A little background on how I got into the problem I had ... rebuilt a 455 for swap into my '67 special a few years back. Heads were junk so I decided to go with new aluminum. Was going to need headers anyway (just couldn't put oe cast manifolds on aluminum heads) so went with some TA Stage 2 heads and headers for best clearance with the engine swap (was originally a 300 small block). Everything went together well and headers clear control arms and steering just fine. However, I had previously lowered the car with Eibach springs, Global west A-arms, Hotchkiss rear control arms and sway bars, etc. Have always loved the stance but ground clearance under the headers was MINIMAL at best. Speed bumps were always a problem and I would constantly zing the headers on the highway over larger "whoop" style bumps that brought the suspension anywhere near being compressed. The passenger side was the worst as it hung lower than the driver's and it was starting to get a little beat up. Last weekend I decided I couldn't live with it any more and broke out the saw and the mig welder. Jacked the car up as much as I thought I safely could and made some cuts to the tubes. I then had to work the angles a little bit and weld back together but the net result was a gain of just over 2" of ground clearance. The first photo is a before shot showing how low the headers hung under the frame rails. This second photo shows the after. You can see that the header is just about even with the bottom of the trans pan (Turbo 400) and in fact I had to modify the exhaust pipe to dip down a bit and go under the factory trans crossmember (3" exhaust). Please don't laugh at my terrible welds (made under the car lying on my back in 100 degree weather, excuses, excuses) This last photo shows the clearance between the header and the floor. In my opinion they now fit like they should. I also increased the thickness of the bump stops on the lower a-arms by 3/8 inch to decrease compression travel by about 3/4 of an inch. The whole combination seems to have worked out as I went for a drive today and didn't zing the pavement at all. I'm hoping to get ambitious enough to make the same mod to the driver side in the near future. Mike
