But can beat on it pretty hard against the magnum manifold (it's extremely stout). Just be sure to keep rotating the pipe and keeping it perfectly aligned so that the bell fits perfectly against the manifold or you'll get a leak. The correct flange adapter also helps get a good seal. I've removed many of the factory bell flared pipes at the scrap yard and I can tell you that the pipe becomes physically attached to the manifold (perfect fit) after a period of time to the point that you have smack real hard with a big hammer to get it to come loose even after you've removed the flange adapter. Good Luck and let me know if you need one of the last few that I have. Remember....you'll have to buy a piece of pipe then pay to get it flat flared.
I always mount the manifold in a big vice to get a good solid surface to hammer against.
My idea is to break in my engine, tune and set it with manifolds then swap to a nice set of ceramic coated headers understanding that the max tune may change slightly, but trying to prevent ruining headers with a lean engine etc that I've read about. This will be a carbed 5.9 mostly stock with street performance cam and EQ heads. So the cost of your parts $60 plus shipping = at least $80, I'm weighing out could this be put toward the cost of the headers and take a chance of ruining the coating on a set of $550 headers, again your parts would prob be money ahead as they say. Any experience on ceramic headers?
Treblig