Hello..I'm just was wondering what kind of headers I would need for my car..
Seeing how my dad and I have never had any past experiance with headers.
My car is a
1970 SS Chevelle, with a..
6.5L/396 engine
Rear Wheel Drive
Power Steering: no
Power Brakes: yes
A/C: no
Automatic Transmission Column Shift: yes


And Advice or Help would be deeply apprechiated
Thanks

Forget the headers. Unless you are taking the car to the track alot. They are a pain for many but a few people have good luck with them. If you feel like constantly maintaing them they are ok. They do have a coolness factor of looking under the hood and seeing them. I took mine off that came with my car. I have had headers on 2 cars I have owned. They heat up starters and kill them. They tend to develop leaks. They make it harder to change a few of the plugs. They burn plug wires if you are not careful. What I do have not is not your normal headers. They are Sanderson cast headers. They are somewhere between a header and a manifold. They definatly look cool under the hood and claim to flow like headers. So far I like them. The good is they dont even use a gasket you have to wory about changing. They allow easy access to the starter and the tranny can be dropped with them in place easily. I think they allow easy access to plugs but I have not tried. They are not likeley to warp like headers since they are cast and very thick. They also cost about the same as a good pair of normal headers. They too had a downside though. I had to heat up the crossmember and dent it a little to get the driver side to fit but you have a different engine then me so hard to tell about that.

I put hedman elites on mine and couldnt be happier with the fit. Elites use 14 ga steel and a 3/8 flange..very strong.

(blind leading the blind here...)

i too am looking for headers. i know absolutely nothing about headers, but that doesn't stop me from doing research.

i would be looking at Walker. Hedman is good too. Eldelbrock TEC series (not that you would probably need that) is also good especially with the ceramic coating. Very stock/factory looking.

The starter situation can be handled with a heat shield. There is also "header wrap" that can be used to keep the heat under control.

As for plug wires; The wires should not be within a 1/2 inch of each other anyways to prevent crossfiring. With a little thought and fabrication, good wire mounts can be made and bolted to the valve cover (where the valve cover bolts are) that will support the wires good and prevent burning.

i mainly want headers for mileage, not nessesarily to make noise or be cool although there will be plenty of that.

more later....

P.S. Your chevelle is RWD? No kidding?

I have Dynomax headers - am very happy with the look, sound, and performance. There were no fit problems with my big block either. They were inexpensive but not cheap. I think Hedman are probably a few steps up in quality. You can also get a ministarter and starter heat shield.

I have had Summit/Dynomax brand headers on my 70 SS for 4 years now
Part is SUM-G9010 (about $84 or so)
They fit like a glove..they are not coated.
I stripped mine and painted them VHT black and they still look mint.