COMET CENTRAL

Well, I've pretty much decided to put the original 390 "S" motor back in my '67, instead of the 4V Cleveland I had planned on, saving the Cleveland for my future '65 some day.

Anyhow, I'm surprised at the price on headers on the usual online vendors...they're much prouder of them than the small block headers I was looking at for the Cleveland.

Anyhow, any recommendations on Brands or Vendors? BTW, I'm cutting out the oe shock-towers and putting a Rod & Custom coil-over front suspension in it so I'll have a bunch more room to fit them in.

Tks!

I love my FPA's. The others all drag the pavement. And if you're running the GT heads you need the headers made for them. They are not cheap but they are great. Here is a clip I made after installing mine.

http://youtu.be/Iu4hz0HkgE4

GREAT job,STACY,,,looks good !!!!! POP

Lip Ripper wrote:I love my FPA's. The others all drag the pavement. And if you're running the GT heads you need the headers made for them. They are not cheap but they are great. Here is a clip I made after installing mine.

http://youtu.be/Iu4hz0HkgE4

You definitely have a very clean car! I looked at the FPA website at the headers they don't list a price? If you don't mind how much are they?

You will most likely need headers made for that front suspension swap,along with an oil pan made for an FE to clear the crossmember and steering rack! ROY.

That's a sweet ride 'Ripper, I love your car.

Now you have me wondering if I have GT heads or not? I had them rebuilt last year with new springs, Valve guides, and hardened seats & then ground the valves. I haven't installed the heads on the motor yet (motor's still in pieces) as I put it on hold after I got the Cleveland and started rebuilding it.

How do yo tell if they're 390 GT heads? It is an "S" code car and my assumption is that motor is original.

Jd

Thanks for the compliments and Roy those are good points.

The ceramic coated headers are around $900 shipped I think. Stan at FPA can answer the questions Roy posed.

The GT heads have a lowered exhaust port on the front and rear of the heads. If you take a straight edge across the top bolt holes of the exhaust ports the front and rear port bolt holes will be lower than the two in the middle by about a quarter inch.

Lip Ripper wrote:Thanks for the compliments and Roy those are good points.

The ceramic coated headers at we around $900 shipped I think. Stan at FPA can answer the questions Roy posed.

The GT heads have a lowered exhaust port on the front and rear of the heads. If you take a straight edge across the top bolt holes of the exhaust ports the front and rear port bolt holes will be lower than the two in the middle by about a quarter inch.

Thank you. Not bad considering they are already ceramic coated. Is the fit good? Do you have pics of that? I will be installing with a 4sp the Web site said there would be some mods to the linkage.

The fit is very very good. I did have to take the cut off wheel and cut a very small relief on the side of one torque box flange. You know, the little wings that stick out to the side on the bottom. Nothing structural. I am running the C6. I have read that it is easier to install them on the engine then drop it in. They hug the engine that tight. I just looked and I don't have any pictures of them in the car. It would be hard to see them anyway.

Thanks. I do have a set of the stock GT exh and the 428 cj exh just never liked how the tube headers hung down so low as my car is very low. Now I'm considering the FPA headers.

I have FPA's in my 1966 Fairlane/390 (similar to 1966=-67 Comets). The FPA's fit nice except the heat will get to the power steering boot if you have power steering. I used the drop bracket and made a 5/8" spacer and still melted the boot. Since I like my headers more than power steering I changed over to manual steering. My car was originally a C6 and the headers fit great. In 2008 I switched to a toploader 4 speed with a Lakewood scattershield and they FPA's still fit great. I use a OEM starter as well. They were designed to fit OEM starters but sometimes you'll find one that is a little big. I bought one from NAPA and it was a bit too big. Had my original starter rebuilt and fits like a charm.




And the drop bracket and spacer I later removed.

Here is a CAD drawing I made of the 4 speed linkage. It may be hard to see but on the 2nd from left image you can see the end of the z-bar is in red line. I cut off 7/16" as it was hitting one header tube. I relocated the pin by drilling a new hole and plug welded the pin. It didn't change the ratio of the z-bar too much and did not affect operation.

Thanks for the input. It's funny I like my power steering we'll see what happens there.

I don't have a boot on mine.

Lip Ripper wrote:I don't have a boot on mine.

I ran mine without the boot after it melted but eventually the heat on the rod affected the seal in the ram cylinder and it started to leak. Then it was time for manual steering.