Header fitment rant, Doug's

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MOA

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How is it that they've been making these headers for years and still haven't revised them to not interfere with the steering?

A body with original 318.

I cut a 1/4" shim to lift up the drivers side, haven't installed it yet so I'm not sure if it will be enough.

Exhaust tube for #3 is a tight bend, why didn't they do the same on #5? It would of fixed this problem. May create a different problem, but I dont think so.

I'm getting tired of things not fitting properly, really frustrating! I'm a retired metal worker, I get my **** right, why can't they? I shouldn't have to be shimming anything on this.

Just a mild rant.....
 
I cannot agree more, but as long as people keep "making them work" instead of complaining or returning them, they'll not change a thing.
 
With as tight as these cars are in that area, once the variability of factory tolerances are accounted for, it's gotta be pretty tough for a manufacturer to make a long tube header to fit every single A body out there. I give them the pass on this one and chock it as part of the process of building one of these cars.
 
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How is it that they've been making these headers for years and still haven't revised them to not interfere with the steering?

A body with original 318.

I cut a 1/4" shim to lift up the drivers side, haven't installed it yet so I'm not sure if it will be enough.

Exhaust tube for #3 is a tight bend, why didn't they do the same on #5? It would of fixed this problem. May create a different problem, but I dont think so.

I'm getting tired of things not fitting properly, really frustrating! I'm a retired metal worker, I get my **** right, why can't they? I shouldn't have to be shimming anything on this.

Just a mild rant.....
What is odd is Doug's headers are very often praised for their fitments.
 
What is odd is Doug's headers are very often praised for their fitments.

I have nothing but good things. I had them on my 65 and they installed easy and fit great. I see others have the same experience and yet others......not so much. But I have never seen a Chevy guy complain about a 99 dollar set of headers fitting in a 70 small block Camaro.
 
I have nothing but good things. I had them on my 65 and they installed easy and fit great. I see others have the same experience and yet others......not so much. But I have never seen a Chevy guy complain about a 99 dollar set of headers fitting in a 70 small block Camaro.
Agree. Hell, I'm having issues with my factory manifolds on my poly hitting the steering box, and they are the very same ones with the very same engine and mount I pulled out of the thing. Sometimes things need so tweaking to get to clear.
 
Agree. Hell, I'm having issues with my factory manifolds on my poly hitting the steering box, and they are the very same ones with the very same engine and mount I pulled out of the thing. Sometimes things need so tweaking to get to clear.

I had Schumacher mounts on mine. I've read somewhere that the Dougs were actually made with the Schumacher mounts in mind. I don't know if that's true, but I do know I had no issues with fitment.
 
I had Schumacher mounts on mine. I've read somewhere that the Dougs were actually made with the Schumacher mounts in mind. I don't know if that's true, but I do know I had no issues with fitment.
could be. I'm just saying its easy to not get things in right and that affects the clearance of everything else. That polara poly, all I did was raise it up, put it back down in the same spot and it lost its alignment.
 
could be. I'm just saying its easy to not get things in right and that affects the clearance of everything else. That polara poly, all I did was raise it up, put it back down in the same spot and it lost its alignment.

Certainly with all the variations between car to car.......even in the same year, that could account for a lot of the fitment differences right there.
 
I have the schumacher poly mounts installed.
 
I had no major issues with mine, other than re-clocking the Z-Bar.

I also had new engine mounts. How old are your mounts?
 
I had Schumacher mounts on mine. I've read somewhere that the Dougs were actually made with the Schumacher mounts in mind. I don't know if that's true, but I do know I had no issues with fitment.

The regular ones or the polylocs? I figure I'd spend the extra on the polylocks when I do order them. The difference is only around $150 if my creaky brain remembers right.
 
The regular ones or the polylocs?

I honestly don't remember. It was whichever ones come in the slant to small block kit for the Early A. Probably just the regular ones. This was about 1998.
 
My fix was a B-Body Drop in Flaming River tilt column. Everything clears now. Tilt was on my want list so the headers accelerated that to a need. This was with the Power box. They cleared my Manual box and steering just fine.

I agree though, it shouldn't take a $550 Column to have these fit without modification or other costly accessories.
 
Question for those that had no interference with steering.

If the number 5 tube was routed closer to the block, 1/2" or so, would that have caused a problem?

It would solve my problem, actually a common problem from what I've read. And if it didn't cause a problem for those they worked for, it would solve 99% of the fitment issues. Why not revise the part?

For those that are considering headers, don't expect them to fit without modification, that is my opinion.
 
No one installing headers on an A-body should expect them to fit without modifications. I don’t think that’s a secret.

Doug’s and TTI’s are by far the best options, and I have seen both of them fit some cars without any modifications. But I have also seen both of them require modifications on cars that, at least on the surface, were set up identically to cars that they fit without mods.

There are significant body tolerance variations on these cars. And there are production tolerances on Doug’s and TTI’s too. And there are production tolerances on engine mounts, and everything else that has an effect on how well those headers fit. That’s just how it is, you can’t make anything without some level of production variation. The more modifications you make, the more interference issues you’re likely to have.
 
This is why I drop the car onto the engine/trany/k-member / header assembly.
That way I can get everything fitted in the open beforehand.
 
No one installing headers on an A-body should expect them to fit without modifications. I don’t think that’s a secret.

Doug’s and TTI’s are by far the best options, and I have seen both of them fit some cars without any modifications. But I have also seen both of them require modifications on cars that, at least on the surface, were set up identically to cars that they fit without mods.

There are significant body tolerance variations on these cars. And there are production tolerances on Doug’s and TTI’s too. And there are production tolerances on engine mounts, and everything else that has an effect on how well those headers fit. That’s just how it is, you can’t make anything without some level of production variation. The more modifications you make, the more interference issues you’re likely to have.

That's an unfortunate truth. BUT, the torsion bar suspension AIN'T nuthin new. It's been around since what........58....59? HELLO? Plenty of individuals have made nice custom headers on their own. It'd be nice if a header company could do it.
 
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This is why I drop the car onto the engine/trany/k-member / header assembly.
That way I can get everything fitted in the open beforehand.

Someone once asked what the difference was between cheap and expensive headers was, and my answer was "It hurts a lot more to make expensive headers fit."
 
This is why I drop the car onto the engine/trany/k-member / header assembly.
That way I can get everything fitted in the open beforehand.



That's exactly what I'm doing. I dropped it back out to deal with this issue.
 
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That's exactly what I'm doing. I dropped it back out to deal with this issue.

I would give Dougs a call and tell them your exact issues. They may have some suggested fixes.
 
I sent them a message, apparently they don't take calls.
 
At this point, this car just makes me laugh.

Absolutely nothing has gone together without modifying it, nothing. ie, everything about this car is a pain in the ***. Hahahaha
 
Question for those that had no interference with steering.

If the number 5 tube was routed closer to the block, 1/2" or so, would that have caused a problem?

It would solve my problem, actually a common problem from what I've read. And if it didn't cause a problem for those they worked for, it would solve 99% of the fitment issues. Why not revise the part?

For those that are considering headers, don't expect them to fit without modification, that is my opinion.
I will post some picks up tonight as they are on my laptop the mods I needed to do as no 7 tube was hitting steering column and needed to be hit half the size to make it fit I ended up cutting sections on tubes 5 and 7 and swapped them around couldn’t believe how much clearance it gave me .
 
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