flowtech hedders suck in 78-87 olds w/260-403 v-8

Im at my wits end here guys......just please someone else tell me they've had problems with hedders on their 78-87 w/olds motors g-bodys. First the driver side collector is pointing right at my tranny, second, they wont fit with my hurst floor shifter the tranny shift bracket hits the hedder collector tube and third there isnt a starter on the face of this planet that will fit with them without cutting, dimpling, and chopping. And yes i have tried a tilton style starter, a hitachi, and even a nippondenso style with multiple clocking posisions and none of them fit with theese hedders. ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

[4Speeds4Ever]

Funny...mine work awesome, but with a SBC...

figures cause its a chevy. Leave it to me to wanna go olds power and be different around town here. Yeah, im paying for it now.

[lostsheep]

you try a 307 starter?

[Psyco Diver 69]

Flowtechs are WELL KNOWN for not fitting. You should have asked before buying them. A few of us think their jig is Fed up cause almost everyone complains of the same exact problems like your having. Why they don't fix it I don't know

[Ryan Michelotti]

FlowTechs are about the BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY.

Weak, thin flanges.
Poorly designed primaries.
Primaries hit my Oil Pan.
Primaries hit my Starter.

307 Starters (12mo warr., NOT lifetime warr.) will work. But you will hate it.

Buy the Hedman Elite's.

Ryan

huh, guess i need to take a closer look at mine. ive used them on a 350 sbo and 2x 307's with no complaints. ive got m on my 307 regal and 350sbc cutlass right now. i needed a shorter oil filter on the sbo's but that was it. ive got one of those cheap chrome floor shifters from pep boys in there and its fine. it was a pita trying to put the startr and header on at the same time but nothing a little patince couldnt handle

[Seanmay1]

im going to be getting my headers soon, i will not be getting flowtechs, either go with the heddman elites or the hooker super comps from what i have been told, you should stick your flowtechs on ebay and try to get your money back man

ive got super comps on my 305 grand prix. i didnt put them on but they look alot easier with more clearence. there in 2 pieces and the rear 2 primaris on each side wrap on the outside of the frame so they will cut down on your steering clearence very slightly. you also have to noch out a little bit of the inner plastic wheel well. no biggie. thy get really hot really quick though, idk if thats good or bad or just the way that crappy 305 likes to run.

I had the same pro. w/ headman & flowtech.I finally found some one locally to build them for me.expense,but fix is great.Never found ones that i could buy & use w/out a lot of cuttin & ext.Just a G-BODY thing!!!!!!!

One other thing,if i had it to do again,I would do some work on the org. manifolds-----There is a company that does this w/ big blocks,but they have nothing for small blocks.They after reworking the org. manifolds ,they flow at about 90% of what headers do.One problem w/ headers that no-one is mentionig is tuning.I am still having problems trying to get it tuned,small town w/ no experts & i am not a good tuner!!!!!Also the heat under the hood becomes a problem.

[Seanmay1]

use header wrap

[DoubleV]

Header fitment problems in a G-Body? I don't beleive it!

you should try em on a maverick sometime lol

[fireant2178]

only problem i had on my heddmans was dimpling the one of the primaries on the driver side to clear the upper a arm

[punk_afi16]

ive got a brand new set of flow techs, i never even put them on, but i also have a set of headmans that were on a 307 in a grand prix, they fit that pretty good and they look identicle to my flow techs, so maybe its just some(or most) flowtechs that dont fit right, but mine look like they will.

get some fender dump 55 chevy headers... they look sweet..lol

[wagon]

my sbc flowtechs are don't fit and even with the ceramic coating they were rusty in 6 months.

We had a heck of a time putting flow techs in on my 79, good thing the engine wasn't bolted down yet, we had to lift it up a couple times. I bought a mini starter but it won't fit, my factory 350 starter fit without a problem though. Other than that, I didn't have problems getting them all set, once they were bolted up they dumped right out to my existing pipes. I got just standard ones with black heat paint... yeah some kind of paint, 4 minutes into break-in of the engine and smoke was just pouring off the pipes as the paint burned, pretty bad smell too.

[chromefeet_withbeat]

well, the black paint on cheapo headers like the flowtechs isn't supposed to last. they just paint it to prevent the headers from rusting and corroding when being shipped/stored, supposedly.

but in general, all this bad stuff about flowtech headers here is what i've heard too. i bought em since they were cheap and when i took em to my exhaust shop to have em installed on my el camino, they REFUSED! to install them! they said they were so cheap with such garbage flanges that they didn't wanna bother. if you want to get cheap headers, (under 200) go with dynomax

Originally Posted by chromefeet_withbeat

well, the black paint on cheapo headers like the flowtechs isn't supposed to last. they just paint it to prevent the headers from rusting and corroding when being shipped/stored, supposedly.

that paint compleatly burns off with in minutes of starting it up for the first time. but if you did plan on paintint them you need to get that crap off first

[FE3X CLONE]

Originally Posted by chromefeet_withbeat

if you want to get cheap headers, (under 200) go with dynomax

I've had the same problem with Dynomax's crappy headers that everyone is talking about with the Flowtech's.

Originally Posted by cutsupreme

you should try em on a maverick sometime lol

no thanks ill pass on that after i tried it on a 351C in my 76 mustang 2....i almost shot myself in the head after that one lmao

thanks guys for all the help, now i know im not crazy

use bbq paint it will last and wont burn off. i have used it alot for exhaust. header tape holds condensationa dn it take like 5 hours to burn off the initial coating too.