Ordered exhaust

[Mustangmike]

Thanks for the recommendation. The Ultra Elite's are close to $500 and there standard duty are in the mid $200's. My budget would be leaning closer to the standard duty. Any thoughts?

[1969_Mach1]

In my experience with headers, at the $200 price category, the header is most often going to problematic. If not ceramic coated they will rust very quickly. I haven't seen a paint of any type hold up on headers. Worse is usually the cylinder head flanges are only 1/4" thick mild steel, thus, not rigid enough causing exhaust leaks. They also usually have 16 or 18 ga. tubes which are a little too thin and will rust through faster. One good point is Hedman uses a ball and socket collector on both of those headers lines. Maybe you can cut corners elsewhere to spend a little more on the headers.

FYI: Do not break in a new motor with ceramic coated headers iinstalled. During the break in period the motor usually runs hotter and often will burn off the ceramic coating. Primarily during that initial 20-30 minutes of run time to brake in the cam etc. I learned this the hard way. Fortunately in your situation the motor is already broke in so that will not be an issue.

I'd say if these standard duty headers had 3/8" thick flanges at the heads, maybe you can tolerate rust development on them and use them until any pin holes rust through. They'll most likely perform better than the Tri-y's on your motor.