I had to install a engine side bracket for the z-bar mount. See in the picture it stands off almost an inch or so at it's furthest point. Well .. the back side of the header hugs this area tight so now I cannot bolt up the back of the header because it does not sit flush on the head. It needs to swing in more. On the header between the 2 yellow lines is where it is having clearance issues. There seems to be a big enough cap between to two pipes to push the #7 having issues back against the #8. However, these are some tough pipes. I was thinking it may be easier to cut the pipe on the green line .. rotate it up against the #8 and reweld it. I took it to the guy that did my dual exhaust and he said he didn't want to mess with it. Any ideas? Hawkco ... maybe you can ask you dad what he thinks. The muffler guy said to possibly heat it up and put it on a vice also. Any other ideas? Thanks ..
how about some port spacers ? to move the headers away from the head .....what ever there called not sure where to get them but i know i have seen them..if you have another et of 302 headers could cut them from them that
Dan is it possible you have wrong headers or one might have been pkgd wrong? just a thought, if you can't find anyone to cut and weld then let me know and I'll call a welder friend of mine who also drag races and fabricates all kinds of things and he is very good at welding. wayne
What brand are these. If they are the hedman elites they use much thicker 14 gauge metal for pipes etc.........get you a non elite set and see if they fit then.
From my conversation with Dan, earlier today, those are Hooker headers. They worked perfectly on this car before he replaced the engine. I believe the problem is in how the z-bar pivot ball had to mount on this '94 model 5.0 versus his old 302 block. He has a z-bar fitment problem now. I believe it really wants to know if these headers can be modified to work and have good flow in all the tubes. Or... It could be I dreamed that conversation and I'm talking through my hat.
I fought the car and the car won! I took the driver side header out ... bracket out. Banged in the headers a little ... and grinded off the corner of the bracket. Now I can bolt up the header without interferece ... Got it all back together, installed the z-bar and was ready to finish installing the headers but noticed z-bar was slightly scraping the header ... So ... took out the header again and took out lower z-bar half ... finessed the header just a bit and grinded on the z-bar ... Now the car put up it's dukes. First I had a bear getting the bracket, z-bar and header back in ... of course it just slid in the first time. Finally get it in .. and the lower half of the z-bar is stuck over the top of the upper half .. not way wrangle them in place ... out comes the header, get the z-bar right and put it back together. Oh crap .. the frame side half of the z-bar fell off the bracket. Off comes the header and z-bar and mount. I put the frame side back on ... put it all back together and now the bolt hole will not line up on the frame side z-bar half and the engine side z-bar half! AHHHHHHHHH ... I had just bolted them and they aligned 2 hours ago and now its off by almost 1/4 inch! I worked on this car for over 8 hours today ... 7 hours of it pulling the driver side header in and out and screwing around with the z-bar. My only thought on the alingment is that before I put the frame side z-bar back on after it fell off I packed in some grease. Perhaps it is now causing compression and not letting it move back that 1/4 inch I need for alignment. I have waved the white flag for today. I am frustrated, dirty, sweaty and in a very bad mood! I was so happy when I finally got the header and z-bar in I did put the drive shaft back in and hook the shifter back up to the tranny ... other than that I wasted the day on the z-bar and header. Tomorrow I am gonna pull it out again and install the z-bar without the header so I can figure out what is going on with the spacing issue.
I believe I'd put the header on first and then see how much trouble it would be to modifiy the Z bar bracket. Unless you are a excelent welder, I wouldn't even think about trying to cut and reweld the headers. Too easy to ruin a good set of headers because they might warp when you start appling that much heat to them. The Z bar, on the other hand, could be cut and moved a little without too much trouble. As long as it works in a parrellell plane and is not cocked or binding it should be okay. The linkage might have to be changed a little to get thr right length. Just my , somebody else may have a better idea.
The problem wasn't with the z-bar ... it was with the aftermarket bracket that must be used to allow the engine side z-bar to mount on the block. Keep in mind everything worked like a charm on my 302 ... The only difference now is the aftermarket bracket is being used ...
You posted while I was typing my thoughts on the situation............I feel your pain............sometimes the best thing is to walk away for a while. When you start back on it, it will probably fall into place!
Dan, this may be too late and get me called a dirty name, but waht about pulling the engine back and drilling and tapping a hole for the ball...like the early model blocks. That would solve all the problems.
The current 5.0 block has no metal in that area any longer .... ain't no place to drill a hole .... I think I have the problem licked once I find out while my z-bar decided to move 1/4 inch without any good reason!
Yeah, I knew you was talking about the bracket, I was too. I figured I would rather modifiy it than the headers. A little cut here, a little grind there, One size doesn't always fit all!
Got the driver side header and z-bar installed! I ended up grinding a 1/4 inch off the frame side half of the bar to let it slide over more. I can't explain why it went in OK the first time. I was just cursing at a header bolt on the passenger side that won't go in when it started raining ... taking a break to chill out ..
