LSx Valiant Build. Take a look inside...

Hey guys, so it's been a long while since I've posted any updates on the car. Figured I'd give you guys an idea of what I'm currently working on.

The dash has been powdercoated semi gloss black and has been bolted into the car. It's just a mock up but it gives a really good idea of how it's gonna look in the car. Currently saving up the cash to put in new electronic gauges (Autometer ultralites). Not sure if I'm gonna go with a nice setup I found on ebay or buy the ABS panel from Redline and piece together the gauges and associated pieces (may be cheaper). Definitely an expensive setup anyway you look at it. However, I want perfectly functioning gauges and since I will be spending a lot of time looking at them (hopefully lol) I want to do it right.

The column has been restored and I'm waiting on the Bryke 3/4" spline to smooth coupler along with the plastic turn signal *thingamagig* that goes at the top of the column before the steering wheel. I've decided to go with a Grant challenger series steering wheel after seeing it in a members car. Thing looks great and for the price it can't be beat.

Here comes the fun stuff...

The exhaust has been one of the more difficult things about this build. Why?
-v8's fit rather snug in these small a bodies
-torsion bars are in the way of the collectors
-the combination of the starter, steering gear, and center link further limit space

All in all it's a very tight fight. Sure I could have a set of long tube headers built from scratch, but the price would be ridiculous. I looked at tons of LSX setups, but none of them have the twists, turns, and bends necessary to fit into this car. They all hit the steering gear or the torsion bars. Simply wont work...unless of course the tubes are cut and reworked, but then the collectors will still hit the torsion bars.

After speaking with my builder he recommended that I go with a coilover setup. Not only to give a modern suspension setup (which is nice I suppose) but also to make the room necessary for the collectors to fit underneath the car. At first I really wanted to go this route. What's not to like right? There are some sponsors on here that have dedicated the time to making a a REALLY nice coilover setup for our cars. However, I simply don't have the coin to drop on such extravagancies lol. With that said I set out to figure out another solution to the exhaust question.

After TONS of online googling I realized: since I can't find a header to work around ALL the twists, turns, and obstacles currently in the way, why not go with a header that someone already developed to go around all these things? The idea seems simple but perhaps I'm simplifying right?

I poked around the boards, saved tons of pics I found online and on here and decided that the best way to see if this would work was to buy a set of my own. These headers aren't generally cheap, especially if you want craftsmanship. I went on craigslist and found a set of Hooker super competition headers for REAL cheap. After some preliminary measuring I'm 95% certain these things will fit with some work. What work? Like I said earlier, the flanges and a portion of the primaries will be cut. Then the number 2 and 3 tube will be evenly spaced out since LSX heads are equally spaced out and mopar heads have the center tubes close together. Since these headers have 1 5/8" primaries and LSX headers come in 1 3/4" (smallest size), my fab guy is gonna have to get down and dirty to build some primaries coming off the flanges that go from 1 3/4" to 1 5/8" right away. I wonder if this will hurt flow at all?

After doing the math, even with the fab work and coating the headers after they are done..if this works I will save major money. I'm looking forward to this guys. I hope it works. I will post up pics of some of the progress as soon as I get a chance!