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Sanderson headers performance capability

PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:57 pm
by 6D9
For those guys with Vega's that have or are worried about the Sanderson headers killing your performance at the track I have some good news. We finally took my dads car to the track and am happy with the results for the first time down the track in it. Can ran 11.54 at 118.6 mph. The motor is a well built pump gas 406 sbc but nothing at all radical. Car pulled hard to the 6200 rpm shift points. Would it be better with some Hooker 2129's???...for sure it would but these lil guys seem to work pretty damn good. Would love to do a back to back test with some 1.75" longtubes but probably wont happen anytime soon. Just wanted to share that if you have a nice pump gas sbc these guys will not kill the performance and work just fine at the track.

Re: Sanderson headers performance capability

PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 6:07 pm
by Smiley
Good to hear it ! Sanderson headers fill a void between V8 Monza cast manifolds and long tube headers. I had Monza manifolds (2" outlet size) but they didn't work when I switched to Vortec heads.
Sandersons have a 2 1/2" outlet like the old Corvette ram's horn Hi-Po manifolds, they are half the price of 2129's.
For a street car with mufflers, the ease of install and added ground clearance of Sandersons outweigh the headaches and cost of long tube 2129's.

Re: Sanderson headers performance capability

PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 7:36 pm
by 6D9
Smiley wrote:Good to hear it ! Sanderson headers fill a void between V8 Monza cast manifolds and long tube headers. I had Monza manifolds (2" outlet size) but they didn't work when I switched to Vortex heads.
Sandersons have a 2 1/2" outlet like the old Corvette ram's horn Hi-Po manifolds, they are half the price of 2129's.
For a street car(driver or show car) with mufflers the ease of install and added ground clearance of Sandersons outweigh the headaches and cost of long tube 2129's for maximum power.


Glad to see someone interested in it. This site is pretty slow right now. Really happy to see almost 120 mph trap speeds with lil headers/small cam/3.42 gears. What you had a chance to run your car? Looks sweet!

Re: Sanderson headers performance capability

PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 9:24 pm
by T-FATTY
I had them on my 72 vega, great fit and plenty of ground clearance. Copper gaskets for leak free install.

Re: Sanderson headers performance capability

PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 9:44 pm
by 6D9
T-FATTY wrote:I had them on my 72 vega, great fit and plenty of ground clearance. Copper gaskets for leak free install.


Yeah most all felt they fit good and had good ground clearance but would kill performance on a fairly stout sbc. I was just happy to see it still performed good and didn't kill the upper rpm range. Good to hear on the cooper gaskets! What brand and part # are you using? My dad did the permatext and the driver side has a small exhaust leak.

Re: Sanderson headers performance capability

PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:24 pm
by BadBowtie
Glad to hear the sandersons work so well, I am a bit biased since I have a set of Don Hardy longtubes. A lack of traction or free time to go to the track has had me wondering if they are worth the ground clearance loss at times.

For all our cars we've been using Percy's Seal-4-Good Header Gaskets for a few years now and have had leak free/multiple installations on the same gaskets without any problems too.

Re: Sanderson headers performance capability

PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 11:10 pm
by 6D9
BadBowtie wrote:Glad to hear the sandersons work so well, I am a bit biased since I have a set of Don Hardy longtubes. A lack of traction or free time to go to the track has had me wondering if they are worth the ground clearance loss at times.

For all our cars we've been using Percy's Seal-4-Good Header Gaskets for a few years now and have had leak free/multiple installations on the same gaskets without any problems too.


Thanks for the reply! The Hardy headers are supposed to be real nice too from what I have been told. One of these days going to try the cooper gaskets out. Get that Vega to track and have some fun!!

Re: Sanderson headers performance capability

PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 2:24 am
by Smiley
Header tests using 440 hp 383 small block: http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/148-04 ... -shootout/
1.5" short tubes made 435 hp & 461 tq
1 ¾-inch Long Tubes 449 hp & 467 tq

"the long-tube designs made more upper-end torque and horsepower than the small-tube pieces, but they also lost power in the midrange relative to where their peak power was made.
As for the smallest of the headers tested, we meant to provide a baseline number but instead netted the best overall power curve for a street/strip vehicle. We feel comfortable concluding that the shortest and smallest tube design held true to our initial theories by promoting as much upper-end horsepower as possible with a short tube while building an impressive amount of torque with a small diameter."

so you can make 435 hp with 1.5" shorties
and 14 hp more with 1.75" long tubes.

Re: Sanderson headers performance capability

PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 3:28 am
by 6D9
Smiley wrote:Header tests using 440 hp 383 small block: http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/148-04 ... -shootout/
1.5" short tubes made 435 hp & 461 tq
1 ¾-inch Long Tubes 449 hp & 467 tq

"the long-tube designs made more upper-end torque and horsepower than the small-tube pieces, but they also lost power in the midrange relative to where their peak power was made.
As for the smallest of the headers tested, we meant to provide a baseline number but instead netted the best overall power curve for a street/strip vehicle. We feel comfortable concluding that the shortest and smallest tube design held true to our initial theories by promoting as much upper-end horsepower as possible with a short tube while building an impressive amount of torque with a small diameter."

so you can make 435 hp with 1.5" shorties
and 14 hp more with 1.75" long tubes.


Thats great article that I have read before! Thanks for posting it again I totally forgot about it.