Hooker header poor design
I had a similar dilemma with oversized ports on my modified T/A heads. The hooker headers port on both the 1 5/8's and 1 3/4's headers have the same size opening for stock exhaust port. The 1 3/4 tubes just open up once they leave the flange area. I had to buy the heddmen hustlers 1 7/8's tube headers to get a big enough opening to match my exhaust ports. Then they turned out to be mismarked for the wrong body style...