New to vegas, but do all the "V8 headers" look this bad?

[paranoid56]

So i am new to vegas and just got in the mail a set of Don Hardy headers and V8 swap parts. for 400 bucks for the headers these seem like the worst headers i have seen I have seen better headers come out of china this this crap. looks like a drunk monkey welded these up.
raw steel, crush tube bending bla bla.
is this normal for these swap kits? guessing i should just ceramic paint them and wrap them in header wrap

[monzaaddict]

They don't look that bad to me. They have been made like that since the early 70's. There is such a limited market we should be glad anyone is still making headers for these cars. 400 for a set of made in America headers isn't that bad. Admittedly if there was a bigger market someone could copy these and mass produce them in China and they would likely be better quality with computer controlled machines making the bends and doing the welding.

I would test fit them to make sure they fit properly as there was a problem with a batch a few years ago with the no. 1 pipe not fitting properly and/or clearing the steering. jet hot or ceramic coat the headers. If your engine needs to be broken in do it before installing coated headers as the additional heat will cause the coating to peel. I wouldn't use header wrap - it holds in to much heat and moisture.

[paranoid56]

yea, that what i was wondering. i kinda figured they they might have been made this way since the 70s. I come from the import market (mainly Subarus) and for the same price i can have very nice coated tig welded headers. I guess i was expecting something similar when i ordered these. I would be kinda suprized if these were hand made, even now, these would be cnc bent so they could replicate them easy and quick.

I will give them a coat of paint to just keep the rust at bay. and once i finish some other work and get the engine i will test fit. once running then run header wrap. holding in heat is a good thing, but yes they can hold in moisture and like to suck up leaking oil which is a bad thing. but even wrapped and being in San Diego, they should still last at least 5 years and in that time i will see about just making a set of stainless ones myself. how hard could it be?

[cjbiagi]

I have heard many header companies will not warranty headers that are wrapped because it holds in too much heat and actually fatigues the metal. I think you'd probably be better off sending them off to be ceramic coated inside and out. I can't speak about the welds but they should look pretty nice after being coated. You may want to test fit them first in case any adjustments need to be made before having them coated.

[dadhad1]

I'm with Clyde. If they fit ok, I know you'd likely hate to drop more coin on them, but perhaps you can find a local shop to blast'm to get the rust off and ceremic coat them.
I found a guy close to me. He did that to my side pipes and intermediate pipes for a couple hundred bucks.

Mike

[76wagon]

I have the hookers and they look a little nicer but not by much. After a couple coats of black header paint and installing them in the car I think they look pretty sweet. The welds are buried under so much other stuff you can barely even see them. I think they're in the same boat, made the same way since the '70s.... Then again they're not going into the best built car of all time either

Phill

[cjbiagi]

I have Hooker 2135's and the welds are very professional looking. With the ceramic coating they look very nice.

[paranoid56]

Thanks for the reply's guys. will just run them once i get an engine

[robsta11111]

I got a set of Sanderson headers for my Monza that look awesome and fit even better. Does Sanderson not make Vega headers?

[herkey43]

Maybe the more important question is how do they fit. My original headers were Don Hardy, but i had to make several cuts, turn it a bit, and re-weld. Fifteen years later, I installed Sanderson shorties, to get the stance I wanted. Installation and fit was much better.

[Fastmax32168]

I definitely had issues with fit on the Hardy headers. Quite a bit of reworking of both the headers and the car itself was required in order to get a fit I liked without having to beat up the tubes. Running AFR210 heads and am unsure if that affected it or not, but it was a bunch of work to get it right.
Roy

[HAULIN' IT]

The biggest shocker to me was how the whole set-up was engineered to aim for sidepipes. When I bought mine in the late '80's...it wasn't as easy to look at other's on the internet, ect. so I simply bought them assuming they would come out somewhat straight with the car like most headers would. I do believe later catalogs may mention "for side exit exhaust" or something like that. The look on my face had to be priceless when I slid the header up to my brother & he installed one of the center bolts loosely...then we went on trying to get the other tubes to line up, the whole time the collector is on the inside of the jackstands banging into it as we tried to get the flange flat to the head...at some point it became clear something was not the way we thought. I never did use them, still in the rafters after 25 years. My latest headers fit funny for some reason also Lorne

[rm617]

My latest headers fit funny for some reason also Lorne

Silly... you put your engine in upside-down and backwards.

[paranoid56]

so after trying to install these this weekend, my god these headers are shit lol.
list of problems.

headers hit the motor mounts lol. a bit of massaging of them i have clearance.


rear passenger side was almost a 1/2" off. had to massage that a lot to get it to fit.


and the biggy, wtf, 1/16" clearance between the tube and the spark plug? yea thats not going to work, so going to have to remove these again for the umteenth time majorlly massage the passage so i can get more room for that spark plug. i need enough room for at least a boot if not a tool to remove the plug if needed.


i haven't even got to the drives side yet, as the oil filter is in the way, so ordered up a remote filter setup. will see how fun that side will be.
if those suck maybe find a set of Sanderson shortys to make fit.

i have seen china stuff come out 10000x better than this crap. sorry for the rant, but for the price i would think these would have fit much better.

[chevyart]

are you using the don hardy motor mounts. i thought i read that you must use them to use his headers. mAaybe someone will chime in art