Have any of you guys seen these headers installed on a 65 Skylark? How low do the hang down? Are they worth any actual HP or MPG gains? I found a used set but don't want to fork out the cash if they just cause more headaches than they are worth. These would be going on my 65 GS. Thanks, Josh
if its for a Nailhead, IMHO a unforgiving project! you will probably need a mini starter as well. Some here have complained about ground clearance. I had a set I gave to AMP for their dyno!
mine were hanging a little on my 65 gs, put a piece of wood on your jack and lift on the collector that will give you a extra inch or so.the springs have to be in good shape too. the stock starter will work, but way way easier with a mini starter. i would also have them ceramic coated if there not already. mpg not much if any. hp yes very much.
I have headers on 2 of the 66's. They hang just low enough to look cool. I have not encountered scraping problems.
i have run headers before and IMHO,,,,,not worth the hassell ,,,in the long run.....port matched stock exhaust manifolds and a good muffler system will do just as good on a street car.... headers are for all out racing.....:Smarty:
When we rebuilt the engine in a 65 I used to own, the mechanics cussed me out several times for wanting them put back on the car. Did the car pull hard with them on there, heck yes, would I do it again, no
Factory starters. I don't have a feel for performance gains but I like the sound. Although stock manifolds and 40's sound good too. Maybe a tick better mileage.
I had a set on my 65,,,ended up being too low,,,my car is lowered,,,a regular height car may be fine!!! The set I had wouldn't fit properly with the factory starter!!!
If a man will take a hard look at just about any set of Buick stock exhaust manifolds, It takes just about 10 seconds to see that they are very, very well designed.... real, real close to the muscle car factory cast iron manifolds of the 60's.... and when you modify them with port matching, smoothing, ect... and go on thru the system and put big pipes and mufflers that dont restrict by going down in size as you go back to the bumper... then you come up with a system that will flow very close to a set of headers.. and they dont break, bend, rattle, rust out, burn out, leak, or drag like headers do, and ,,,,they dont make changing starters or oil filters harder,,,or have bolts that constantly have to be re tightened.... on a all out race car, headers are fine... but on a street driven car it is best to go with the system described....:Brow:
Thanks to everyone that replied. My car is lowered and is a cruizer first hotrod second. I am going to take Doc's advice and clean up the ports, do the DDP job and throw on some good pipes and mufflers. Josh
I have some old 'Kustom' headers on my blue '66 (yes, 'Kustom' is a brand name). They hang lower than the stock manifolds and will scrape on speedbumps. Stock starter fits okay. and I can't definitively say whether they make more power than stock manifolds, tough to quantify. Eric did some dyno comparisons on his Riv and the shorty headers did change the powerband. Those were NOT the GS headers tho. There was at least one report of unacceptable ground clearance with TA headers (do a search)..... maybe a torch and a floor jack would remedy the problem...
Smart man Josh!!! I had my 66 lowered with ta headers and i hated them. I cut them up and made mock up turbo headers out of them. i ended up making my own custom set of headers but if i could have used manifolds for my turbo setup i would have. Like Doc said clean them up and port them and you will be amazed. look at some of the nostalgic class of these guys running cast manifolds and it isnt slowing them down. Paul 66lark turbo nailhead
I have a set of new headers. I have thought about installing them on my Nailhead-powered Chevy truck, but as Doc has commented - I'm not sure that they are worth the hassle.
well,,,, i base my opinion on the fact that headers benefit the most at high rpm's.... and on most street driven cars with 3.42 diff gears and taller, there would be few times that a given vehicle would be getting the benefit of the headers....:Brow:you would have to be getting on it hard in low gear and then winding it out long and hard in 2nd.... and high gear is out of the question.... now, just about all that is left is the ''wow''factor... which is why most guys run headers....:Brow::laugh: then,,,, they have to put up with all the liabilities of headers.... no,,, I will go with the stealth approach... ported, port matched stock exhaust manifolds with bigger pipes and mufflers all the way to the back bumper... even tried the nascar approach , coming out just ahead of the rear wheels... too many fumes and too much stirred up dust, and too much noise.....and the whole thing is just my opinion,,, that and a dollar will get a cup of coffee.....:laugh::laugh:
the ta-headers have 3 in collectors and were some what low, theres a lot of space to the floor board. went to a header shop near me who makes custom headers for big time hot rods all over the states. he said we will put a floor jack and lift them up, [Walt] no torch no heat .i was thinking oh no whats this guy doing. after its was done with a big smile on his face, he says he does it all the time, he got 1-1/4 inch on one side[that side was lower than the other side to start with] and 3/4 inch on the other side. made a big difference.[John] the headers you have are from the gs club have 2-1/2 collectors which should sit higher to start with, am sure you can still get them higher with a jack if need to. Doc, headers give you a lot more torque at a lower rpm then stock manifolds all the dynos show this even when Eric did his dyno testing showed this. yes headers will make more of a difference with a bigger cam higher hp engine than stock a engine. header gaskets came a long way since the old paper gaskets, and the flanges are thicker then the old hedman headers i ran on my plymouth gtx they were thin 18 gauge tubes,1/4 inch head flanges, paper gaskets and not ceramic coated, your right a would not run them on the street again no matter how much hp gain.
:gp:.........I run GS club headers and never have a problem. But I try to stay away from large speed bumps and stuff. I have always read the dyno results from collector lenght test and The GS club headers are 2.5 and I go straight to a 2.5 exh. I wondererd how that effected the TQ? Guess I will never know
Here is a picture of my TA headers in my 64 Buick Skylark with new TA motor mounts and frame pads. One hangs a little lower than the other and I now have my car lowered. I only have to make sure they clear on my enclosed trailer. I hooked them once when I loaded the car without being hooked to the truck. We put jack stands under the back of the trailer and it did not allow the back of the trailer to squat like it does when hooked to the truck and the pitch of the ramp was too steep and it hooked on the floor trim. This is with a 455 and not a 401 nailhead.
i asked the guy that moved my headers up and he said 2.5 collector to a 2.5 pipe is fine.. but a 2.5 collector going into a bigger pipe say 3 inch would hurt performance. heres the web site to the header guy. www.beyeaheaders.com ---------- Post added at 01:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:30 PM ---------- same as mine drivers side was lower thats the side that went up 1-1/4 inch. get the jack out. what a nice car you have. what size rims ?
