# Shorty headers install



## Jared (Apr 19, 2013)

A few folks have reached out and asked me to update them when I was finished installing the Hedman shorty headers. I figured it was easier to create a new thread than to answer each person individually.

They are in. The install was pretty easy and there is plenty of room around them for the starter, clutch linkage, and oil filter. As a bit of background, my car is a 1970 LeMans sport that has a 461, ported 6X heads, and a manual transmission. Hardest part was fabricating the head pipes. The original ones are supposed to line up with the collectors. That was the case on the right side, but not on the drivers.

I mocked them into place before dealing with the paint. I removed the starter, clutch linkage, and the oil filter housing. I did not have to jack the engine off the mounts. There was enough room to sneak them in there without going though the hassle. I disclaimer on this is I have the spacers under the frame mounts. I installed them to compensate for the aftermarket oil pan I'm running. I had them both in place and held in with three bolts within 2 hours including jacking up the car.







































The headers come with a shipping paint. I would highly recommend getting the ceramic coated ones. I didn't because I don't like chrome headers and regretted it. The shipping paint was soft and very hard to strip off. Took me a few hours in the blast cabinet.



















I had to wait for a nice day so I could paint them outside. I got lucky with a day in the low 60s. Not bad for late March in Massachusetts. First primer, then paint. I know white isn't for everyone, but that is what I wanted.



















It took me some thinking to figure out how to heat cure the paint. I don't have a gas grill and I value my marriage so the oven in the house was a no. I ended up putting them in the largest disposable pan I could find and tented the top with foil and used my Traeger to cure them. A pellet grill is great at maintaining temperature, but it's a smoker. The foil kept the smoke away from the parts. When I opened them up, they were really stinky so good thing I didn't do them in the oven.


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## Jared (Apr 19, 2013)

Headers were reinstalled on the car. Took about 1 hour to have both installed and all of the bolts tight. The third bolt from the rear was hard to tighten on both sides. This bolt is installed by a couple threads before the headers on both sides. It holds the gasket in place. The hole is slotted and has an eye hole. The right side was the worse than the left. That one needed to be tightened with an open end wrench. Most of the others were pretty easy. using either a ratchet or ratcheting wrench.





































Next I reinstalled the clutch linkage. Plenty of room using the factory Z bar.










Next I fabricated the head pipes. I started on the right side. This one went smoot. I cut the original head pipe, shortened the collector, and welded it together. Please, excuse my ugly welds. If anyone other than me would see them on the car, I would have had a pro do them.



















Next I reinstalled the oil filter housing and checked for clearance. I may use a heat wrap on the filter but there is plenty of room around it. Noticed in this picture that I need to wipe my prints off the header on this side.










Passengers side pipe fabricated and installed with no issue.


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## Jared (Apr 19, 2013)

Drivers side pipe was another story entirely. I cut the pipe that came off the car and it was off by 3 inches. The header collector is not in the same place as the one from the factory manifolds so the stock style pipe would not work. It is ~3 inches further from the block than the original was. Luckily, when I installed the system a couple years ago, I had ordered the wrong set of head pipes. I didn't realize it until they were on the car so I kept them for future use. The ones I had ordered were for a Firebird. I was able to use the one made for the right side of the Firebird on the left side of the LeMans and it lined right up. One good thing about this is there is actually more clearance from the starter than there was before. Other issue on the drivers side is one of the collector bolts does not fit from the top and the nut won't line up either. I had to bevel down one edge of the nut to make it fit. Not a huge deal, but one more thing that didn't fit right.

Excuse the ugly welds on this side too.





































I haven't reinstalled the starter yet. I have a new under hood wiring harness that I need to install first.

This was a not a difficult install to do. If I hadn't had the extra head pipe on hand, I would have been stuck. Fabbing the exhaust would have been way easier with a lift, but the job can be done with the car on stands. I am not a master mechanic by any stretch of the imagination and I was able to do this with not a lot of effort.


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## coyote595 (Dec 4, 2019)

Excellent write-up! Thank you! Wish they made them for round ports. I would consider running them. I will have to go with the RA manifolds, if they ever become available again. I can appreciate the white color. I had a set of Hooker Super Comp headers in a 2nd gen Firebird that were painted white. I thought it looked good with the Pontiac Blue.


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## Jared (Apr 19, 2013)

I originally wanted to go with the RA manifolds as well. Waiting for them put my project on hold for months. I finally got sick of waiting and installed the engine with the regular manifolds so I could get it broken in before winter. Originally there was a backlog for the shorty headers too. I had both on order at the same time figuring I would cancel whichever shipped last. While I waited, I kept watching all of the suppliers and Jegs had the headers listed them as being in stock when no one else did. This was early January and every other supplier was saying March. I ordered them and they arrived three days later so the RA manifold order, and the header order from Summit, both got cancelled.


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## sameold01 (Jun 21, 2020)

Nice job!


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## RMTZ67 (Mar 12, 2011)

Jared said:


> A few folks have reached out and asked me to update them when I was finished installing the Hedman shorty headers. I figured it was easier to create a new thread than to answer each person individually.
> 
> They are in. The install was pretty easy and there is plenty of room around them for the starter, clutch linkage, and oil filter. As a bit of background, my car is a 1970 LeMans sport that has a 461, ported 6X heads, and a manual transmission. Hardest part was fabricating the head pipes. The original ones are supposed to line up with the collectors. That was the case on the right side, but not on the drivers.
> 
> ...


Master chef right there.


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## Noangelbuddy (Dec 6, 2017)

Good luck with white headers. I had white headers on an orange SBC engine many years back. Engine looked great, but my paint did not hold up for long. You did a far superior job painting yours. Now you have to wear gloves to keep your greasy fingerprints from getting the headers dirty. I hope your paint holds up well.


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## Jared (Apr 19, 2013)

Noangelbuddy said:


> Good luck with white headers. I had white headers on an orange SBC engine many years back. Engine looked great, but my paint did not hold up for long. You did a far superior job painting yours. Now you have to wear gloves to keep your greasy fingerprints from getting the headers dirty. I hope your paint holds up well.


You're not the first one to say that. Baaad65 gave me a bit of slack about it as well (good natured jest). One thing going for them is you can barely see the headers on a Pontiac anyway. SBC and Ford would be a bigger concern.

Honestly, for the time and effort involved painting them, the ceramic coating is worth its weight in gold. If I had it to do it again, that's the route I would go.


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