Pictures?
Later
Rotten

 

If you're asking me about pics, sorry.....I've been super busy at work. Don't get to sign on to TGO much anymore. I will take a few this weekend and try to post.

Boo.

 

Hey
I read the post about BB swaps and noticed you mentioned you may not be using your Big Block super comp Hooker swap headers. I am in need of a set of these Hookers and would be interested in purchasing themif you do ot have a use for them anymore. Please pm me back an dlet me know thanks

 

OK guys you convinced me too!!! I have 91 rs and just got a 402 for it. The car is fully stripped. There will be no room for creature comforts in this street terrorizer. Let the build-up begin. Any good advice like "If I had it all to do again I would......" for a newcomer? Thanks for the help and inspiration. Steve

 

yea if i had to do it all over again i wouldn't build a tiny 402 for it at all when a 454 would be the same cost, and a 496 or larger just a little more

 

Here's a couple of PICS. One of the engine and one of the exhaust. The other side looks the same. I still need to jack it up and take a couple of pics of the header mod. Started stripping the paint and priming.

Boo.

 

I would never use hooker headers!

I went with Lemons Headers, you have to cut some small holes for a couple of the tubes to run through the wheel well. They run down the inside tunnel and you can give then the specs and they will build them custom for engine and car build.

Later
Rotten

 

zrotten, Those Lemons are awesome headers. How's your project going??

 

Came to a stop last month. My job takes the Holidays away for me RETAIL MANAGEMENT! Over all I'm finding out when I changed over too the tube k member and pinto rack I needed to redo alot of minor time consuming things:Brake lines, Steering u-joints,finding the right ones to make the angles. I decided to mount a QA1 kevlar rod end to the frame to make the angle(to guide the shaft and hold it place)!

After inventory @ work in Jan. I will dive back in.

PS I put two brand new quater panels on(I purchased before they quit making them)and reworked the Alum around the tubs. I wanted that stock look to hold my Hoosier Quick Time Pro D.O.T. Tires 33.0'' x 22.50'' - 15''LT, and my old quaters where cut and stretched, looked ok but you start to nit pick, so a new coat of HOUSE of COLORS well be going on with some ghost flames. Hope to be out by mid summer PICS TO FOLLOW
Later
Rotten

 

zrotten....your car is looking good....quite a project.

Everyone else...sorry this has taken so long. I got some pics under my car of the pass sied header mod I made to make the exhaust system a little easier to fab. I threw in one of the driver side just to give an idea of how to reu the exhaust.

Later,
Boo.

 

Ive got an 85 IROC stripped of AC, heater, stereo, interior, and have a 454 mounted with Moroso BBC steel mounts on stock kmember and the Moroso engine mounts, Hooker swap headers are in but with an hour or so of heating and bending them on the passenger side, partially around the tranny and another part by the chassis, cranked it up without a radiator cuz i still dont know wut im doing for that and the thing sounds like a beast, i put all the goodies in it except forging not enuff money, what kind of radiator will cool this thing? sorry if this is in wrong place, since this is for headers, im new to the posting, and its extremely hard to find topics on our car and 454s

 

BBCam I did the exact thing that you talked about in my 82Z. I have a ZZ383 with a set of custom Lemons headers. I can't say enough about what a great job Dan Lemons did on my car. I did not have the frame cut out and replaced when he bult my headers. He just put the collectors where I asked him to and when I picked up the car I was happier then a pig in a pig pen. Like other people have said. He is a bit spendy but worth every penny. If you look in the fabrication section and look under the thread 1982 Silver State Project you will see what I have been doing on my car. I was able to run a custom duel 3" into a single 4" exhaust. I have ton and I mean tons of ground clearance!!!!!!!

I have read a few people on the TGO board bash Dan for his prices but in my opinion it is money well spent. I have several friends who run his headers and I can say that I would never have anybody else build a set of headers for me!!

 

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...115+4294792876

I use a : AFCO Alum Rad. (just around 650 H.P. Pro street)I even run a stock GM water pump. High temps in traffic after slammin it a little 205 degrees was the highest temp, I run a 160 stat with two 1/8 wholes drilled 180 degres apart in the rim to let steam/heat to pass.
Save yourself $200-250 bucks from buying something like a BE-COOL pre fit.
You will have to drop the bottom support about an inch. I made my own Alum. Shroud with orginal type(repo's)rubber supports.

 

dont mean to contradict or say ur wrong since i am asking for ur opinion, but ive been looking for a radiator for a long time, & am questioning the capability of this griffin radiator, its slightly cheaper than the one u suggested and has bigger tubes, same size just about, but will this one work?

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

 

get a summit brand universal fit 31x19" radiator for even cheaper and it'll do fine

 

savagepv88,

I have used all three mentioned so far. I will tell you that all will work!
I have just had the best results with AFCO over the years, Griffin I have returned three last year(2 for one customer and 1 for another) for hot spots in the radiators using tests as simple as touch, and thermal temp testers and heat probes. Griffin always gave good return service may I add.
I not sure who builds summits rads, but make sure when you get it that its not epoxy around the tubes!
The reason I like AFCO over the rest is quality WELDS, heat consistency over all.
I have installed 4 row copper to stocker rads.
I have to say, I never heard anything bouncing or rattling inside of an AFCO Radiator!
REMBER YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!
My two or Three cents...
Later
Rotten

 

alrite, ill definitely go with that Afco radiator then, my engine should be producing around 500-550 hp so i thought that was more than the rated 400 hp cooling ability of the 1" tube aluminum radiators, thx next year ill prolly top it off with a 100 shot and have a fine runnin machine goin idk 10's?

 

What brand of Poly mounts did you use and where did you get them? I am in the process of putting a BBC in my 87 Camaro and I am having a heck of a time with the hooker headers hitting my subframe conneters (Chris Alston Chasis Works). I just started marking the things that I am going to have to clearance.

 

Could you let me know how much of a chore this ended up being. I have my car all the way apart right now and dropped my motor in the engine bay last night to see what kind of problems I was going to run into. It looks like I am going to have to do most of my clearencing on the drivers side. I have subframe connecters and the flange is coming right up against the connecter. This is going to be a street car but I have no problem with contouring the floor pan the entire length of the vehicle if I have to.

 

Wow, it's been a while since I saw this thread. Well it turns out that it proved to be more of a challenge than it was worth and I ended up having custom headers made at a local shop. The Hooker ones just wouldn't fit no matter how much I cut off and it was starting to compromise the front subframe. Do you have raised exhaust port heads as well? If you only have stock heads then it might be less of an issue for you but mine were raised like .500" so it totally screwed me. I was happier in the end.

 

I have after market aluminum heads. I am not sure about the raised ports though. I live in Central Florida so I am not sure of any local shops in the area that make custom headers. My email is bbutler321@aol.com if you have any PICS of your exhaust. I was thinking about maybe cutting the headers I have and having new collectors welded on them when I go to have the exhaust installed. I am trying to fit everything up now before the vehicle goes to the paint shop. What is the sticky thread thing that people keep on talking about.

 

When i did my car I used the Hookers but cut the flange off to give me a little more clearence (my car was a backhalf chassis car) with the exhaust run down the sides near the rockers clearence was not what I would have liked it to be but worked for driving on the street, I could see where aftermarket heads would require custom hedders the hookers in my car were touching the frame rail on the passenger side, and occasionaly made contact with the steering shaft (just a light Rub) and were tight against the floors on both sides ..
I was always going to change them to the shorty hedders in this post but never got around to it ...after running the car for allmost a year I believe I wouls go with the custom hedders less hassle in the long run ...
Good luck!

 

What heads are they? Like I said, you may have a better deal with yours if they exhaust ports aren't raised. The headers I had made looked almost exactly like the hooker ones only they came off without having to remove the motor or jack it up or anything. They also had much bigger primaries due to it being a race motor. I have since sold my car, but I know I have a CD of pictures somewhere. I'll try and find them.

 

Wow, I can't believe people are still digging up this old thread!! That's great.

To answer partsbin321's question on the poly mounts...I used Energy Suspension.

My car was on the road for a few months, then the transmission started giving me trouble and I'm in the process of pulling it out now and having it fixed....hopefully before spring.

Boo

 

anyone know what spindle zrotten is using?

 

man its been a while since as post in this thread lol

im almost completely ready to drop my 454 in my engine bay, just ordered the cam, springs, headers, oil pan, (motor was already .030 over 11:1) and im just wondering how long the 700r4 will hold up if i just drive it easy, cause im going to break the motor in properly for 500 miles while im getting a th350 built. wil it last a couple months whith the occasional throttle romp or just turn to spaghetti at the first sign of torque?

 

correction motor was 118cc head with flat top two valve releif (around 8.5:1) so i ordered aries 12.5:1 forged race pistons. i have everything at my disposal to put it together parts, gaskets, fluids etc. just have to wait til after my sisters wedding to get to work. ill let yall know how it goes

 

Thanks booboosean. I'm going to order a set and install them before I have the exhaust done. Just in case I have to go with custom headers. I don't mind buying the custom headers because I will want to use something a little bigger for my next engine swap.

 

Tore the motor down only to find the housing where the oil filter mounts has a huge crack in it and that is why the motor was eating cams, i was not aware of this before i purchased all my goodies, this also caused every bearing in the motor to spin and poked theirselves out of te sides of the rod caps.

O well, this just gives me a readon to put in a 4.25'" crank in its place and strok it to a 489ci. now i just have to save up for the crank and the machine work and she will be ready to go. Although i will still have to worry about the trans. will it last with little to no throttle romps, or spaghetify on startup???
we will see

 

My motor should be done tomorrow and it is set up as follows

.030 over 454 (461 ci.)
12.5:1 forged pistons
GM oval port 049 heads
.615/615 258/258 @ .050
dual stage system (100-150 plate, 150-500 fogger)
dual plane intake (free)
850 Demon


it will go in front of the 700r4 until the TH400 get back from the tranny shop
and the 28 spline 10 bolt with 4.33 gears will stay in place until i can afford otherwise

will post times as soon as i can, they will most likely be 1/8th mile times as i dont feel like breaking anything 75 miles away from home at the 1/4 mile track when 1/8 is 10 minutes away

-Ricky Bobby

 

Of course, you'll be breaking things within the first 75 feet, anyway. . .

Running race gas, I presume?

 

bbcpoweredz28, that rear ofcourse wont last prolly one outing to the track. that motor will be making quit a bit of torque N/A. and, if the trans is built it would be fine for street driving, even infrequent romps. but if you take it to the track, I dont think even a built 700 would last long. maybe for a little while though.
question though, what did your compression come out to with those pistons? I got the open chamber 118cc heads too, and am planning on milling the ehads a little bit. maybe .030 or .040" to bump up the compression a little. I havent looked at what piston options are out there yet. im sure there's alot. mine will be a budget build though when I get around to it.

to the orig. poster, thanks for all the insight. those headers arent for me as there shorties, but this is the kinda threads I love to read. I get to live your experience and dont have to pay for it. lol.

and Im sure those LEMONS are very nice, but the idea of this thread is to let people see what does/doesnt work in a cheap but still quality header. atleast thats been my take on it.

 

my compression comes out to around 12.5:1 accordiong to Arias but im not sure if the heads have been shaved at all but with a stock 118 cc chamber and these .49" in domes it comes out to 12.5:1, if my heads have shaved at all then maybe around 12.8:1

-Ricky Bobby

 

ok i'm doing the same swap 454 in a 86 z28 so wat headers doi really need to go with i dont want to cut heat bend and all that **** as much as possable i want to bolt in and go so guys tell me wat to do b/c iwas gonna go with hooker super comp's

 

Well I hope I'm not bring this thread from the dead. I do have a project in mind and was curious with a few things. With all the information i have read i think i overloaded my brain. I was thinking of using a BBC with a T56 trans and use the car mainly for show and go, not just a drag queen. would a new gm crate 454 be to much. Or should I just forget a BBC and just go with a ZZ4 crate? I just basicly wanna build a very nice 3rd gen camaro that will scare the shyt out of a terminator cobra. the main question with the BBC i have seen is with the headers, has anyone found anything what so ever that is a direct bolt in with no mods if not then i guess it would be best to go with the zz4. This also may sound like a complete moron but what about stock cast exhaust mainfolds for the BBC?

 

Wow, that was allot of reading, thanks for the info everyone has put into this, answered allot of questions.

I will be in the future trying the 1 7/8 patriots and see how they do on power since i am a budget builder, blah blah is all i can say about lemons, they are nice as can be but out of the price range for several of us budget guys.

I am happy to find a cheaper alternative to the hookers and will be doing a manual car, my 89 RS. I will try to use the T5 on the street till i get a T56 that will be built, mt T5s have lived through hell but keep going for some reason, but my secret is stock clutches and radials. Although a BBC will bea true testament, especially a 496 with solid roller and big aluminum heads.

I am just worried abut the routing of the exhaust, since seeing the pictures i will have the issue of my sub frame connectors trying to run them outside the frame rails, it is something i will just have to deal with .

 

i know alot of you guys are on here reading about the hedman shorties and i think that what booboosean has done is great! however, i have a set of hooker swap headers for sale if anyone is interested. they've had a rough life and will need some fixing. i have $125 in them, that's what i'd like out of them.

 

are they already made to fit? any pics? droptop406@sbcglobal.net

 

pm sent jstoltz

 

Did not see, but does the factory drive shaft and trans x member work with the swap?

 

if you are keeping the 700r4 it will. The tranny probably won't last long. If you are swapping to a th400 or 350 then no.

 

T5 till i get a T56.

 

it will work with the t5 until you get the t56.

 

T56 uses the same DS.

 

but not x member and if you are going through all the trouble of doing the swap in the first place I would get a good driveshaft.unless you have a 3 rivers driveshaft in there then keep it in if it will fit

 

Yea, i am going to use the sphon trans crossmember/tq arm combo when i do the T56. And the DS will be something to wait on till i get to it.

 

i know your getting a t56. but you do know the standerd t5 has about 75 parts in them and if you ever mat that thing in 1st gear yours will have a 1000 !! ha ha ha

 

Incorrect, radials and stock clutches make theese things live, i have tested this myself

 

you are gona have a scatter sheild right? you know ,so when stock clutch gives up the ghost you dont loose any toes..... was that me or my dad talking?....i'm starting to sound like dad; someone shoot me

 

oh by the way,has anyone desided which bb header is the best yet?