I was at the muffler shop today, talking to the guys about modifying my system for long tube headers, and one of the guys was saying that I shouldn't get them if I didn't like crawling up under the car frequently to tighten the collector flange bolts. We were talking about how much fun (sarcastically) it was to crawl up under these cars without a lift, and that's when he advised against headers.

Have you had this problem with yours? I was probably going to get the same Hooker 2151s that you have, so I thought you'd be a good person to ask. Thanks.

P.S. Any problems with frying stuff in the engine compartment?

 

I've never had a heat-related problem (knocking on wood) with my Hooker Long Tubes. Except frying a plug wire or two. And frying the oil temp sender wire after it came loose.

I never had a problem with the collector flange bolts coming loose. Header bolts, that's a different story. If it's a major problem, get a set of locking bolts/nuts.

Or get a set of jackstands. It's not that bad getting under there. I wouldn't want to have to do it once or twice a week, but once or twice a summer is no sweat :cheers:

 

Yeah, I know about the header bolts. I'd definitely go the locking bolt route there. I've got the jackstands and all, but it would still be a pain to have to do it more than once every couple of months. Heck, even that often would suck. But if you haven't had a problem, then that makes me feel better about getting them.

 

Same here. I haven't had any problems with mine either!

 

Nathan is in the other forum getting stopped by the cops. :rofl: :lol:

 

:smash:

The header gasket question is one that comes up fairly frequently, some people have continuing problems with them I haven't had so many problems.

When I first got my headers I did some research and found out that copper gaskets were supposed to be the best. I didn't really know about the dead soft aluminum ones at the time. I also bought ARP stainless 12 point header bolts. I bought these because I figured they would be attractive and would help to dress up engine compartment, that was my first mistake.

The things with copper gaskets is that they are awesome and will never blow out and and leak IF you can get the bolts tight enough. I found out that with the 12 point bolts I couldn't get the open end of a wrench on them, so unless I could get the box end on them, I couldn't tighten them! Add to this the fact that the bolts are stainless and thus somewhat "slippery" and they didn't last long at all. I had exhaust leaks from the first day and several of the bolts just fell out and disappeared.

For the header collector gaskets I used copper gaskets there as well. They eventually loosened a little bit but I could just tighten them back up. Although climbing under the car isn't very fun it isn't very hard to get at these bolts. Of course I'm not a whole lot overweight. I'm not the thinnest guy on earth either though, seems like it's getting more difficult to get under the car these days.

Anyway that was then, this is now and I haven't touched my header bolts in a long time. When I had to take my cylinder heads off I decided to try something different with the header situation. I knew the reason it failed so bad the first time was because I could never get the bolts tight enough.

So on the second attempt I again used copper gaskets, but this time I went with different bolts. I still went with ARP but they were NOT stainless and they were of the 6 point variety. I also used a little bit of ARP assembly lube on the threads. This allowed me to really tighten the bolts down TIGHT without much effort at all. The rear bolt on the passenger side is interesting, I had to go to Lowes for that one, but it works great. In any case I was able to get the bolts VERY tight. That was about 6 months ago and I haven't had the first bolt even begin to loosen. My theory is that the copper gasket actually acts somewhat like a lock washer. When you compress the gasket by getting it very tight it will actually keep a pressure back against the bolts and keep them from backing out.

For the header - collector gaskets I was going to use copper but the local parts store was out of them. They did have dead soft aluminum so I decided to give them a shot. I put these on there with a new set of stainless collector bolts, along with lock washers. Since you are able to get to both sides of these bolts you can get them very tight. So tight that you actually crush the dead soft gasket around the mating surfaces. This makes for a nice leak proof seal that doesn't seem to leak. I've had the "cat back" off at least once and reused the collector gaskets. I'm not sure how many more times I would trust them but they really aren't that hard to change.


As for heat related issues. I have fried one thing under the hood but it was strictly my fault. The coolant temp sending unit on the passneger side head actually broke. The plastic came off so I just kind put the connector back on the metal prongs. Sure enough it eventually vibrated loose and fell on the header and melted into a nice chunk of slag. I was able to replace the sending unit and get a repair connector from Jeff Kopp to take care of that. As for everything else just be careful and make sure it is routed away from the headers.

You may also want to use MSD plug wires. I've got several that run within a half inch of the headers and they are just fine. I've seen many auto parts store plug wires burn in half if you get them within an inch of a header. :D


Hope I've answered your questions, let me know if there is anything else. :cheers:

 

Great info! Thanks :cheers: