Hooker Super Comp Sidemount Headers: Horrendous Product Quality
07-06-2010, 06:54 PM
#81
Racer
Sorry to hear the state of American Manufacturing...I would like to tell my old boss I told you so...(Personal Gripe) I had Hooker side-pipe headers on my C3 years ago, installed w/o a problem. But I installed a set of Hooker ceramics on my friends Camaro and they fit like crap. Which is why I installed cast manifolds. I might have lost exhaust flow but they fit w/o modifications. 
12-31-2010, 04:07 PM
#82
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This is definitely not a new problem. I installed hooker side-pipes on a 1970 small block Corvette 8 years ago. The first set I received fit horribly. The collector was angled upwards making it impossible to install the side pipe without loosing the ability to open my passenger side door.
After waiting for several weeks, a replacement arrived. The second set aligned to the body well, but the mounting tabs were miss aligned. They were clocked incorrectly, making it impossible to use the rear mounting tab.
Although I love my almost fitting Hooker side pipes, buyers should be warned. When you order a set, be prepared to keep exchanging parts until you get a decent complete set.
After waiting for several weeks, a replacement arrived. The second set aligned to the body well, but the mounting tabs were miss aligned. They were clocked incorrectly, making it impossible to use the rear mounting tab.
Although I love my almost fitting Hooker side pipes, buyers should be warned. When you order a set, be prepared to keep exchanging parts until you get a decent complete set.
Last edited by Cory1970; 02-05-2011 at 02:31 AM.
.. 
08-31-2011, 02:55 PM
#84
Burning Brakes
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Discovering how bad these pipes are recently. Picked up an incomplete project car that came with these - already had to trim my side rocker panels, and now the pipes are tapping on the frame going over minor bumps...
08-31-2011, 04:37 PM
#86
Melting Slicks
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I quit buying Hooker/ Holley products years ago. After half an hour of trying to explain to their tech support guy that the headers did not fit and him telling me I was wrong, he finally said, "Well I guess we just don't make products to fit YOUR car!" I took him for his word and have never bought another product from them. Being known around here for performance carb work, I can also tell you a lot of quality control horror stories about newer Holley carbs that have been brought to me.
God bless, Sensei
God bless, Sensei
09-01-2011, 01:01 AM
#89
Melting Slicks
My Supercomps fit perfect. I bought them from Jet Hot 2 or 3 years ago. I have a set of new chrome Supercomp headers and side pipes still in the box to install on my 80 before I give it to my friend from Brazil who bought it. I bought them a few months ago as I was collecting parts so warranty could be a nightmare. You guys are scaring me!
09-01-2011, 08:28 AM
#90
Safety Car
09-02-2011, 02:03 AM
#92
Pro
Nothing happened to Lars. His response to a post resulted in a suspension and he decided not to return when the suspension ended. He dispenses his advice at other sites now.
09-02-2011, 07:12 AM
#94
Had a 1976 L-82, 4-sp
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Royal Canadian Navy
I purchased the SS side pipes from performanceparts.com. The headers arrived and the right side flange was bowed. I emailed performanceparts and explained the problem. A week later they told me a new header was on its way from Hooker. It arrived and was true. They never asked me to return the defective header. The headers fit without using a bfh to dent pipes but some cutting of the left rocker panel was required. I'm happy with my Hookers.
09-02-2011, 10:13 AM
#95
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I too had to do some trimming, but only on the right side of the car. It does seem that everyone has to modify something. I'm curious though, how much if this is due to header quality, and how much it due to the inconsistancy from car to car? I mean, we know that these cars are all over the place and no two cars are the same. Could sagging and inconsistant engine and body mounts be part of the problem?
09-02-2011, 10:44 AM
#96
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Last summer i ordered new Hooker sidepipes for my 69 BB.
It took only 6 months until they arrived in germany.
(Shipping was less than a week)
And i got this for the $2800 i have to pay in germany
with transport and taxes:
Yes this was no smooth surface, AND every pipe was sloped welded into the bracket.
So i had many hours fun to make them exactly smooth and angular.
Next surprise were the collectors, the pipes wont fit on them, because they were bent.
I needed 4 hours to make both round enough to fit.
And by the way, this are the mounting screws, right out of the sealed plastic bag:
Had to do a little rework and paintjob to them...
At least the headers and the pipes fit without problems when i mounted them.
But the older pipes from 1973 seemed to fit better.
It took only 6 months until they arrived in germany.
(Shipping was less than a week)
And i got this for the $2800 i have to pay in germany
with transport and taxes:
Yes this was no smooth surface, AND every pipe was sloped welded into the bracket.
So i had many hours fun to make them exactly smooth and angular.
Next surprise were the collectors, the pipes wont fit on them, because they were bent.
I needed 4 hours to make both round enough to fit.
And by the way, this are the mounting screws, right out of the sealed plastic bag:
Had to do a little rework and paintjob to them...
At least the headers and the pipes fit without problems when i mounted them.
But the older pipes from 1973 seemed to fit better.
Last edited by zuendler; 09-02-2011 at 10:47 AM.
06-25-2017, 02:53 PM
#97
Heel & Toe
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Ill fitting Hooker header and side exhaust
After waiting 2-1/2 months for Hooker to deliver a set of polished SS Sidemount Headers (after promising each week that they were shipping the next week), I have finally taken delivery of these little gems.
I guess I should realize that if I'm only paying $1,000 for a set of headers, I shouldn't get my hopes up in terms of fit and quality... I mean, what could you possibly expect for only a grand..? A small block in a Vette chassis must be a pretty rare combination since Hooker can't figure out how to make them fit. Nor do they care.
My engine is a 400 small block in a fully rebuilt '64 frame/chassis. Engine mounts are new, the engine is in the correct location (which I have verified dimensionally), and all chassis parts are stock. Building a set of headers that fit this engine/chassis combination is not a difficult thing to do. Nor is verifying product quality and fit of the end product.
Here are my factual observations of this American manufacturing joke and travesty:
The appearance of the headers as received was marginal. The welds are wire-fed MIG welds, and look like they were done by my 12-year-old grand daughter on career day at school (actually, her TIG welds look better than these Hooker MIG welds). The polish job is inferior to what I do on my "Eastwood" polish wheel setup in my garage, so I re-did the entire polish job before mounting the headers.
The headers don't come close to fitting. They bolt up to the heads just fine, but they interfere with chassis components by as much as a full 1/4 inch. No kidding. Hooker can't build a small block Chevy header that fits within a freakin' quarter of an inch. Do they not have a jig...? There is a full 1/4 interference with the steering box, the pitman arm, and the idler arm. 3 header tubes have a 1/4" interference and have to be modified to avoid the chassis components. There are several inches of free space on the opposite sides of the tubes - it's not a tight fit at all - Hooker just plain ran the tubes in the wrong place and ran them right into the suspension and steering components. Simply garbage design and manufacturing. No excuse for this.
Once the tubes were modified to avoid massive chassis contact, it was apparent that my Hooker sidepipes (for an additional $430) were not going to fit: The exit point of the headers did not match the bracket configuration of the pipes, resulting in the pipes hanging at a severe angle to the body: they did not run parallel to the centerline of the car in the vertical or horizontal axis. Not even close. Upon measuring the location of the left and right header collectors, the right collector was 1" (ONE INCH) higher than the left collector. Further, the right collector was 1/2" further outboard from the frame than the left collector, for a total dissimilar displacement from right to left of an inch and a half. You gotta be kidding me.
I have now fabricated new frame standoffs for mounting the sidepipes so they run parallel with the frame and with the collectors. I have used a Porta-Power, concrete anchors, and hydraulic rams with chains to bend the collectors into their proper location so they point straight aft. I have modified my header tubes to avoid chassis contact. And I have polished my tubes and headers. I have thrown away the garbage gaskets that were supplied with the headers (after all, I only paid $1000, why should I expect good quality gaskets for that price..?) and I have installed good gaskets that don't leak.
When I finally went to install the sidepipe clamp bolts that secure the sidepipes to the header collectors, I found that Hooker had welded the bolt clamp hole closed during their sloppy welding - I guess the 7-year-old on field day at the factory that day was not properly supervised. I removed the pipe and opened up the hole, removing the weld slag, on my drill press. Upon attempting to install the hardware, I found that Hooker had supplied fine thread bolts with coarse thread locknuts. They really did not need to spend the money on locknuts since the coarse thread bolts will lock themselves onto the fine threads bolts with no problem.
Hooker and Holley should be ashamed of themselves. This type of "product quality" is a disgrace to American manufacturing and an insult to those of us paying hard-earned money for an expected standard of quality.
Shame on you Hooker & Holley. I hope Barry Grant and the custom header builders kick your butt.
(Hooker is owned by Holley, for those who don't know)
Lars Grimsrud
Denver
I guess I should realize that if I'm only paying $1,000 for a set of headers, I shouldn't get my hopes up in terms of fit and quality... I mean, what could you possibly expect for only a grand..? A small block in a Vette chassis must be a pretty rare combination since Hooker can't figure out how to make them fit. Nor do they care.
My engine is a 400 small block in a fully rebuilt '64 frame/chassis. Engine mounts are new, the engine is in the correct location (which I have verified dimensionally), and all chassis parts are stock. Building a set of headers that fit this engine/chassis combination is not a difficult thing to do. Nor is verifying product quality and fit of the end product.
Here are my factual observations of this American manufacturing joke and travesty:
The appearance of the headers as received was marginal. The welds are wire-fed MIG welds, and look like they were done by my 12-year-old grand daughter on career day at school (actually, her TIG welds look better than these Hooker MIG welds). The polish job is inferior to what I do on my "Eastwood" polish wheel setup in my garage, so I re-did the entire polish job before mounting the headers.
The headers don't come close to fitting. They bolt up to the heads just fine, but they interfere with chassis components by as much as a full 1/4 inch. No kidding. Hooker can't build a small block Chevy header that fits within a freakin' quarter of an inch. Do they not have a jig...? There is a full 1/4 interference with the steering box, the pitman arm, and the idler arm. 3 header tubes have a 1/4" interference and have to be modified to avoid the chassis components. There are several inches of free space on the opposite sides of the tubes - it's not a tight fit at all - Hooker just plain ran the tubes in the wrong place and ran them right into the suspension and steering components. Simply garbage design and manufacturing. No excuse for this.
Once the tubes were modified to avoid massive chassis contact, it was apparent that my Hooker sidepipes (for an additional $430) were not going to fit: The exit point of the headers did not match the bracket configuration of the pipes, resulting in the pipes hanging at a severe angle to the body: they did not run parallel to the centerline of the car in the vertical or horizontal axis. Not even close. Upon measuring the location of the left and right header collectors, the right collector was 1" (ONE INCH) higher than the left collector. Further, the right collector was 1/2" further outboard from the frame than the left collector, for a total dissimilar displacement from right to left of an inch and a half. You gotta be kidding me.
I have now fabricated new frame standoffs for mounting the sidepipes so they run parallel with the frame and with the collectors. I have used a Porta-Power, concrete anchors, and hydraulic rams with chains to bend the collectors into their proper location so they point straight aft. I have modified my header tubes to avoid chassis contact. And I have polished my tubes and headers. I have thrown away the garbage gaskets that were supplied with the headers (after all, I only paid $1000, why should I expect good quality gaskets for that price..?) and I have installed good gaskets that don't leak.
When I finally went to install the sidepipe clamp bolts that secure the sidepipes to the header collectors, I found that Hooker had welded the bolt clamp hole closed during their sloppy welding - I guess the 7-year-old on field day at the factory that day was not properly supervised. I removed the pipe and opened up the hole, removing the weld slag, on my drill press. Upon attempting to install the hardware, I found that Hooker had supplied fine thread bolts with coarse thread locknuts. They really did not need to spend the money on locknuts since the coarse thread bolts will lock themselves onto the fine threads bolts with no problem.
Hooker and Holley should be ashamed of themselves. This type of "product quality" is a disgrace to American manufacturing and an insult to those of us paying hard-earned money for an expected standard of quality.
Shame on you Hooker & Holley. I hope Barry Grant and the custom header builders kick your butt.
(Hooker is owned by Holley, for those who don't know)
Lars Grimsrud
Denver
02-17-2023, 12:05 PM
#98
Shabby work
is what it takes. I'm NOT supporting JUNK vendors (PERIOD)
02-17-2023, 12:33 PM
#99
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Note that you're resurrecting and commenting on a thread from 2010.
