power, or you didn't bother. As a result, the equal-length headers' design hung real low under the cars, sacrificing ground clearance to spare the sheetmetal. The first speed bump you hit usually smacked the collectors and hung up the flange, resulting in mangled headers. But people seemed to live with it. We're not sure why, but they did. And let's not forget about the leaks and constant maintenance they required!

Somewhere between then and now, living with rumpity solid lifter cams, 12:1 compression ratios, and constantly chasing header leaks became a lot less fun. We've noticed that during the last several years people are making their cars much more user friendly. They still want performance, but they also want to be able to get in, start the car, and go. As a result, we've seen a lot of engines with the standard aftermarket add-ons--intakes, carbs, ignitions, aluminum water pumps, and valve covers--but a lot of them are running stock, cast-iron exhaust manifolds. What we really find interesting is that these cars don't seem to be running stock manifolds for cost considerations. Stock, high-performance exhaust manifolds command pretty good prices at swap meets, and we've seen more than a few sets commercially coated to improve their appearance, which also isn't cheap. The fact is, today it's usually cheaper to run headers than the stock manifolds! But nobody wants to hack their Mopar's fenderwells, or worry about bottoming out and mangling the headers, or constantly fix leaks. Plus, headers are notoriously difficult to install, especially on Mopars.

Ah, the times they are a-changin’! We’ve heard a lot of really good things about Tube Technologies, Inc.’s (tti) headers and exhaust systems from enthusiasts we knew who’ve installed them. Specifically, we’ve heard they don’t hang low enough to get crushed on speed bumps, there’s no hacking or bending of anything on your car to install them, and perhaps most importantly, they fit. Well, we heard from enough people that tti’s exhaust system was the way to go, so we started searching for a car to do the story on. Mike Volpe, president of the Westcoast Mopar Club in St. Petersburg, Florida, had just the car we were looking for--clean, with a built 340, automatic trans, power steering, and the stock Hi-Po cast iron exhaust manifolds. He’d never put headers on the car, even though it sees regular street duty and more than an occasional trip down the quarter mile. He agreed to let us use his car, and we ordered up a complete kit from tti, consisting of headers, 2-1/2-inch mandrel-bent exhaust pipes, DynoMax mufflers, and stainless steel tips.

So how'd it go? Headers are never fun to install (unless it's on a truck), so there was an understandable amount of disassembly to the car to get them in. The starter and oil filter need to be removed, and the steering linkage needs to come down. But we knew that up front, because the kit's detailed instructions warned us about it ahead of time. As for getting the headers in, it's definitely a two-man job, at least on the driver's side, but they do go in with a minimum of hassle, and they fit as delivered--no clearancing, no hammering, no swearing. You have to find the magic combination of angles of attack to get them in place, but once there, they clear everything.

The 2-1/2-inch mandrel-bent pipes going out the back also installed with a fairly minimal amount of grief, though we did have a pro muffler shop hang them for us. John and the guys at The Muffler and Exhaust Center do a fantastic job, and even with kits we know are going to fit, we always have them do it because their results are far superior to ours. We also always have the pipes welded, rather than clamped, though that’s just personal preference. The clamps tti supplied were polished stainless steel, and they would have worked perfectly. One other addition to the tti kit we made was replacing the supplied fasteners and gaskets with Stage 8 locking fasteners and ROL gaskets. Again, the fasteners supplied with the kit are top quality grade 8 fasteners, but quite frankly, we won’t install headers without the Stage 8s or ROL gaskets. The ROLs compress well and don’t ever burn through, and once you put Stage 8 fasteners on, you never have to tighten them again. They may be a little more difficult to install than regular bolts, but once they’re on, that’s it. We’d much rather spend a little more time up front doing something right than have to tend to it the rest of our lives. And the little extra cash spent on them is an excellent investment.

TTI offers both small- and big-block headers and exhaust kits, with a choice of tubing sizes for a variety of body styles. The finished product looks fantastic, the exhaust pipes are up out of harm's way, and the performance of headers is going to let your engine breathe better than the stock manifolds ever could have. It took 30 years, but we've finally got the best of all worlds!