ajrothm

Day 1

Before I started:






The the top end tear down begins:




Running out of room fast....


Tomorrow, I will start disconnecting everything on the bottom side and start getting ready to pull it.....Then I will have TONS of cleaning and detail work to do before the new motor gets here....

midyearvette

youre' gonna be a happy camper!!.....be ready to learn how to steer out of a rear fish tail all over again.....good luck

427Hotrod

Have you got headers yet? I've got a set of jet hot coated Hooker 1-7/8" (undercar) if you need some.


JIM

ajrothm

Thanks Jim! But I already have some ordered directly from Jet hot.... I got the Super Comps, coated inside and out.... They should be here in the next week or so. Mark just emailed me....about 2 more weeks on the motor.

I gotta get to work on this thing...I want the car ready by the time the motor gets here...

69ttop502

Just a FYI, but if you ordered the 2 1/8 undercar supercompetition headers, be careful. I found them to be unusable on my 69 as they sit so low. The collectors only had about 1/2 inch clearance from the road. Hopefully these aren't what you ordered. Good luck with the project.


Bill

ajrothm

Actually, those ARE the ones I ordered..... only 1/2" clearance from the road? How the hell can they actually sell them if they are not safe for street use?

Seems like quite a few members here have these same headers but...I never checked about the ground clearance...I know they are really close to the idler arm and will likely have to be "clearanced"......Sux if they do hang that low....especially since they are special order and likely can not be returned.

I guess we'll see....

73StreetRace

Nice project ! Good luck !
Do you have the specs of the new ( crate ? ) engine ?

7T1vette

If they don't provide the legal amount of ground clearance for the car, they can't legally sell it in that state. Take 'em to court!

neuroclast

Eh I had those super comp headers until I installed my sidepipes. On my '79 which is lower than factory I had at least 3" of ground clearance at the flanges.

ajrothm

Was that on a big block? Hooker Supercomps 2 1/8" primaries, #2225??

Man I hope so....

Dustup7T2

This looks like a fun project.



Hope you keep better weather down south than up here in the Rockies: crap, it was c-c-cold this past weekend. Best wishes moving forward.

Besides the motor, other "planned" changes?

ajrothm

For now, its pretty much just the motor/tranny/exhaust. I am also removing the factory AC and installing Vintage Air. Also replacing all of the steering components that are leaking like a stuck pig right now. The engine will be a 600hp + or - 496", my original TH400 will be rebuilt with the 34 element sprag and straight cut planetaries, also a custom built 10" converter. The exhaust will be a 3", mandrel bent/sectioned with Dr. Gas X pipe and center/center Hooker Aerochamber mufflers and stock 73' tips that are modified for 3" pipes.

Next year I will do the rear end/rear suspension with the 12 bolt conversion and drag vette 6 link. Shooting for 10s on pump gas, drive to the track and back with the AC blasting....

69ttop502

I ended up selling those headers and was the main reason I went to sidepipes. I thought about cutting off the flanges and welding the collector to the pipes which would have gotten me a little more clearance but still not enough. They also are very close to the floors as well. I think most guys run the header Jim is selling. The smaller primaries make the clearance better. Now, in my case I am driving on these awful NY roads but those things simply weren't going to work. Just make sure you check them before you dimple them. I had my car on jackstands and put them on, dimpled them to fit at various places, got them perfect. Then I took the car off the stands and as you can imagine, did not like what I saw. I hope they work for you.


Bill

Little Mouse

I had a set of 2 1/8 hooker supercomps on my 73 way back in 1974, still have them up in the attic they were higher then any 1/2 inch off the highway but they are a little on the low side with the 3 1/2 dia. collecter. The collecter goes well further back then the small block headers are also wider in spread width then the small block ones, they are SOB to try and run pipes back off the collector thru the holes in the crossmember, the extra width and coming back so far then more length added by the cone for the tailpipe just makes them a SOB. This is just some of the penalty of trying to run a big block. The small block collecters are much further forward and inward on the spread makes them worlds easer to go thru the cross member holes. Truth is with big block headers you need to make mods to the crossmember if your going into pipe and muffler land, otherwise you have a very severe S bend right off the end of the headers trying to get back thru the factory holes. One of the header tubes will be close to the stearing box, any breaking of a motor mount nice dent in the header tube. My dent in the header tube is when the solid motor mounts went in. Any form of traction combined with rat torque kiss rubber or poly mounts goodby.

Longer length on primary tubes, longer length on the collector, wider spread, 1/2 bigger dia. on the collector makes rat headers a pain for exhaust systems.

Oh ya more good news just remembered, because of the collector further back and the 1/2 bigger dia collector I had problems with the collector tube flange burning the fiberglass floor, this is before anybody knew about the danger of asbestos I cut a square patch of asbestos put it on the bottom of the floor board where the flange was very close to the floorboard, this was back in the olden days lol, clutch discs still had asbestos in them, when the clutch companies had to take asbestos out of dics for a long time discs you bought were not worth a flip, took awhile for the companies to come up with a good replacement for asbestos.

I had problems with the lower flange bolt hole this was the lowest point on the header, creep and crawl over the speed bump still it hits grindiing on the flange bolt hole. I was going to cut the triangle shape
three bolt hole flange off, buy a set of the round four hole flanges and cones that would give me some more clearance, but I never did get around to doing it. ALL this is mostly caused by the larger 3 1/2
dia. collector causing headaches.

427Hotrod

I sent you a note....but if the engine is still in the car you can do some measuring. The left one ends up about 10-11" in front of the trans crossmember. Measure how moch clearance you have from floor to the ground and subtract 4-4-1/4" or so. That will allow for flanges IF you get them up against floor. Stock heads with stock ex ports put them lower. My Brodix heads have .600" raised ports so that pulls them up tighter to the floor. Also helps around steering box too. They clear the idler arm much better than most...not even close.

Need to think about the crossmember......you will end up with some pretty sharp bends from the headers to make the holes in the crossmember.

I have another set of nice uncoated 2" headers (unknown brand- but I've stumbled into several sets of them)that use 3" collectors I think and are a lot shorter. They don't fit as well by crosshaft on a stick car, but would be great on an auto car. TShort has a set of these I modified (cheap and dirty) on his 427" car and they do well. I ran them on my 540 and my 427 for years. You're welcome to try them too if they might work. They are old...but good!

JIM

Little Mouse

Is the 10 to 11inch acounting for the added cone length. The cone just adds more to the problem you end up with a terrible S bend.

If it were me had a nice removeable automatic car trans croosmember.
( my car was a stick shifter ) I would just make another crossmember.

69ttop502

LOL, I just read my first post and I meant to say I had 1-2 inches of clearance not 1/2. But still, I had all the issues that Little Mouse talked about as well, between lack of road clearance and floorboard clearance. I never even got to the point with them where I was going to build the rest of the system.


Bill

bozzman3

Whats the ETA for the engine?I cant wait to see it and hear about it.Please keep us in the loop that engine has a lot of people interested!!!!!

69MA

I am going to be in the market for some headers soon. I read about all of the clearance issues and i'm torn as to go with stock manifolds or headers. Has anyone tried the short headers from Mcjacks their number BBCC2X25. They say it's a direct fit for Big Block C3's. They are 2 inch primaries with 2.5 inch collectors.

midyearvette

mc jacks makes beautiful stuff!!......