Header fitment rant, Doug's

MOA said
This is the first header.View attachment 1715400882

This is the replacement.
View attachment 1715400883

The replacement is 3/8th inboard compared to the original. The first one left very little room for the starter, wire on the bottom of starter would melt in a short time. Second header is better for clearance.

If one of you could take a look to see how close to the pan #3 tube is, I would really appreciate it.

This is what I don't like about the new one.

View attachment 1715400898 View attachment 1715400899

It's about .035 difference, that difference is much more at the collector, so, what I gained by the flange being correct angle, I lost half of that to the flange not being cut flat. It's near impossible to get a good pic of grinding on the flange, but if had to guess, somebody took a 7" grinder to it.

The head and the pan are hard points, they don't care about the motor mounts or k frame. The heads and block have been machined, bringing the head down and inboard, it's not much, but it's something to consider. If anything, the machining would bring the header more inboard, which is what I want.

Knowing how far from the pan #3 is on a car that had no problems would be very helpful! Power steering car, all original from the factory.

Right off the bat, you're not measuring the same way in both of those pictures. Your tape is at an angle in one picture, but not in the other. Can't even tell if you're measuring to the same spot. So, yeah, that makes a difference. Just slapping a tape measure on there can give you 1/4" differences in the measurements by itself using the same parts. Sure there's probably a difference in the headers too, this is a part for mass production and the nature of headers means they're not all identical. That's just not how production works.

.035" on the flange is hardly going to make any difference at all. It'll be taken up by a thick header gasket like the one's that come with the headers. Hell even mounted on the car with everything tight I can flex the header a 1/4" in each direction just by moving the exhaust pipes around further downstream.

The starter wire is a problem with the starter or your wire routing. Chrysler mini-starters come with the terminal blocks in several different locations, some do not work well with headers. On my starter the terminal block is on top of the starter, so there's literally no wire on the bottom. It makes a difference. If you have the wrong model year starter it will cause problems.

The engine mounts control the clearance to the torsion bars and the steering box. The steering box and the torsion bars are what caused your interference issue last time. This is not rocket science, your engine mounts aren't even close to the same as originals.

You seem perfectly happy nit-picking a .035" difference in the flange welding, but you're ignoring what appears to be a 1/2" or more difference in your mounts. Several people in this thread have pointed out that huge and obvious difference in your engine mounts, yet you continue to completely ignore the fact that your clearance issues depend on the mounts too. If it were my car, I'd already be test fitting a different set of mounts. They're cheap in comparison to the headers, and it's much easier to swap a set of mounts than beat the headers to clear.

You've already tried modifying the header to fit, you saw how that went the first time. Maybe listen to the half a dozen people on this thread alone that have installed these same exact headers in their own cars without any of the issues you're experiencing?