I learned many choice words watching/helping put those hooker headers in our '68 Cougar.....we bought a set of REF's hoping that when we pull the engine and re-install it that they would help the cause. Our Cougar has the reinforced shock tower plates on it. Really hoping we aren't headed for the same problem. There is a drawer with some "header tools" in it at the shop, cuss-dum made tools by us, all a result of fitting up those super comp headers in the cougar. Hopefully they have a bit better pattern now because our set was a battle.
Typically, from the factory, the tower reinforcement braces stick out a ways as they wrap around the towers. IF your engine bay is not painted yet, you can gain some valuable space by heating the front brace with a torch and using a chunk of oak and a big freakin hammer to beat them back against the towers.
The factory Medium Riser heads would fit in my R code '69, but there was no room for the bolt heads on the top bolts for the headers (Hooker 6114's). After I beat them back, it gave me enough room to squeeze the bolts between the tower and header flange. I still can't put the bolt in or take it out with the engine in place, so the engine has to be jacked up on one side to get the front top bolts out, but it fits! To look at them, you'd never know they were "modified", if that matters to you. I suggest this to anyone building a big block Mustang that has those braces and will be using those 8 bolt exhaust pattern heads, or if you want to use those bolts on 16 bolt heads.
Caveat though, It also led to an annoying pecking sound as that bolt tapped at the brace on the tower at idle. It was
really annoying, so I put an adjustable engine strap on the drivers side to keep that from happening. Of course it also helps keep stress off the engine mounts when the car launches, so it was a double win.
may i see pics of the factory shock tower plates for 69 CJs? and thickness of REF flanges? is it like - if you weld on thin flanges then REFs will not fit for other reasons? also can engine being higher or lower via engine mounts solve? fpa’s have lots of room on my 67 s-code with factory plates. send fpa a trace of your ports else you may get back not so good of a match. fpa will work with you. tell them everything.
I'll post pictures of how close the braces are with the 6114's, when I get home today. You can't lower the engine enough to gain space, and you can't go high enough to get above the brace without causing issues with the trans tunnel, among other things. Your '67 does not have the wrap around braces that are present on R code cars and Cougars, so it's less of an issue. I'm sure the REF's could be modified to work (seems most everyone I've talked to has the same issues with them), but they are not cheap, and most people don't want to spend big bucks on something they will have to modify. And modifying header flanges is not exactly a job that ranks in the "fun" category.
