I'm collecting parts for my Gasser project. I'm in the market for a set of headers, new or used. What makes one better then the other and why the expense for a BIG name, IE , HOOKER? Any info would be great help......Why are some $200 and others $500. + ?????
Material used, design and fit. If you go with hooker or headmon for instance you will generally get heavier wall tubing and if you don't go cheap with either you will get heavier flanges, I.E. 3/8 as opposed to 1/4 or 5/16. I have bought cheaper hear ders in the past like black jacks for example and had to finish up welds and tweak them to make them fit. Never had to do that with a higher quality header. My normal mode if I am buying for myself is go middle of the road, I don't by the cheapest or the most expensive. But I drive the same way, I have a lne that is designated for me and I take mine out of the middle.
Application and production quantity will have a lot to do with cost also. If they are setting up tooling the more sets they produce per run the cheaper they can make each set due to lack of prep and setting up costs. So a header for a small block in a 70 camaro will be considerably less than a fenderwell header for a galaxie. And as pointed above, fit, flanges and material thickness are the other big drivers in cost.
What do you want them to fit? Patriot makes some pretty nice stuff a little cheaper than Hooker or Hedman. The only trouble is, one size doesn't fit all. Unless you're putting them on an engine that came in the car using stock motor mounts, you're probably gonna have to modify them. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Larry T
Some are just made cheap, with "exhaust out" only in mind. Some are made with "needs to fit well" in mind. some are made with "needs to last" in mind Some are made with "needs to be pretty" in mind. Some are made with "needs to increase performance, proper tube size, length, science" in mind. Some are made with all the above. those should be the better ones and thus $$$ The amount of units produced for the particular configuration has a lot to do with it too.
I think I might have some answers here. I used to work for Hooker and for the past 5 years have been in charge of R&D for Doug's and Patriot. There are many things that dictate the cost of headers. And tubing wall thickness is only a small part of that. In fact many Race headers are made with thin wall tubing to keep the weight down, so do not assume that a 14 gauge header is going to be better than an 18 gauge. Same goes for flange thickness. Stay away from 1/4 flanges no matter what, they will have issues with leaking. 5/16" are fine, especially if they are built with a "Sealing Bead" on the port side of the flange. We weld a sealing bead on all of our header brands and then MILL them Flat. Some other companies do a bead but hand grind them which doesn't insure that they are perfectly flat. Others don't use a sealing bead but rather weld the tube to the outside of the flange. In fact most companies Used to do it that way. The problem is that can warp the flange during welding and that's where the leaks come from. If they grind of machine the back of the flange afterwards then they have made the flange that much thinner. The quality of the tubing is as important as the gauge, maybe even more so. We use only US tubing in our headers and buy mill direct to insure quality, Hooker does the same - many of the cheaper brands do not. Look at the bends themselves, most everyone uses Mandrel benders these days, but the type of machine and the condition of the mandrels and balls makes a difference in how consistent the bend is. We replace the tooling more often then most to hold a higher quality. Other factors come into play as well; How much time was spent in R&D making the tubes as close to effective flow length as possible. How well do they fit around suspension and steering components. How complicated of a header is it, in other words are there lots of bends and some slip fits (this adds cost), What type of collector is used and how long is the transition in the collector? Does the company polish out the grip marks from the bending dies? This takes time and costs more (we do this on Doug's not on Patriot). How are the headers finished - raw, painted, or Metallic Ceramic Coated? And if they are painted or coated, how good of a job do they do? Do the headers include the reducers to bolt to the collectors (Hooker does not, so you spend more money). What kind of gaskets are included, cheap paper or a premium graphite like Doug's? How about header bolts, washers etc. and what is the warranty? Lastly, the intended application affects pricing. A Camaro header that we make hundreds of at a time is going to be less than a 65 Pontiac Catalina 426 that we may sell 10 a year of. Hope this helps
Look in my avatar picture, you can see the fenderwell headers on my 55. They were patriot and I really liked them and they fit excellent.
Hooker fender well headers on my 56 Chev for 10 years and still going strong and never leaked either.
The cheaper ones from speedway motors are only 1 5/8" tube. I think any real performance engine is going to need larger tubes than that, at least 1 3/4".
That's a great old saying, but doesn't really hold water with today's headers. I see some makers charging twice what other brands sell equal quality headers for. Seems some companies have huge markups, so getting what you pay for isn't really true, unless it's a huge markup you're looking to buy? I bought Patriot "fat fendered Chevy" fenderwell headers for my Austin gasser project. $215 and they are very nice quality. I've had no leaks at either the head surface or the collectors. I modified the collectors by adding a second collector plate out the inside of each collector so I could run a blank on the end and be able to uncap without unolting my exhaust and ruining the gaskets. I run copper gaskets on my blankoff plate, so I can reuse them again.
I purchased a set of Schoenfield fenderwell headers. They come in 1 5/8 or 1 3/4 primary tube with 3" and 3 1/2" collectors respectively. They seem to be good quality, a well known company and priced about 250.00. I like these because the collector has no flange. If you call Scoenfield they will gladly give you the critical measurements to insure a good fit.
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