Here is a pic of the collector ball flange after a few years of operation. They're out for the shortblock swap. I opened them up when I installed them, but left it without trying to get too "good". I plan on opening them up completely to the carbon marks before going back in.

 

I think I'll touch up the primaries as well. Those are FelPro 1404's, the ports are slightly smaller but don't match the corners exactly. Kind of wish I would have gasket matched the heads.

 

what were the 2055's like to get off after being in use for a while ? and do they match back up now there off. reason i ask is that my budy took his headers off last week and when he came to match them back up they were all over the place , to be fair they were not the same quality of the 2055's,.

 

They were no problem removing. I sprayed the y-pipe bolts with an AMSOIL product called MP before attempting to loosen, although I haven't removed the y-pipe from the cat yet. The headers stayed on the engine until after the engine/tranny were out. That makes removal from the engine pretty easy.

I haven't put them back on yet. I'm still putting the engine together and need to clean up the engine compartment before reinstall. To say nothing about getting the transmission back from the guy who looked that over for me.

It all should be back together in another week or so. Most likely after next weekend. Still a lot of stuff to do - I'm removing the A.I.R. system, replacing the engine mounts, adding a driveshaft loop, gasket matching the intake manifold, repainting the headers & y-pipe, etc.

 

sound a bit like my on going saga. removed my engine last week and am now in the process of finding all the parts for the rebiuld. 2055's are on my wish list to go with my Flowmaster american thunder 3" catback system , i know its not the best cat back system out there but my engine will only be pushing about 350 bhp so it will cope plus im one of the few people that seem to love the flowmaster sound ,. Did you go with the cramic coated headers if so what sort of wear has occured over the years ?. what fixing bolts did you use for the headers to head mounting points ?

 

They're not ceramic coated. I just painted them with DEI 1200 degree paint from Summit. The headers aren't bad, but the y-pipe has suffered in the 3-1/2 years of daily driving, including Colorado winters. I was thinking about shipping them off to Jet Hot during this process, probably should have done my mods and sent them by now (funds is one issue). I might still do that and eat the extra time to get it all back together.

I just used regular header bolts except where a bracket mounted to the original exhaust manifold bolt. When it goes back together, that will be the AC/PS bracket bolt, front driver's side. The rest will be regular bolts again. The Felpro gaskets seemed to hold well with a single re-tightening almost 2 years after installation.

 

sounds like the DEI paint is doing the trick. not to sure whether to go for ceramic coated or to just paint them. my mind is telling me coating but my wallet is saying go for the paint. the pictures of the carbon biuld up in your headers is interesting does that prove that its a restrictive part of the system , might sound a bit silly but that flange area must cause a little bit off a bottle neck effect, or am i talking rubbish. its nice to see what the headers look like after being in service for a few years. any regrets or would you go for them again , suppose what im really saying is would you recommend them,.

 

Do you expect any adverse effects from opening up the collector ball flange even more, and what tools are you using to open it up?

 

The guy who went through the heads for me has been building performance engines for over 30 years. His take on the primaries is a sharp edge sticking into the exhaust flow will cause turbulence that really hurts flow. So, getting it opened up to provide a smooth path would seem wise. For a street/strip motor, slightly larger primaries than the port seems to be the preferred set-up. For all-out performance, matched port & primary is the ticket.

The ball flange isn't as much as of a factor. I don't anticipate any ill effects, as long as I don't get into the sealing area. Hooker didn't think there was a problem with the original 1.9" opening, but I can't see how that is possible - unless the flow from one cylinder is always gone before the flow from the next arrives.

I used and will use again a 4" high speed angle grinder on the ball flange. The die grinder wouldn't touch it (although I didn't try a carbide bit on it).

Ceramic coating does more than protect from corrosion. It is a heat barrier, which keeps the engine compartment cooler, and keeps the exhaust flowing better.

 

Any regrets on the 2055's? I think they're the best shorties out there. I don't think they're perfect out of the box, but a little clean-up and matching, and they're great.

The other regret is not getting them ceramic coated from the beginning. But, since I'm modifying them, that probably wasn't so bad.

 

After the angle grinder. A little easier this time with them out of the car.

 

I had to use the die grinder (with carbide bit this time) to clean up the smeared metal (no pic of the smear, sorry).

They're right at 2.2" now. Should be a smooth path reducing from the ~2-1/2" collector to the ~2-1/4" down-pipe ID.

 

nice job. just got to get the buggers back on now

 

Well, I decided to bite the bullet and send them off to Jet Hot. They shipped yesterday, expect them back around July 8th. I cleaned up the ball flange a little more, welded the A.I.R. tubes shut, smoothed the tubes down on the inside of the primaries, and radiused the primary port openings to provide a smooth transition from port to primary. I decided not to go through the whole gasket matching thing, which would require welding around the tube on the back side of the flange. I went through that 2 years ago with the Hedman hedders on the 396, took more time than porting the heads. But, the Hedmans were very poorly matched, and although the 2055's aren't perfect, they aren't nearly as bad.

I'll post pics when I get back to the computer that has them on it.

 

Do you think that a dremel tool would be able to accomplish the same task (albeit obivously not as fast)? I don't have an angle grinder or a die grinder, and I would rather not have to buy one since this--and maybe some head porting later on down the line--would be the only thing I would use it for. After that, it would sit in my shed collecting dust.

How did you measure the opening, by the way?

How much did Jet-Hot charge you for the coating? Are you having the y-pipe coated as well? How does the payment process work when you have to ship your headers to them? Will Jet-Hot remove the A.I.R. tubes from the headers for an extra fee?

Sorry for all the questions 5-7. I just recently recieved my 2055s from Summit and I'd like to make sure everything is perfect before putting them on. Thanks for the help.

 

I don't have a genuine Dremel, but the Sears unit I have is pretty much inadequate for this job. Check www.harborfreight.com , search on "angle grinder", you can get a 4" or 4-1/2" pretty cheap right now. The Dremel might be able to handle the smeared metal after that. The angle grinder is handy to have around for those jobs that come up and nothing else quite does it.

Also check HF for an electric 1/4" collet electric die grinder. $30 right now. The difference between a "real" die grinder and a Dremel is night & day.

I measured the opening with a dial caliper.

Jet Hot quoted $179 for the headers plus $15/foot for the y-pipe. They are going to call after they receive them to finalize the total.

I don't know they would cut off the A.I.R. tubes for you. Best bet would be to call and ask them.

 

Guess I didn't get a very good pic. Will have to wait until they come back from Jet Hot.

Well, there is the "ugliness" shot...

 

very nice five7kid. could you post a pic of them coated please

 

2-3 working days each way ground shipping, 5 working days at Jet Hot, I expect that won't be until around July 8-11th. But, when they get back I'll get some photos.

 

Do you have to use the shorty sparkplugs with the 2055s?

 

I'm been using Accel 276S plugs. I had them around, they work, no reason to try to find something else that works.

 

Have the 2055's with standard AC/Delco in it.....

 

i just got done puting spark plugs in for the first time with my new 2055s, and wow. takes a 16mm open end wrench and spark plug socket. each ones needs a different way to get to it haha.

 

have a "special spark plug wrench" A socket cut down with a piece of a screwdriver shank welded to it as a handle

Works great.....

 

Got another question for you five7kid. Are you getting tired of me yet?

I remember in a previous post you made in regards to the AIR tubes on the 2055's, you mentioned that you used two brass elbows and a 4" peice of piping to fix the problem of the driver's side air check valve facing the wrong direction. Where'd you get the elbows, what size were they, and do you have any pictures? I can't seem to visualize this solution in my head because it seems like the only way to do this would be to use some kind of flexible line (the original piping would be in the way, or at least from how I am imagining it). Can you explain how you accomplished this?

I'm uncertain of whether or not I am going to keep the AIR pipes on the headers or not. I don't have emissions testing in my area but I'd rather not contribute to the steadily-increasing air pollution, either. The Catco cat I just ordered also has a fitting for the AIR line too... I'm not sure how capping off the AIR line would affect the convertor but I'd rather be safe then sorry.

By the way, if I were to remove the AIR injection system entirely from my engine, would it clean up the engine bay noticeably? Right now, it's hard to distinugish any part of the engine amidst the dozens of vacuum lines that are laying everywhere.

Thanks again for your assistance.

 

I picked up the brass fittings from Ace Hardware. I'm not good with pipe sizes, I just took a check valve with me and test fitted it to the brass pieces.

 

Got the headers & y-pipe back today. It appears they dropped the passenger side on the ball flange before coating. Now I've got to try to figure out what to do about it.

 

Y-pipe. They noted "very rusty (y-pipe)" on the invoice. It didn't come out all smooth & polished (surface pitting), but that's what you should expect for used, and it shouldn't be a problem endurance-wise.

 

A pic of the primaries with slight port matching (edge smoothing, really).

 

headers look great mate. its a shame that they dropped them though. is there a danger of the coating cracking if you try and manipulate the dent out ?

 

That's what I'm going to discuss with them when I call. They had a piece of wire holding the y-pipe flanges up, when I untwisted the wires, the coating flaked right off. But, the wire probably wasn't "prepped" for coating.

 

Talked to Jet Hot customer service. They offered to pick them up and try to fix it. Also said it may have been dropped after coating. I asked if I could try to fix it for the sake of time, they said that would be fine. If the coating gets damaged in the process, they'll take it back and recoat. But, they didn't think it would be damaged.

 

After straightening using the back side of the head of a big prybar and 1 pound ballpeen. The coating appears to be okay.

 

i definatly regret not getting mine coated when i got them, but like fivekid, i opened my collectors up all the way, we installed, checked the lineup, cut absolutly as much as possible off. It was such a painless mod, i think everyone should do it. Thats a really good price for getting everything coated, thats something for me to think about this winter .. my dad welded my air tubes up, works great... also im using the gasket that came with the kit, and the header bolts, they held up just fine and im pushing hp in the 400's.. only problem i had was the ypipe coming loose formone of the headers a few months after i installed them, but nothing a tightening wont fix.. hooker 2055 + hooker catback + no cats sounds so godly behind a nice engine, i love it.

 

A couple of months ago someone asked me if the y-pipe hit the frame by the A-arm. I responded, no, it didn't, plenty of clearance.

Not so now. With new poly engine mounts, I had to cut off the corner of the passenger side rear a-arm mount box. Didn't take much, high speed pneumatic cut off wheel made quick work of it. But, now the 3" portion of the y-pipe hits the Spohn SFC as well. The mounts appear to have shifted the engine up and to the right.

I'm going to try to modify the SFC for clearance. Not particularly looking forward to that.