Doug Thorley Headers with SB Trick Flow Heads
What I get out of all this is, if there is a good chance your going to have to beat the headers up just buy the cheap ones.If I had only Known.
I've never seen cheap headers make power. And I've tested this over and over.
Somehow, you've decided that denting a header is a crime against nature. It's not. Make a small dent and move along. It's not just a Chrysler deal either. Any header, worth a crap, is going to be a TIGHT fit.
These cars weren't designed for headers. It's that simple. There just isn't room.
So back to what I said earlier, that you thought was getting off track. The headers SHOULD be 4 separate pieces per side. If the idiotic manufacturers would do this, they would be able to make a header that fit better. Of course, you'd NEVER get it on the car if it had weld on collectors.
That's my point. Call Dougs, and TTI and anyone else and ask them why they don't do that. I'll tell you why.
No one would buy them. They (the customer...who is never right) think the slip tubes will leak. They don't.
One of my best customers came from a trip to a dirt track race. He had slip together, over the transome 180 degree headers. They were beautiful headers. He was being black flagged because the car was popping so loud going into the corners. That means he was breaking the noise limit.
They (his crew and all the stooges that crowd around a car wanting to help but make stuff worse) were going to pull the headers and replace them with some junk.
I happened to be there with the car owners buddy. So I said WTF are they changing headers for? They tell me the popping. I say what does the one have to do with the other...they ain't related? They say the header leaks because the of all the slip tubes.
I had them pull a plug and I tell them it's pig rich, and the headers ain't the issue. And then the war of words start. I'm stupid. The headers are junk. The tune up is perfect (most of that coming from the stooge doing the tune up) and all the other crap you hear from people who have no idea what they are doing.
I take 8 jet sizes out of the front and 10 from the rear and put a power valve back in it. The pop went away.
Before that guy retired we were doing a dozen engines a year just because of that day.
My point is, you are blaming the headers. And you should. But don't buy a junk header just because you have to dent it.
I always hoped I'd live long enough to see this kind of thing corrected. But I won't.