Technical Odd FE Hedman headers. What u know about them?

Got a 59 Ford 300 Custom with a 64 T-bird 390. And it has headers i never seen before. Found out they properbly are early 60's Hedman headers. Anyone knows if they ar common or rare? Never seen them before.

 

I've been going to numerous swapmeets a year in Socal for about 35 years and have never seen those before....they are super cool. They were probably expensive when new and didn't sell many sets

 

been reding magazinez since 1975 and going to events and swap meets since 1985 and never seen any before. Maybe i could send Hedman an Email and ask if they have any info about it?

 

You could try contacting Hedman, but its been my experience that current employees of an old company like that won't know anything about the old parts we love. Hilborn was an exception.

 

Think u might be right. But have send them a mail with pictures and my questions

 

I was into 64 Galaxies in the early 70's, and was looking into these. Yours I think are the first design, and the magazine article a later one. If memory serves, they were not made very long, and are rare. Maybe Hedman will know.

 

Have send an email to Hedman to see if they can help me

 

It might have been a great idea if they kept building them a little longer. By the era of the CJ's I think there were about 3 different bolt patterns used for FE exhaust ports. With that setup you could buy headers to fit your car along with flanges to fit your cylinder heads.

Lou Manglass

 

Will let you know if i get an awnser from Hedman. Wonder what they could be worth? No i wont sell them. They are way to cool for that

 

They are to cool to be replaced. Will make them look like new again during the winter and fix some cool odd Valvecovers for it. Dont want some Edelbrock or other known brand

 

Had two sets of two piece Headman's. One for a BB Mopar and one for a SBC early Vette. Maybe not the most horsepower producing pieces. But they sure are easy to work with. I was told by an older buddy of mine, their claim to fame was that you could install them without moving the motor off its mounts. Gene.

 

Really like the look! I would definitely run them like you are.

 

This is quite a day. I get to see 2 items I had not seen before. The headers, I don't even remember seeing the ad for. I was around fe's all through the 60's so I'm a little surprised. Number 2: I have not seen the forward oil filter mount on Jeff's engine before. What did that come off of?

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

I love the word rare. If 10-20 sets were were made I’d say the word fits.. if 100,000 were made and 2 are left I would say no.
Personally I think they are great. Headmans were all tri-y first as I remember seeing them and having a set of SBC’s I wish I would have kept for wall hangers. I remember seeing a set with cast extensions many years ago in a 59 Ranchero and thought how much extra it took to design them....

 

Those are so cool. I am not even a Ford guy but I would build a car around a set of those. Actually starting to look at Rancheros since Elcos are getting fewer and fewer in the wild.

 

I've seen the headers before (years ago...) but that oil filter adaptor is a new one on me... Any info on that Jeff?

 

I love those old advertising claims: 10% more power to the rear wheels, better economy, and less engine wear. What more could a hoodlum ask for?

Maybe more noise, and all the hot chicks love 'em.

 

I am interested in a set of these for a FE into a '57-'59 Ford if anyone has a set to sell.

Thanks,

 

Hedman is probably the oldest header manufacturer that still exists. In the begining none of the manufactures put any effort into "equal length, maximum performance" designs, it was all about fit, ease of installation and maybe a little improvement over the crappy stock manifolds most cars came with. Ford FE being demonstrably the worst. Thus the streamlined cast manifolds and simple "tubing manifolds" like those were offered. Tri-Y style headers were the most common. (Note; true Tri-Y headers pair tubes in relation to the firing order to maximize scavenging and separate sequential firing cylinders, most "tubing manifolds" do not consider the firing order, tube placement is mainly a matter of convenience) Fenton, Douglass, Belond and Hedman were the major players, streamlined and flow were the buzz words.
The late fifties and early sixties Fords with the new FE engine were very difficult to fit with headers, the lower row of bolts were hard to access with headers in place. Bob Hedman was never afraid to go the extra mile for fit and ease of installation, he told me that headers aren't worth a damn if you can't install them or if they rattle against the chassis all the time. Those FE headers with their expensive casting show how far he was willing to go. (I'm sure modern flow testing would show that those castings were NOT a performance improvement) The other example is the two piece headers made for Chevys and other makes. The upper portion easily installs from the top and the lower portion installs from the bottom with easily accessible bolts. In some cases the upper portion was 1 5/8" tubing and the lower was made with 1 3/4" tubing making them the first "Step Headers". Bob told me that installation and fit was the primary criteria I was to use when designing prototypes at Hedman.
I was hired by Hedman from Cyclone Headers to assist George Lane in the transition from the old tube manifold/Tri-Y headers product line to the new 4-tube style that customers were demanding. Cyclone never made the old style "manifolds" while I was there so I was amazed at the amount of work that went in to building the old style; making special intermediate flanges, hand fitting and gas welding the joints as well as the standard cut, bend and trim of the tubes in a conventional header. We prototyped all of the new models, made tooling to form the ports and the various collectors, plus all of the jigs and fixtures needed throughout the manufacturing process. We created the patterns and set up the new flame cutters to make many of the new head flanges. The old ones were just strips of 1/4" material with ports machined using hole saws. George and I also had to build custom headers for many of the race cars that were sponsored by Hedman. Wonderful times.
So, yes, the headers the OP has are very rare indeed. They were not the most popular units that were sold back then in fact headers in general were not sold by the hundreds thousands. The bottom portion of those headers would be easy to duplicate and in fact if I were to actually run them on a car that gets driven very much I would duplicate the tubing portion and put the originals on the wall. The castings are plenty durable. I would equate them to finding an Edmunds 2x2 manifold for a Studebaker.

 

Those really have a cool factor!

 

There were a lot of debates back in the fifties and sixties re the merits of a good, easy to fit tri-y header vs the slightly better performing, but hard to fit four tube headers the magazine types seemed to push.

General consensus was that the true performance advantage of the four tube was marginal, at best, on a street driven car. Also, consider that a lot of the budget four tube headers weren’t truly equal length anyway.

Small block Fords in particular seemed to have a strong tri-y following because of the narrow engine compartments in the early Falcon and Mustang.

 

Unique looking headers, to my eye. Since no one asked and being an official idiot, what is the small tube on the right header, if one is sitting in the driver's seat?

 

Yep, the heat stove for the automatic choke...