On both sides? The manifolds used in some vans and the late squarebody trucks come down from the head, rather than up, which is what most seem to prefer with a stock front end in these cars. I believe I've seen pictures though where someone has at least used a left side truck manifold and had it work okay. The left side dumps between the middle and rear ports, closer to the rear, almost straight down with a very slight rear angle. The right side for this pair though exits at the rear at about a 45' angle. This one, I'm not sure if it will fit or work, only because there could be some interference at the body mount. Using them lets me use an existing and relatively inexpensive Y-pipe and build my own exhaust. Changing them isn't the end of the world except that I plan to retain the TBI on my donor motor - it runs, it's simple, it's reliable, and under an air cleaner who can tell the difference anyways - and the O2 sensor is in the manifold. I think my next easiest alternative would be mid-1990s Caprice/LT1 manifolds, but I've done no research to see what this does to my sensor position. I can move it to the pipe, but then I need to go to a heated type and wire that up. I just want to keep this as simple as I can so I can re-use all the wiring out of the donor (a Suburban) as much as possible. Mostly because I don't have a ton of room here, and I don't want big pieces of car sitting outside any longer than necessary pissing off my neighbors. If no one knows, no one knows, I'm thinking about just taking motor, trans and the existing Y-pipe and setting it in the car as a unit to see what will fit. I'll find out in a hurry then what works, I suppose. It's just also a bit of a pain in the ass to have the motor in and out of there umpteen times between making it fit, installing mounts, and then I want to clean the thing up some before it goes in, at least repaint the valve covers and oil pan and so forth so it doesn't look like complete ass in there. One other thing, I plan to swap in a '54 steering box cut down to take a U-joint or rag joint connection so I can use a later column ('63 Buick most likely). That should help with any clearance issues there.
Using '89 Caprice manifolds on the '53, fits fine, but the driver's side exhaust down pipe needed to be hammered to clear the steering arm and the emissions/02 threaded holes were welded shut on the manifolds. They have weird flanges too. I have the truck manifolds from a '73-'87 waiting to go on, just haven't touched the car in a while. They look like they'll fit much better than the Caprice manifolds and the pipe wont have to be persuaded to clear the steering arm.
Depending on what year '73-'87 yours should look like the ones in the picture I posted, unless they change from carb to TBI - which is possible since I think at least a few years they had the AIR system so there's a few different castings. I did spend a bunch of time researching truck/van manifolds because my current beater was a goofy one, what was supposed to fit it didn't, so I'm fairly well up on like 89-95 stuff.
Here's a crappy cell phone vid of my 50 with a 65 283 in it. You can see the type of manifold that I used...very similar to the 55-57 Chevy straight logs. I've heard of some guys having problems with the "ape hanger" looking ones you've shown, but only in a few cases (Come to think of it...I believe I've got a set and that's why I didn't use it). Perhaps it has to do with the loose design tolerances of the car from time to time. I believe it's a 70s/80s truck/van manifold. It came on multiple years, with or without O2 holes. Link to an example: http://www.carpartsdiscount.com/auto/parts/80/chevrolet/impala/exhaust_manifold/exhaust_manifold_kit.html?3593=44225 <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/F0ZkEKog5ek" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> EDIT: Forgot I had this one from when I did my first fire up....GREAT angles of it without the sheetmetal on the car: <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Fszwr9gkmwk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> I just saw the part about using them on BOTH sides...go me. Anyway....maybe this was of *some* help. I remember now another reason why I couldn't use the ones you've shown. On both sides on mine, it hit the firewall body mounts, on the driver side it also hit the steering gear.
Funny you post this cause I have run into this myself. The early manifolds did not work for me because no matter what I did the steering still hit the down pipe off the manifold. I tried rerouting it and found that it was too close the filter for my liking and moving it out still interfered with the steering. What I ended up with are manifolds of a 97 chevy truck with a vortec motor. They exit all the way to the back. They do have some issues as well though. The driver side on my latest car (54) the brake pedal arm hits it. To me thats no issue because Iam going to mount my master under the dash and use a drop pedal. Even if you choose to keep the stock location its doable if you wanted to cut the pedal arms and use the clutch side as your brake. You will have to mount the motor in its furthest back location and shave the firewall supports to use these as well. Or theres always sanderson of course you know! (spendy) and honestly they are just as much a pain in the arse trying to fix collector leaks. If you end up with those Make sure you weld the collectors into a fixed location ans weld some bolts from the top side to make that easier.I can put up some pics as soon as the wife gets home with the camera. I also cut the 02 bung of the driver manifold and welded a flat plate into it to seal it. it can be capped just as easily.
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I'd have to look at a Vortec truck again, but I know the 88-95 pickup manifold set exits that same way - both at the rear, at about 45' - but they also are wider at the rear by 2 to 3 inches. That was the problem I had with my van, for some reason it had a set of those on it, so a Y-pipe that was supposed to fit it, didn't. Given the basic body style runs through '98 I kind of suspect the manifolds are the same, but I'd have to see what interchanges over at Rock Auto to be more sure. On one of these Chevys, you have to work between a set of body mounts at the bottom of the firewall, plus the steering, so my opinion is you want to avoid extra width. I'm going to a hanging pedal with a master on the firewall, so no concern about brake pedal arms or any of that. And, as I noted on the steering, changes are planned there and going from a jacket all the way down, to just a shaft, should give at least a little more room.
I pulled the manifolds off a early '90 truck. Passenger side will fit fine. Drivers side is another story. I thought it was going to fit but in the rear it angles out a bit and would have put the exhaust right on the frame. I also tried a manifold out of a van. It looked perfect but I forgot why it didnt fit. So I got a manifold from a 1980 malibu and it is great. It has the AIR holes but comes with the plugs. Dont get the passenger side from the same car though. It costs twice as much and looks funny as hell. Let me know if you need pictures of mine.
I saw some of the high ones, off of an 80s camaro (i think) ran on the opposite sides, this made them almost a front dump deal. they did clear the steering box.
I just traded for a 51 with a TBI smallblock /200R in it with the stock front end, if it stops raining I will take some pics for you today.
I used mid 80's truck manifolds on mine. I have Jaguar front suspension on mine and they where the only ones that would clear the steering. I'm going to find some s10 v8 conversion headers as I think these may clear as well.
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