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So, im putting a 5 3 and four speed in a late 80s Winston cup chassis for my new hpde/tt/hillclimb car.
Obviously, no off the shelf headers. Or mounts. Or...
On looking at ebay (i know.....) theres a bunch of cheap header options under $200. But no dimensions, installed pictures, etc.
the three im looking at are the block huggers, the s10 swap headers, and the universal longtubes.
anyone have experience with these? Looking for something that comes down vertically from the rear exhaust port to clear firewall, and doesn't hang any lower than the bellhousing. Im also trying to find ones with good plug clearance.
Honestly, it can be a challenge. In my C4 Corvette, its a similar need, very tight access, especially on the back on how they come down vs back.
In the end, I went with the only supplier of swap headers ($$$$), but I investigated lots of sites just looking at pictures. One thing I have done which was helpful, is, believe it or not, MS Powerpoint (when you are bored at work, you work with what you have at your fingertips).
First, I grabbed phots or screenshots of every header I could find that might be a candidate. You need them from straight on the angle you want. If they have CAD drawings, those work too.
Next, I got my 'Reference' header, in this case, the C4 Swap header
Now, I could put the Reference Header on the page nice and big
Then I put the 'candidate' header on top, and set it to be partially transparent in the options. Now align and scale the picture so the header flange/4 pipe entries all line up. And you'll see how the rest of the pipes compare. You can also get a line drawing of the block and add that to the mix to see how they might sweep down the back edge of the block. In the pics below, you can see the silver photo is the one I know fits. And then the ghosted CAD drawing is the one I am comparing on this page.
In the C4, people have good luck with C5 headers, and then just cut and re-angle the collectors(they sweep too far inward on a C5 since the trans is rear mounted). And also some CTS-V headers are supposed to work pretty close.
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Engine swap headers 
