Thread: Ram Horns vs Shorty Headers

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OK Now I get it! He has a 77 FOOOORD pickup with a 355 small block!

I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes.

Mike

Originally Posted by Hotrod46

OK Now I get it! He has a 77 FOOOORD pickup with a 355 small block!

I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes.

Mike

Yes - Ford body BUT Chevy HEART!

I have some of those Speedway Ram's horn manifolds on my coupe. I repaced my block hugger headers with them for more of a traditional look. I don't fel like I lost any power by switching to them. They come in cast iron, polished stainless, or "as cast" stainless. Those are the one I have.

Gastrick, Thanks for the great pictures of the Speedway ramshorns relative to the steering. It does look like they are tucked back more than the stock ramshorns which come straight down.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

A call to Speedway revealed that the Speedway Rams horns are 1/2" less wide than the shorty headers at the dimension "A" in their chart and 1" shorter than the tube headers in the "B" dimension. I may have to get the Rams Horns because I have less than 1/16" clearance between the outer tube of the middle cylinders and the edge of the fiberglass fender. While I could carve out a "relief" in the fiberglass fender with a Dremel tool, my experience cutting the 'glass body for a curved path offers a chance for a gosh-awful gaping cut which I would like to avoid. Hopefully I will be able to sell my tube headers (ceramic coated) and recoup some of my loss but it looks like I need the added clearance of the Speedway Rams Horns to prevent charring the 'class along the edge of the fender. I tried to get a picture but the camera is not cooperating so all I can say is that the tube header is actually touching the inner edge of the fender so it looks like I need that 1/2" of cleanance which will also give more clearance for the steering D-bar and of course stainless is forever.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

About as close as Damn is to swearing!!! Thats what you get with stock rams horns on a small block in a model A with Vega cross steering and a stock model A frame (boxed). ---That curvy thing on the left side of the photo is the hook on top of my trouble light. Everything clears, and it steers fine, but Man, it is tight.---Brian----( Don---the inside edge of my fenders and splash aprons set flush with the inside of the frame rail.)

according to my dad, the small block chevy and big block chevy motors exhaust flows better going upward directly from the port. might be the reason alot of rdagster headers on chevy motors designed come out then point upward.

Originally Posted by brianrupnow

About as close as Damn is to swearing!!! Thats what you get with stock rams horns on a small block in a model A with Vega cross steering and a stock model A frame (boxed). ---That curvy thing on the left side of the photo is the hook on top of my trouble light. Everything clears, and it steers fine, but Man, it is tight.---Brian----( Don---the inside edge of my fenders and splash aprons set flush with the inside of the frame rail.)

Okay you got me beat for a tight fit.

I was raised to beleive tube headers were the only way to go, but maybe ram horns are just as good!

Brian, Thanks for the repeat picture. I remembered that you have the extra universal joint in your steering but I did not know if that old thread was still on the Forum. That shows the straight down part of the stock rams horn. It looks like I will have to get the Speedway type.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

The wrecking yard pieces are pretty ugly. For the same prices, I found cleaned up rams horns on Ebay, painted 1,200 degree paint. I looked at the Speedway units. Nice. Also, new, choice of SS. Just do not put any nice exhaust on an engine for break in. Due to red hot temps, breakin will turn
any this a diff color (ie chrome and SS to blue).

I have yet to see any high temperature paint that stays good longer than a year. The ONLY coatings that seem to stand up are chrome, Jet-Hot Ceramic, or stainless steel headers.

Well the weather was nice today so I decided to cut reliefs out of the inner edges of the fenders around the two center tubes of my existing ceramic coated headers. That saves about $400 for the rams horns and now I can proceed with installation of the steering column.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

Well the weather was nice today so I decided to cut reliefs out of the inner edges of the fenders around the two center tubes of my existing ceramic coated headers. That saves about $400 for the rams horns and now I can proceed with installation of the steering column.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Pictures Don----we want pictures---

OK Brian, Thanks for all your good suggestions. I had problems with my camera; it seems to need fresh batteries to download to the PC. Anyway after my previous adventure with cutting fiberglass I was VERY aprehensive about this simple relief and yes it did not go perfectly but the relief will be inside of the edge of the hood. For the folks following Bebop construction the good news is that the Brookville motor mounts seem high enough that there is good clearance between the tube header and the frame rail. From the Bebops point of view the fender edge covers the frame rail with an excess of about 1/2" more or less. I cut a pattern from cardboard but even then my hand is not very steady with the Dremel carving tool. I am sorry to make a big deal out of this but I hate to cut up the 'glass, especially after painting! Here is the first picture showing the problem with the tube header touching the edge of the fender edge. As far as I know, fiberglass will burn and the combination of motor vibration and a hot tube rubbing the 'glass would have made a mess here.

OK, I should not make more out of this than necessary, but looking at other buildups which are of much higher quality I was reluctant to cut the painted 'glass but something had to give AND even if I gained 1/2" with the Speedway rams horn at the outer dimension, the problem here is the lower edge and it is not clear to me that the rams horn would solve this problem after spending $350 plus shipping. So with input from the wife's checkbook balance, I decided to make the "$400 relief". Here is a second picture at an angle showing the new relief-notch as well as a peek at the universal joint on the Vega box. The flex joint is slightly behind the bolts on the header-connector and completely clears the connector flange. On a previous post someone suggested the good idea of using a wooden dowel for mockup so you can see that if the dowel was a D-bar, I can bring the column down at a fairly steep angle and use only one universal joint at the bottom to still clear that back spark plug. Hey, how about that 3/8" manifold bolt next to the dipstick, I guess you all knew that is fun to tighten. According to the Chilton's '63-'82 Corvette manual (the block is a '76 Vette 350, slightly upgraded) the manifold bolts should be torqued to 20-22 ft-lb. so I set the wrench to 21.5 ft-lb and if the aluminum gaskets leak I will try DennyW's suggestion of putting on wet gaskets. The only good that comes out of my angst here is that it should clear up the argument that tight-fit tube headers DO fit a Brookeville Vega box installation for a SBC. As for the Bebops edge, I should have trimmed this before painting but we have heard that before! I was able to touch up the edge of the 'glass with a good matching rattle can color using my finger for a paint brush. As Dave Severson told me two years ago the first build has a few errors and if I did this again I would buy the cheaper full stainless steel tubing headers and maybe if the ceramic coating does not last that is an option that would fit with the plumbing I have now. Just for the record, those stock rams horns on Brian's Wild Canary really look good and should last a long time but you can see the straight-down part of the connector causes a clearance problem that seems to be fixed with the tight-fit tubes. In fact I have more nostalgic respect for that kind of an installation as to how it would have been done back in the '60s but at my level of skill I am thankful for all the aftermarket refinements available now! Well maybe my angst has served to clear up a clearance question, sorry about my stress! Just as the $3K T-bucket buildups went way over budget I started out to build this roadster for under $20K, HAH! Still I am trying to be aware of costs, thanks for all the help I get from this FORUM!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder