Fender well headers

[craveman85]

Any of you guys have any input on fender well headers? In particular maybe small block Ford ones? Was thinking of running a set of the advance adapters ones with the bolt on collector mufflers.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

True 'headers', really increase under the hood temps.
You would do well to thing about adding some venting.
LG

 

[craveman85]

I could vent. Was planning on wrapping them though which may be enough.

 

[JohnKcj5]

I installed a set.
Wrap your starter. It will probably get heat soaked and give you trouble on hot starts. Hope you have something other than bare floor boards such as I do. In summer, the floor board gets hot enough over the muffler that it heats your shoe up. I had to cut a bit on the inside of the fenders. You can't see it unless you look up into the fender well. It was a pain in the arse shoehorning them in. I'd remove the fenders if I were you. I had to re-calibrate the carb. You'll probably be running lean. I had Purple Hornies for a couple of years. They look cool pointing outwards, but I found you also get more exhaust fumes in the cab versus downward pipes. I've since removed the Purple Hornies because they started making my ears bleed. I now have FlowMasters and down pointing pipes. Not nearly as noisy, but still have a good note.

In hind sight, I probably wouldn't do this again. I still have the stock manifolds and may one day just run the exhaust out the back.

 

[craveman85]

Luckily the whole scrambler is in pieces and I'm swapping the whole drivetrain so I'll be tuning a carb anyways. Got a low mile 5.0 from a 96 explorer with gt40 heads. I pulled the heads to check wear and it still looks new inside. The explorer had 64000 on it which is conveniently within 500 of what my Jeep has on it. If the headers are going outside the frame rails they shouldn't be anywhere near the starter should they? I may run an exhaust pipe with a bullet type muffler and turn out in front of the rear wheels.

 

[jp360cj]

I've been running fenderwell headers and side pipes on my '7 since I swapped in the 360 over 10 years ago. I the look and they sound great, but are loud (I'm running 4wd Hardware glass pack side pipe kit). Floorboard gets very hot, but a set of cheap rubber floor mats help a lot. i do get some exhaust smell, especially while sitting.

Near the top of my to-do list right now is running the exhaust out the back. For the past few years, I drive it about 3 hrs to the beach every year, and while the pipes sound great, the noise does get old. And maybe it's just me getting older, but the loudness has gotten really annoying on trail rides.

 

[JohnKcj5]

Luckily the whole scrambler is in pieces and I'm swapping the whole drivetrain so I'll be tuning a carb anyways. Got a low mile 5.0 from a 96 explorer with gt40 heads. I pulled the heads to check wear and it still looks new inside. The explorer had 64000 on it which is conveniently within 500 of what my Jeep has on it. If the headers are going outside the frame rails they shouldn't be anywhere near the starter should they? I may run an exhaust pipe with a bullet type muffler and turn out in front of the rear wheels.

Headers create a lot of under the hood heat. It's not just a jeep thing. I've witnessed it on an old Firebird my brother had back in the day. I'm saying that if you have trouble starting a 'hot' engine, try wrapping the starter.

I'm with jp360 on this one. I'll end up going straight out the back at some point. Expensive lesson learned......

 

[mriplaybass]

Had my exhaust going straight out the back originally. Thought I was going to be asphyxiated! The fumes came right up the back end and into the cab. Redid it and made the pipes come out behind the rear wheels at a 45° angle, problem solved.

 

[craveman85]

I'd really like the whole exhaust inside the frame but nobody makes the headers for that with the 302 in a cj. I suppose if I get far enough along I could weld up my own but we'll see if I have the ambition when I get that far. I don't really like shorty headers much.

 

[Tinman22]

Advanced adapters has a set of inside frame rail headers for ls swaps at morris 4x4 they are 280.00 bucks. Find an old set of ford headers for any application on craigslist for 50 bucks wack the tubes. Ls engines have the same spacing as sbf 302 engines. Wack the tubes off of the shiny new ls headers and weld em up viola inside frame 302 headers for less than 350.00 dooolaars.