Reply to "Headers"

> I've done a lot of research on this board and Pat Mical's headers and those
> made by PIM seem to be the most recommended, but there is an approximately
> $900 difference between them.

Pat Mical's headers are meant more for high horsepower engines. They'd
be overkill and might even lose power on a stock engine due to the primary
pipe sizing. I've not tested the PIM system as they were not interested in
having it dyno tested when I inquired.

> Who makes the best headers for a fairly stock 1974 351 Cleveland?

In my dyno testing on a street performance 351C (not stock, makes 400 to
450 HP depending upon the heads and intake being tested), the Euro GTS
headers have been the best of the 4-into-1 style headers on iron 4V heads
but the mufflers are, by far, the choke point. The Euro GTS mufflers lost
50 HP compared to an efficient muffler like a Magnaflow and the stock ANSA's
are worse. The first set of Magnaflow's we tested were 3" single inlet/outlet
which were as good as open pipes. I also recently tested a pair of MagnaFlow
single 2.5" inlet, dual 2.5" outlet, polished stainless steel (p/n 14218,
5" thick, 8" wide, 14" case length, 20" overall) mufflers on my 569 HP street
403C and they were only down a few HP to open pipes.

I have a set of Wilkinson's new stainless headers and mufflers waiting to be
tested on a street 408C with TFS 2V heads (225cc CNC ported versions). While
Wilkinson's system is advertised as Euro GTS, the headers have a conventional
collector as opposed to the original Euro GTS headers which have a tri-y
collector. It's the mufflers that have the Euro GTS look. Initial impressions
are good but we'll see what the dyno says. The short block is assembled and
the heads just came in. They were flow benched yesterday and I should have the
cam designed today so the engine should be on the dyno in the relatively near
future.

Dan Jones