Fred K.-rams horn comparison pics.

[ChampTrucking]

Top pic is a suggested Chevy 2/Nova drivers side rams horn with a curved exit.GM part # 3790729. I have one NOS in front of me.$50 bucks if anyone needs it.

I hope you can see that the dump is pointed directly at the steering arm attached to the steering box.The arm is in the position that it would be in with the wheels pointed straight.If you were turning Right the arm would be even more forward.There is no way that this type rams horn manifold will work.

Here is a proper 2 inch outlet rams horn manifold with the alternator mount on it.

The alternator mount is useless on this side because the drivers side fender mounted battery will be in the way.Chevybakers had the mount on the passenger side IIRC. See how the exit points straight down? The exhaust pipe needs to immediately point toward the oil pan to clear the reach rod in its forward (right turn) position. This motor the manifolds are hung on is a 65 283 sitting in my 63 Wagonaire project hopelessly stalled for winter. Hope this explains fitting exhaust on this swap.

Here is a pic of the Hooker block hugger on my 61 Lark.

See how close it is to the steering box? You can also see how it tucks in toward the oil pan at its collector.
In this pic,you can barely see the reach rod going forward,but with the small dimple in the exhaust pipe it only touches the pipe on full lock right turns.Sorry I can't get it in the air for a better view.

[ChampTrucking]

Thanks for the offer Mike. That is not what is stalling my project,just time and money!

[fred k.]

I already have ran an exhaust with block huggers before the previous post,And it worked fine for the motor I had with the old camel hump heads, but when I changed the motor I was looking to see if anybody had any betters ideas than myself, Due to the only things I figured would work was eather block huggers or fender well headers and I was right then the next problem started when I decided to build my own fenderwell headers and I was running into porting issues,But with futher investagation I found a gasket that works to solve the problem. thanks for your help.

fred

[rickhmn]

Currently working my way thru a couple of books on engine building theory. One of them showed flow charts for reworked rams horns and block huggers and the rams horns outflowed the block huggers. It did not state the brand of block huggers and I'm sure there is a huge variation. Also, the work on the rams horns would be really difficult to do without some pretty sophisticated equipment. They did flow a set of polished and matched 2" and they were pretty close in terms of flow #'s and estimated to cost 5-8 hp on a 350. One post said 2.5" were a no go. can anyone confirm this? If so I will begin work on my 2" set to use till someone can figure out a fenderwell set that will work. One very interesting point that both sources agreed one was that a crossover typically helps power, particularly at lower rpms, and never hurts. Also had some very good stuff re anti reversion chambers, aka resonators, that made a lot of sense. The one book talked about collector length being more critical than runner length on headers but then never gave formulas for getting the right length. Anyone have one?

[fred k.]

A trick I was taught when I was young is after installing your exhaust paint the bottom of the pipes with in the first couple of feet and where the paint stops burring off that is where you install your cross over, dumps,ect. this is susposed to tune your headers But the down fall is if you ever change your cam you will need to cut out what you have done and start over,By the way what books are you using for your reserch? thanks .

fred