Can you swap and engine in/out with shorty headers on?

 

You should be able to. It's not much different than stock manifolds.

 

I've heard people say you can't but I can't back that up. I've pulled engines out and reinstalled them with edelbrock headers on it. May be some headers clear and others don't? And yes the car i changed the motor on had AC.

 

Yup, some you can and some you can't; they can be too wide to fit down in between various things like, say, the AC evap hsg on the one side, and the steering column on the other.

There's no real reason to do that though. No benefit to be gained even if it's "possible". They're SO EEEEEEEEEEEEZIE to bolt up once the motor is in, there's no reason to tempt fate. Just do it the way that's KNOWN 100% TO WORK... lay the headers in the chassis, drop the motor in, put in the header bolts.

 

I wish mine was that easy. My driver side header, I can push up from the bottom providing the car is up on jack stands. My passenger side header goes in one tube at a time like a little jigsaw puzzle. Once all 4 tubes are in place and loosely bolted to the head, the slip on collector is installed then the header bolts can be tightened.

The joys of a BBC with 2-1/4" primary tube headers.

I didn't think shorty headers would be an issue since the outlet is normally in the same position as OEM manifolds for the Y-pipe to attach to. If you can pull the engine with OEM manifolds then you should be able to do it with shorty headers. I guess it all depends on the exact design of the shorty header.

 

Just pulled the engine out of a 87 camaro with the hooker shorties still installed. Came right out.

 

Hooker 2055HKR installed both with just the engine going in (transmission still in car), and engine and tranny together. Wasn't a problem.

Of course, the Y-pipe wasn't installed until after the engine was in...