Cracked exhaust manifold-what should I do?

[RickT]

New poster here and also a new 74 corvette owner. I just bought the car and really don't know a whole lot about it. It's the L-82 350 that they tell me was rebuilt to stock less than 10,000 miles ago. I can not verify this though. Anyways the 1st thing I found was that the pass. side exhaust manifold(stock manifold) has a leak/crack in it so I was thinking about putting some headers on. I don't want to spend a whole lot on headers since I have a bunch of other stuff to do. So my question is what is the best cheap set of headers that I should go with? I do want to build more power than stock but not anything crazy right now so I figured that headers would be the best place to start since the manifold is cracked anyways and needs to be replaced.The vin # has a T in it if that matters any.

Also,is there a kit to rebuild the door handles? The driver side will not open from the outside. The pass side does open but not like it should.

Thanks
Rick

 

[TimAT]

It could be the donut gasket between the manifold and the pipe. Common place for a leak. You really need to find eactly where it's leaking before you get into spending the bucks for headers or a manifold The donut will be a $25 fix at the local muffler shop more or less. IF you're going to want to do headers, first make sure Oklahoma dosen't have any emission certification requirements that headers might make your car fail. I doubt they do, but it'd sure upset the wagon to put headers on and then find out you can't get tags.

The door handles are pretty easy to find. Ecklers', Rik's Corvette, The Last Detail, Volunteer Vette, just to name a few. Lots more out there. Most of them will even have rebuild kits.

 

[RickT]

Thanks for responding. Oklahoma does not have any inspections,they did away with them about 5 yrs. ago. I also want headers for the extra Hp they supposed to give. I see that they should add 15-25 extra HP.

But,it could be the donut as I was feeling around down there right after I started the car and could feel air coming out above that area. But,I also see a spot on the manifold where it looks like someone did a repair,some type of weld stuff,maybe JB weld.


Summit Racing has some headers for around $90.00 on ebay. They are the black painted ones. Has anyone tried these? Or I see some others in the $200.00 price range. What should I be looking for in headers?

BTW Tim,I am an Mizzou Tiger die hard fan!

Rick

 

[TimAT]

I'd suggest spending the extra cash and getting a big name header- Hooker or Hedman come to mind- the wall thinkness of the tube will be directly proportional to how long they last and how well they perform. the black paint they put on at when they make the headers is just to keep them from rusting. 90% (at least) of it will burn off at the first start. Again, spend the cash and get either ceramic or Jet-Hot coated. The coating is supposed to improve the flow, but for sure it protects the tubes.

If you're looking at performance, (or adding a cam, good heads, and an intake), I'd go with the biggest primary tubes you can find. Let it breathe as freely as possible. You may not use the capacity right now, but if you do any add-on later, you'll be glad you did.