Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Holley is looking for a car to try it's new LS Hooker header system.

Car needs to be running and ready to go cuz we want pics and vids after the install. Please email me at john@motorsports-media.com for more info!!!

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...t-contest.html

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Yep thanks, please post to Todd's thread if you have not already!

https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...t-contest.html

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Annnndddd, I just pulled my motor and sold my Camaro. Too bad. Let me know when you're doing headers for a 1963 MGB!

Ha.

LS1 TJ

73 Z28 L92/ TKO 600 with 1 7/8" Dyna techs. Can you do better for ground clearance. See pics in Car Craft Pumkin colored Z28.

Toddoky

Measure how much clearance you have between your collectors and the floorboards and post up your findings and then I'll let you know what same dimension is with using our headers and mounts. Measure the clearance between the 3" tubing section of the collector and not from any portion of the 4-bolt ball flange assemblyyou have on them, which decreases the ability to maximize ground clearance on your car. The functionality of ball/socket joints is good, but they require a compromise to ground clearance on subframe cars such as yours, which is why we didn't use them when developing our headers.

The headers we've just released are specific to the 75-81 year models and we are finishing up the tooling work on the 70-74 version now to also release very soon.

Jimbo1367

LS1 TJ,
COULDN'T BE TOO hard to do better than DynaTechs in the ground clearance department.

BTW. Dougs has new headers for these. Wife got me a set. I should have pics of them installed around JUNE 15th/vacation time. I will post them on my build thread. FWIW.

LS1 TJ

I will get a measurement. I bought them 2 years ? ago and the price was the deciding factor. I think they were $500 coated. I've got about 3000 miles on them with a couple of small scrapes.

ryeguy2006a

iTrader: (27)

No love for the 2nd gen Trans Am's out there? I just finished up an LS1 swap and would be interested if I could get headers with better ground clearance.

Toddoky

I'd say there's plenty of affection for the 2nd-gen TA's around here... I wouldn't mind owning one myself.

Toddoky

I was able to pull together some photos of the ground clearance acheived from the use of the Hooker headers and mounts on the 76' Camaro that they were prototyped on. lastly, I attached the photo that ryeguy2006a posted up of his current ground clearance with his Dynatec's on the other Hooker thread I have up. In defense of Dynatech, I have no idea if the mounts that are recommended by them for use with their headers are being used on his car, so ryeguy2006a will have provide the answer to that question.

ryeguy2006a

iTrader: (27)

I used The Dirty Dingo adjustable motor mounts for my build. As for what mounts they recommend, I never saw anything stating what mounts they did recommend. I would be super happy with the clearance of that first picture!!

Toddoky

Thanks for clarifying what mounts you are using ryeguy2006a...the answer you gave set me off on a little research mission this morning to see if I could resolve some of the fitment mystery surrounding the Dynatech headers. There is a note buried deep in Dynatech's website that states that their 2nd-gen LS swap headers were designed to fit with a set of Speedway Motors (the owner of Dynatech headers) swap plates and the pre-clamshell small block Chevy engine mounts.

This indicates to me that they prototyped their headers on a 1970 or 71 model year car (72 and later cars used the clamshell mounts), which has a lower floor profile in relation to the subframe than 1975-up cars do; the floor of the 70-74 cars is almost completely flat whereas the 75-up floor arches upward slighty just inside the subframe towards the center of the tunnel. If you've ever purchased or installed a floor panel in a 2nd-gen you know there are two different floor panels available with the break between them starting at the 1975 model year.

This info has implications for you that are affecting your ground clearance with your Dynatech headers if you are using clamshell mounts and brackets with your Dingo sliders like I think you are.

The higher floor contour of the later cars means that a header prototyped to tuck the collectors close to the floor on a 70-74 model year car is going to have extra room available between the collector and floor, that could have been used to maximize groung clearance, when installed on a 75-81 model year car (your issue currently).

Conversly, a header prototyped to tuck the collectors close to the floor on a 75-81 car will cause the collectors to bang into the floor when installed on an early car with the lower floor contour, unless you angle the collectors down towards the ground more by making an ill-advised increase to your engine inclination angle to acheive this.

You could also take the longer road of development in this application as Hooker has and develop a specific set of headers for both the earlier and late cars, which tuck the headers equally close to the floor in both instances and maintain the engine inclination angle in the 3-3.5 degree range for proper U-joint working angles with our mounts and crossmembers (not 4 or 5 degrees like some are doing).

You guys that have a 75-81 car have a ground clearance advantage over anyone with a 70-74 car as you can get your headers and exhaust tucked up higher into the subframe because of your arched floor contour. The guys with the early cars however can claim a foot-room advantage due to the lower/flatter floor inside their cars.

I hope this info is helpful to a few folks.

Todd

QuickT/A

iTrader: (3)

So when will they need a 3rd gen??

Toddoky

I know guys are doing that swap also, along with a few other popular ones, but it's not on our 2013 development schedule. Things can and do get changed about as far as the schedule is concerned, but I can't see anything on the horizon that would give me an indication that it would happen this year.

ryeguy2006a

iTrader: (27)

Thanks for the long answer Toddoky, I wouldn't have thought that the floors heights would have made that large of a difference. Thanks for looking into that for me. And you are correct, the mounts I used were the stock clamshell mounts and the Dirty Dingo EZ mounts that work with the stock clamshells. It is nice to know that the Hooker line has taken many things into consideration while making the prototypes. I look forward to hearing who won the contest! I hope it was me

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Very useful, 2nd gen is on my list of potential next projects!!

JIMB

iTrader: (2)

I used the "later" clam shell mounts not knowing that Speedway reccomends the early style mounts. If I understand correctly using the early style mounts would raise the engine up moving the header closer to the floor pan.

I have a tko 600 and due to the square top of the trans I had to chop the trans tunnel for clearance. If I had used the early style mounts I would had to chop the tunnel even more to reduce engine angle?

Is your plan for the 70-74 to keep the engine low with the clam shell and fab the headers to as close to the floor pan as possible?

Just asking?

Just a quick note, understanding the ground clearance of the Dynatechs at $600 and if you give me another 1" of clearance and your's are $900 I would most likely go with the Dynatechs again.

If you are super aggressive on pricing I think you could have a real winner.

Just my .02.

Toddoky

The fact that Dynatech specifies the early style frame stands and mounts merely suggests that the headers were prototyped on a 70 or 71 model year car as they are the only 2nd-gens that were equipped with those style mounts; I doubt they brought in a later model car and then proceeded to remove the clamshells and then drill new holes in the subframe to accept the early model frame stands (I could be wrong on that assumption but I doubt it).

The difference in the mounts themselves does not indicate that the motor sits higher on the clamshells per se, but the use of a 70 or 71 for prototyping guarantees that they were faced with the low and flat floor profile shared by the 70-74 cars in the development of there headers, which in turn means the collector height was prototyped to the limits of that lower floor.

Now take that same header and put it in a 75-81 car with the higher floor contour that exists inside the subframe and you will end up with the 1.5'-2" or so of gap between the bottom of the floor and the collectors that you have.

I'm not here to knock the efforts of any other manufacturer as we would have ended up with the same results had we not brought multiple cars in during the development phase of these components and made these discoveries ourselves first-hand and decided to produce two distinct versions of these headers.

Our 70-74 headers were developed with the same clearance distance between the floor and collectors as the 75-81 headers and maintain the same 3 to 3.5 degree engine inclination angle. This does mean however that the maximum acheivable ground clearance on a 70-74 F-body is less than that possible on a 75-81 F-body by nature of the design of the car. I will see if I have a presentable image that depicts the ground clearance of our 70-74 group of swap components for you and post it up here.

There is some proprietary design geometry involved with these new components, so I have to stress a point here... YOU HAVE TO USE THE HOOKER MOUNTS AND CROSSMEMBERS DESIGNED WITH THESE HEADERS TO INSTALL THEM. That fact is going to require that you purchase new mounts and a new crossmember if you have already performed your swap, so that is going to increase your cost over the headers alone.

I've seen a couple of quotes regarding the price of our ceramic coated mild steel headers on this site and I think some people are getting them confused with the stainless version that features all new top-shelf componentry (investment cast flanges and collector spears and one-piece formed merge collectors)...I just checked Jeg's and Summit's websites and the ceramic headers are listed at $699 and $724 respectively (you can nab a painted set for even less if you're on a very strict budget), so you can use those prices to judge their personal value to you.

QuickT/A

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for the response. 3rd gen guys are desperately looking for an affordable alternative to the costly Hawks/SW set up.