351W shorty headres? BC's or Bronco Hut?

[Timmy390]

After spending 10 plus hours (not exaggerating) on my unknown brand name long tube headers (were on the rig when I bought it and worked fine on the 302) just will not work on my 351W. Oh they bolt up just fine but the clutch linkage is a NO GO. I've beat, banged and bent (and have the blood on my shop floor to prove it) yet I'm no closer to making it work than when I started. Time to cut my loses and buy headers and more forward with the project.

So the question is, Who's shorty headers (BC's or Bronco Hut) are the best and why? I'm doing a NV3550 or ZF conversion as my next project

Is there another shorty option that I don't know about?

Tim

 

[vintage bronco]

Wild Horse makes a nice quality set I have a brand new set of Ceramic coated WH Shorties I will sell that will save you some dollars BRAND NEW never installed http://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/Shorty_Headers_Ceramic_Coated_Starter_Tubes_Stock_PR

 

[Timmy390]

Do the WH headers work with a 351W and clutch linkage? I looked at them but the description says nothing of using them with a 351W.

Tim

 

[Dlish]

There is a comment on the WH site about the potential to have to modify theirs to get them to work with a 351.

I have a set of BC headers…freaking works of art. My wife thought I was crazier than usual the day they arrived…the headers were sitting on the sofa with me so I could look at them every few minutes.

That said, I have never seen the bronco hut ones, but my biased opinion says you will not be disappointed with BC.

 

[greatguy57078]

Hooker makes a set that drops down right in front of the firewall, and I have them on my 351w.

 

[stus70brc]

Only BC's!!

 

[nvrstuk]

BC shorties are excellent quality and fit a 351W block AND a ZF. I know, I ran 'em.

The main difference btw BC's and Bronco Huts is the primary tube size or at least BH has the option of getting a 3" primary collector compared to BC's 2 1/2". For a stock 351W the smaller is just fine, you'll never notice an increase in power unless you rev it to the sky. I'd prefer the larger collector size on my stroker...I could use the extra diameter...want to trade???? : )

 

[Rocking Bronc66]

Running a set off BC's on a 351w with NV3550. Work,look and fit great.

 

[rguest3]

I have had 3 sets of BC headers all on 351Ws with NO issues what so ever. (C4, AOD and Top Loader) Excellent quality, great fit.

BC Headers have a little bit larger primary tubes than most. 2 1/4"-2 1/2" Pipes into Dual Inlet Muffler and Single 3" outlet at stock location works great and is a nice clean install.

 

[ntsqd]

Do the WH headers work with a 351W and clutch linkage? I looked at them but the description says nothing of using them with a 351W.

Tim

I have the WH shorties on a 351W sitting in my bronco. Have yet to build the rest of the exhaust system. They clear the clutch linkage, but I've yet to find a single exhaust routing option that I like. At this point it looks like it's either nearly a U-turn up and over the linkage or ovalize the tubing to squeak it between the front drive-shaft and the oil pan. I'm going to swap out the front springs anyway, so my plan is to put the front axle at full bump with the springs out and build the system to clear it there.

 

[nvrstuk]

What a pain...

Good luck

 

[Viperwolf1]

The BH shorties get real tight (like touching) to the rear corner of the passenger inner fender at the collector flange on a 351W. It would actually be very easy to modify that corner of the inner fender, which I may end up doing. I found no other issues with my 351W/4R70W combo.

 

[Timmy390]

Thanks for all the input on this. I'm going to go with the BH uncoated headers more from a budget standpoint than anything else. Coated is nice but the extra cost needs to go towards other areas of this project that's kind of gotten out of hand.

Tim

 

[Timmy390]

The BH shorties get real tight (like touching) to the rear corner of the passenger inner fender at the collector flange on a 351W. It would actually be very easy to modify that corner of the inner fender, which I may end up doing. I found no other issues with my 351W/4R70W combo.

My headers from BH came in a couple weeks back and the pass side does touch my inner fender in the rear corner but other than that they fit and will go in from the top. I'll just modify/cut the area touching which should be easy.

Found it nice they came with header bolts (1 inch) because there was no way the APR's that came with my engine kit were going to work with the thick flange they BH headers have. They also came with reducers which I wasn't expecting. They don't have O2 bungs but that's an easy add.

Overall I'm not sure you can beat the price on these things. They fit and come with everything you need to install. If they added in a set of gaskets this would be the perfect kit.

Going to coat them with VHT "flame proof" aluminum.

Tim

 

[75junebug]

I have a set of WH titainium coated shorties on my 351. No clutch linkage interferance I know of, but I did do some previous mods to the linkage to clear a set of long tubes. I did have to cut some inner fender well out of one side or the other...I don't remember which side, because I went ahead and cut both out for ventilation. They have been great so far(going on 8 years now) I like the BC ones as well, but at the time there was a long shipping delay I could not wait for. I ended up modifying BCs 2 in one exhaust kit to fit the WH headers...

 

[nvrstuk]

Sounds great!

1" bolts on iron heads might be ok but not on aluminum heads....that's only 5/8" of threads or less w/3/8" flanges and if you have lock washers holding them on even less...my .02 would be to get longer bolts to reduce the odds of a lot of work later fixing threads on spendy alum heads.

 

[Timmy390]

The bolts have a full inch of threads. The flanges are 3/8, washer and gasket are 3/32ish so you have a full 1/2 inch of threads in the head as I measure it give or take 1/32

Tim

 

[KyleQ]

I think it would be easier and money well spent just to get yourself the parts to convert the clutch to hydro. Easy to mount the MC and slave off the transmission- I've got a set of car headers that look like will fit just fine without the damn linkage in the way.

 

[Timmy390]

I think it would be easier and money well spent just to get yourself the parts to convert the clutch to hydro. Easy to mount the MC and slave off the transmission- I've got a set of car headers that look like will fit just fine without the damn linkage in the way.

That's a future project when I decide on an NV3550 or ZF conversion.

Tim

 

[KyleQ]

The time you spent bashing headers and cursing at them you would have had it converted and done with. It can be easily done for under $150 - waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than another set of headers.