71BigBlock

I am installing Hooker Sidepipes on a ’71 Vette with a 454 engine. My question is where the 4 tubes come into the 4” collector; one of the exhaust pipes is rubbing next to the body of the car. I have had to remove some fiberglass from underneath the rocker panel, which is fine, but one of the tubes is actually against the body of the car above and outside of the rocker panel. Is this supposed to happen? Will the heat eventually deteriorate the fiberglass body? Will the friction of constant rubbing damage the fiberglass?

Am I missing something here? I would have expected that the tubes be close to the body, but not actually touching.

Thanks in advance.

Michaeljh2000

Did you remove the rocker panel covers? I had to remove mine. Once they were removed, I loosely assembled the sidepipes in order to put the rocker panel covers back on. In fact I had to cut a small section away from the rocker covers in order for the side pipes to fit. The fact that you have a big block might make a difference as well. I installed mine on a small block.
Hope this helps.

Crash Dummy

71BigBlock...

Maybe some of those who had successful installations can help you out. I put a set on a '69 small block vette years back with no problems at all, but bought a '69 454('72 block) vette about 7 years ago and put hooker sidepipes on and had living hell with the driver's side. The passenger side went up without any hitches, but even chopping fiberglass didn't help on the driver's side as it was bound against the body. Never did get the headers to seal on the head. The vette was a basketcase and just unloaded the problems on someone else.

BB wowbagger

I had the same problem on mine,on alot of places.Had do do some :smash: to get the headers from rubbing the frame etc.Just mark up the places where they rub against and just make a little "dent" on the tube.Hope you dont have the ceracoated ones.. :cheers: