67 Fairlane GTA 390 Headers

[bartlett]

amd I would not get to excited to hear from stan, His words will be he sold them for 20 years with no problems. something has to be wrong with your car...  Beating $900 headers with a hammer is fun ... 

   I cant think of why yours would be tighter there... 

can you get a pic of your drop down bracket and cylinder like my pic > I would like to compare locations ect ... something has to be differant. 

[amdscooter]

Sure thing.. here is the bracket. I painted mine black. Looks like the same rev. as yours.



I'll get a photo with the cylinder attached to bracket posted up tomorrow when there is some light. I turned the wheels just enough so the cylinder clears the bottom of the header tube it's hitting and ran the rod through the drop down bracket to see how much interference there is. I'm thinking if I don't hear back from Stan I might try having a local shop weld another stretch of plate to the existing drop down bracket and drill the thru hole at the bottom of it to get the clearance I need. I'm also wondering what kind of issues that might create other than perhaps a bit less total left and right wheel turn. It'll put a bit more stress on the welds with the additional length, but it's a pretty solid bracket and I'm not planning on doing any off roading by choice any time soon.

I'm thinking I might hit a local trans shop as well to see if they can fab something up for my cooler lines. Do you know if the circuit to the radiator trans cooler a high pressure setup? I would not think so as a lot of the external transmission coolers I see come with rubber hose and simple clamps. Anyway.. just thinking aloud here as these two issues are the only thing keeping me from bolting the rest up and turning the key. Everything else I need to finish the job is sitting in my garage already.

Thanks!

[bartlett]

Well Im thinking the differance is in years of our cars... mines a 68 ...must be differant there..


Ive seen lots of guys run rubber tranny lines. Just use a brake line tool to flare the end so the hose stays on and use two hose clamps on each connection . 

 the spendier way would be using an fittings......

[amdscooter]

Ya.. spose I could flare on one side and hose barb on the other. If it's low pressure that should keep it fine. I'd only have a rubber segment where I need to route the line away from the header. Still no word from Stan yet.

[amdscooter]

Shot off another email to Stan today, still have not heard from him. It dried up a bit so I ran out and took some pics.

Where it needs to be to clear:


How much clearance that amount of drop buys. If you look through the hole you can see it's still close. This is with the wheel cranked all the way to that side:


Looks like the hole needs to be about an inch lower at the center measured from the bottom of the bracket:


Can you think of any issues I might run into if I had an addition welded to that bracket to drop the hole to that level?

[bartlett]

Wow you have a issue...    My thought would first dimple the header some and make a longer adapter like you planned. I searched for fpa headers and 66 fairlane and saw others have had your problem, one guy gave up and went manual ...

    Sad we need to pay top $$ for parts we need to modify ect to get to work ....

[amdscooter]

^^^ I heard back from Stan and he recommended I check my mounts, gave me some contact information for people with similar cars to contact. I double checked my motor mounts and transmission mount and crossmember, everything looks to be installed as it should. Had a fellow member at the Fairlane club measure engine position and we're pretty close. I've also been comparing the pic you posted up with mine. That last weld just over the cylinder seems to be in about the exact same spot making me think the header is in about the same location.. yet your cylinder clears and mine wont. Odd.

I've got far too much time and $$ invested at this point to abandon power steering. I've decided for the time being to deal directly with the symptoms.... and I went large. I had an addition welded to the bracket and dropped the hole 2.25".



On the car:


Amount of clearance now.. gobs.:


The bottom of the bracket is now pretty much the lowest fixed point under the car. I need to rotate the hoses away as well. I have a new set on the shelf waiting to go on anyway so timing works out well there. Once I get everything bolted back up and back on the street if I still have not figured out what is causing the interference issue I'll probably dial that bracket into a happy medium between ground clearance and cylinder clearance. But for now I can actually move on as clearance is no longer an issue with anything but the ground. 

 

[jmlay]

With the longer bracket you will almost certainly want to weld it to the frame, I would consider a gusset to support it as well. There is allot of leverage to deal with.

[amdscooter]

^^^ Thanks for the suggestion, you are right there is a lot of leverage there. But I'm not planning on leaving it that long. I went that length to ensure absolutely no interference issues so I can finish up. I can and probably will take it back up after it's all bolted up. At that point I'll decide whether or not to have it welded to the frame.

[jmlay]

No matter how long it is on there I would brace it & weld it to the frame. The section you welded on has no support & will likely bend over, this is why the org. has  the bends in it to support it. Good luck!

[amdscooter]

Well.. she's in.. she runs.. she's loud! I stuffed the old glasspacks into the new header collectors and it was still like pit row at the drags in my driveway.

http://youtu.be/dpS2xndSuCA

The moisture in the driveway was from me forgetting to put the rad cap back on. I had left it off so I could see when the thermostat opened and forgot about it the very first time I fired it up just before this video. I have the video of me scrambling to shut it down as the rad fluid started hitting the fan as well.. but decided to post up this one instead. 

Few stills.



&



Yes.. the headers are tight as hell and I'd guesstimate it took me nearly 30 hours to get them in there. Off to the muffler shop on Monday. Still need to figure out how to re-route the transmission cooler lines as they are resting on the header. Got a piece of wood wedged in there now so no direct contact. Other than that I need to sort out the steering drop down bracket as well.. but those are minor issues as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions guys! 

[bartlett]

Looks great ! ..... 

[ScotiaFE]

Looks Great.
I was just reading the saga again and it occurred to me you may need a different mount.
There are a few different ones.
A Galaxie mount sets the engine back like an inch in a Fairlane.
My memory is a little fuzzy on this, but it's something you may want look at.
I know your thinking D**kHead. Why did you not bring this up earlier. oops.

[amdscooter]

Looks Great.
I was just reading the saga again and it occurred to me you may need a different mount.
There are a few different ones.
A Galaxie mount sets the engine back like an inch in a Fairlane.
My memory is a little fuzzy on this, but it's something you may want look at.
I know your thinking D**kHead. Why did you not bring this up earlier. oops.

Thanks and thanks. I'll look into the galaxy if I run into space issues I cannot resolve.. but so far I think everything is manageable.

[amdscooter]

Was just thinking.. I'm probably still going to be hitting this post with a lot of newb questions as I go along. But at this point would it be better if this thread was moved to the "member projects"  forum as the scope is kinda shifting away from FE specific stuffs? Or would it be easier for me just to start a new thread?