Hi all, Looking at getting a pair of the repro SBC exhaust manifolds sold by JEGS and others on EBay for my wife's '46 Tudor. They are the 2-1/2" "Rams Horn" style without the accessory attachments at each end. Has anyone had any bad (or good) experience with them please, ie. do they crack or distort etc, this car will be driven regularly. Thanks.
They are probably okay if you don't need the holes on the ends to mount this and that. Look at Dorman, they have loads of exhaust manifolds. I'm using one of their Chevy truck pieces on my car.
Dorman and a few others sell on EBAY and the last ones I bought were from a company in Arizona. All are from China but a few minutes with a 36 grit flap wheel and grinder will remove any unwanted lettering or imperfections. I think I paid about $30 with free shipping. Real bargain if you have to spend any time removeing old broken studs.
Actually the 2.5"manifolds are real hard to find original. they were corvette pieces. I have heard of some of the repops having problems but they was a few years back when they first started producing them. I have not heard of any problem lately. I would run them and not look back.
But, with all those "Corvette" motors out there, those 2 1/2" manifolds should be all over the place! I guess they must have tossed them in the scrap heap when they pulled the motors out. I actually bought a pair of the Dorman manifolds about three or four years ago. The quality of the castings was kind of crappy compared to a factory piece. Lots of flashing and the castings looks kind of porous in places. I cleaned them up with a grinder and some sanding disks. If you can't find originals, they definitely do the job just fine.
check out this outfit, they port out the repop manifolds. https://www.castheads.com/manifolds-carb/exhaust-manifolds/corvette-exhaust-manifolds/
I replaced my headers this spring to gain better ground clearance and better looks and went with the reproduction rams horns. They are smoothed pretty good on the accessible surfaces, crevices are as-cast. The are off shore for sure, plain box, beat to hell. Mounting surfaces were flat but I used gaskets. You would need to buy gaskets because the ones supplied in the box show up as particles. I have the "chrome" version. The chrome looks ok, but the as-cast areas look like they painted it on with a brush. I'm a sucker for chrome and even though the finish is far from perfect I think I would buy them again. So far I only have about 500 miles on them, but probably 50 cold-hot-cold cycles on them. Rain on them only once. No cracks or exhaust leaks as of yet.
My OEM Corvette manifolds were cracked, bought some China ones from Speedway, they are decent, heavy cast pieces. I did alot of porting on them and had no issues. They dont look as good as the OEM, but i would say they are a pretty good deal. Normal eyes wouldnt know the difference, after a little clean up work.
I got one Dorman manifold on eBay, a total of $48 new in the box to my door. I did grind off some ugly nubs and a bunch of lettering. There are a shipload of used ones on eBay, some are really clean looking too.
Actually, they can also be found on the mid Sixties Impala, Belair, or Biscayne models equipped with the 300 horse 327. May not be any easier to find, just more places to look.
Great thread and good timing. I was considering buying a set from Speedway (or off Epay) for my '56 210, but I too noticed subtle differences in the aftermarket version and the factory ones. I'm not sure it's enough to sway my decision one way or the other but sometimes it's little stuff like that that bugs you later. I am glad to hear that most folks have not had any problems with the "new" ones.
Most of those are 2.25" at the flange. Look at a '66 Nova exhaust pipe, starts out as 2.25" and goes out to 2.5" from there.
I needed to hang my alternator so I used my '65 Chevy driver side manifold. Has it blasted and I painted it with POR15 manifold paint. This is the passenger side from Dorman after it was cleaned up and painted.
bobss396; I have the same problem - alternator mounted to the driver's side manifold. I was thinking of Speedway 'cause they offer them with the mounting pads and without, not sure about the other sources. That motor looks great!
Thanks, go look on Ebay. I just saw a bunch of used ones. This is my driver's side, it has the 45* sweep I needed for clearance. Everything for my engine came off a '65 Belair. Do you have the accessories you need?
They actually make or you can make a bracket for alternator or generator that bolts to the first two mounting bolts. it is a kind of a U and it was originally a GM part.
Thank you everyone for your comments. The specific ones I'm interested in are RPC brand (Racing Power Company, see my earlier attached photo) and are being sold on EBay and at JEGS in the $90 - $130 range. These ones are without accessory attachments which suits me anyway, I was really looking to see if anyone has had any bad experiences with this particular brand. I've also seen the Dorman versions too, these will need trimming and aren't as "clean looking" as the RPC ones. Thanks for your help.
For those not familiar with some of the differences in (OEM) SBC exhaust manifolds; a little known manifold outside of the Nova world are the 64 to 67 versions. The quickest way to tell the difference is the outer bolt flange on one end of each manifold is only about 3/8" thick. Somewhat collectable so more money than the common ones, but you never know when you might stumble onto a pair. They also had an emissions version for Calif. with A.I.R. fittings.
Anything with the RPC brand tagged on it, be sure to examine very closely before installing, as you may end up wanting to return it, which may be a problem if it has been installed. When I built the sbc for my hoodless Hiboy roadster I decided to get a chrome timing chain cover and oil pan, since they both are very visible and I had a bad case of the "bling bug" Well the timing chain cover seal to pan leaked like a sieve, so I had to remove the radiator and grill shell in order to pull the balancer, then the pan and the timing cover. The lip that holds the seal in place had 3 spot welds that were broken and the lip couldn't hold the rubber seal in place. Replaced with an oem cover, put pan back on after hammering bolt holes back flat, and the pan bolts had NOT been over tightened and I should have known better. Buttoned it all up and of course the damn pan leaked and I had to replace it with a painted oem. No more leaks, which is better than shiny chrome with leaks. So do what you will, but I'll never again but anything branded as RPC
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