Headers

[janobyte]

Larry Sikora built a pair of 1 3/4" for our small block Anglia, around $700 invested, that's including having them coated.  $500 for the Zoomies. Lemons are around 1500+ for a big block Camaro. Leaves a little breathing room for "other" necessities.

[janobyte]

Trans AM...funny. My kid's in the Welding Engineering program at Ferris State.  Did a wonderful job on a pipe for a custom Harley last summer. All TIG, he complained about the thin gauge material supplied by the owner...but did get paid

Fifteen grand covers a lot of tuition!

[Jon Mello]

I don't seriously think he has 10 or more available. I think it's just the one set. These are the same set of headers that Rick's George had for many years and Heartbeat Jim bought the whole collection of rare parts, which is now for sale.

[BSMIT59]

Was there ever any factory or dealer documentation showing that all 602 1967 Z's received the headers with shipment or delivery to customer and were there any part #'s associated with car vin #'s?

[Jon Mello]

Very few of the original 602 Z-28s got the factory headers. They were not a standard item included in the Z-28 package. You could get headers through your local speed shop for significantly less, which certainly factors into why they were seldom factory ordered.

There is nothing that ties a car's VIN to a set of factory GM headers. There were part numbers you could use to order a set of headers through your Chevrolet parts department however.

[X33RS]

Larry Sikora built a pair of 1 3/4" for our small block Anglia, around $700 invested, that's including having them coated.  $500 for the Zoomies. Lemons are around 1500+ for a big block Camaro. Leaves a little breathing room for "other" necessities.

For some price comparison, ( A little backround )  McCabe lives right up the street from me and has been a custom header fabricator for 40+ years.  He worked for the various Nascar teams for dozens of years making more HP on the cars he touched, and eventually shared his knowlege with all of them before they became more cut throat and wanted him all for themselves.  He got tired of traveling as they wanted him on site as well.  Eventually engineers were brought in and learned from McCabe and all the tricks you now see in the sport originated from him.    He is now semi-retired and building custom headers for people, drag cars, road race cars, street cars, boats, even air planes.
   He builds some of the best I've seen in both looks and performance, and reasonable.  Most cars are in the $7-$800 range.   So I agree with you, I have a hard time justifying the $1500 expense for some of these "off the shelf" headers.

[Jon Mello]

For sure there are better deals on headers out there and some that are made with a very high level of craftsmanship. These headers at Heartbeat City are special because they are NOS originals. They're the only originals left as far as I know. For that alone, they are worth a lot of money but I don't ever see them being sold at $15K. That's just far beyond what I think anyone would be willing to pay, even somebody with a documented factory header car.

[janobyte]

X33RS, sounds like Larry. He was involved with designing(or did and was bought out) the Lakewood Bell Housing. Worked for Mickey Thompson up till his passing, and was hired by a company in Michigan doing some sort of complicated Mustang conversions...only to be let go after cheaper fabricators were brought in to figure out how he did it. He's doing well, last I spoke to him, working for Jegs  re-doing the father's old funny cars.
Friends with Don Garlits, still very respected from that era.

Quite a joy watching a craftsman at work, everything done off the top of their head. His shop is small, certainly an example of the man behind the tools.

Personally I feel a one surviving set of headers, no gasses through them, should be on display.

[Jon Mello]

Personally I feel a one surviving set of headers, no gasses through them, should be on display.

     Yes, I definitely agree with that.

[Trans Åm]

Personally I feel a one surviving set of headers, no gasses through them, should be on display.

Yes, I definitely agree with that.

Well Jon, I guess that means you volunteer to buy 'em and put them in a glass case for us. Thank you very much. 

[Jon Mello]

Well Jon, I guess that means you volunteer to buy 'em and put them in a glass case for us. Thank you very much. 

     

[Steve Holmes]

Out of interest, of the various header manufacturers making these units in period, was there found to be an optimum primary tube diameter and collector diameter for 302 Chevy race cars? 

[Jon Mello]

Looking through my notes from Jere Stahl, it sounds like 1-7/8 primary tubes, 32" length and 4" collectors yielded the most power in the '69 timeframe. He added "Today with the improved exhaust ports, we use 1-3/4" up to 500hp".

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Jon, you are a wealth of knowledge! I appreciate the info.

Wow, 4" collectors are big!

[67ssrsl78conv]

NOS header flanges from Douglass Muffler Mfg as used on the factory supplied Z-28 headers in '67. These are owned by Robert Lodewyk and are the 1.75" round port style.

jon, I have a set of nos stahl headers made in the 80's.  Do you know where I can get a set of gaskets for the type of trans am flange shown?  Thanks. Jeff