Header Question

[Ronnie1858]

I am a newbie to the Stock game, so forgive me if this seems like a goofy question. I have a 1971 Chevelle SS with a 454, and Hooker 2265 2 1/8" headers. They broke at the flange on a recent run, and no one has new ones. Am told by various distributors that the soonest they can get new ones is November. I have found a source for Doug's D331 headers that have them in stock now, and they appear to be very similar to the Hookers. My question for the folks out there is if anyone has any experiences with Doug's headers that they can share with me, to let me know if going ahead and buying these is a wise decision, or should I just wait until November?

My thanks in advance to anyone who answers this.

Ron

[Ralph A Powell]

Can you weld the old ones? Or cut the flange between each cylinder. They might even seal better on the head.

[Ronnie1858]

It is the tubing that broke, and it is ceramic coated, local welding shop won't touch it.

[Jim Caughlin]

Originally Posted by Ronnie1858

It is the tubing that broke, and it is ceramic coated, local welding shop won't touch it.

I have begrudgingly repaired coated mild steel headed tubes over the years for customers but it is a miserable and ugly method of doing a repair. Trying to get the coating off in order to do a decent weld is next to impossible. You can probably get this done as a temporary repair but not a good long term fix.

Jim Caughlin
SS6019

[Mike Pearson]

I cant imagine it being too hard to weld up the repair. I welded the evac tubes into my collectors with no issues and they are ceramic coated. As long as the tubes are not badly rusted just grind what you can of the ceramic coating with a flapper wheel then bead blast the area and weld as usual.

[Jim Caughlin]

Originally Posted by Mike Pearson

I cant imagine it being too hard to weld up the repair. I welded the evac tubes into my collectors with no issues and they are ceramic coated. As long as the tubes are not badly rusted just grind what you can of the ceramic coating with a flapper wheel then bead blast the area and weld as usual.

Done this a bunch of times over the years for customers and all of my experiments with getting the coating off is less than ideal: flapper wheels just gum up and don't thoroughly remove the coating, wire wheels don't remove the coating, any sort of grinder wheel removes the already too thin used header material. The only saving grace is that the coating on a used header has already deteriorated to some extent so sometimes comes off, a brand new header tube with new coating is virtually impossible to remove. Also bear in mind that if a header tube is cracked (which is why it is being repaired in the first place), the tubing is majorly fatigued and thin so the worst of everything for welding.

[SSDiv6]

Lemons Headers

http://www.lemonsheaders.com/products.htm