I have had a lose header before. By the same token, I have had exhaust
manifold bolts back out before too. AMC's mostly.

   Collectors that are too low and scrape the ground are not good. Neither
are sprak plugs that become a nightmare to change. Yet my 84 Chevy 1/2 Ton
with the stock 305, with all the stock emmissions controls, and the  stock
exhaust manifolds is a nightmare to change plugs on.

   I have thought about having chevy exhaust manifolds extrude honed
before. For cars where a stock look is desired. Unlike T/A's, Different
years of Chevy's require diffrent types of exhaust manifolds. Some of them
have pretty small ports, and are restictive.

   Some time in the next month Im going to put a Set of Headers on my 77
Chevy 1/2 ton. I paid $75 for the truck. It's missing a good number of
parts, including ehaust manifolds. A buddy of mine parted out a 79 Chevy
truck and gave me the hooker headers that were on it.
The 305 that's under the hood of  that truck is "supposed" to be good, Ill
find out soon. If not the new spring packs with 9 leafs each on the rear end
were worth the $75.
Charles

snip....

Joe, I know you wouldn't run headers on your cars since you restore them but
some of us do (and reduce the value of our cars by installing them). But
plugs and wires aren't an issue with headers on a Pontiac engine due to the
low exhaust runners. As far as the rest, you get what you pay for. A cheap
set of headers will look bad and have clearance and leak issues. A quality
set of headers ($600 - $850) will fit right, not leak and not loosen up. I
get a lot of compliments on the ceramic coated headers in the T/A, you can
barely see them since they are so low in the engine bay but they get noticed
anyway. No clearance issues at all on my 4 speed car and they fit up close
to the floorboards. They weren't cheap but they were definitely worth it.

I like the long tube header sound. ;^)

Uhhhh.....to a point. In a low horsepower application, the RAIII manifolds
are a nice alternative to headers. Getting a good bend from the manifolds to
the exhuast pipes takes a bit of work to get them to tuck up under the car.
But at some point as horsepower increases, the manifolds will become more
restrictive than a properly sized set of long tube headers.

What I hate is people that install headers on a 4 speed car and throw the
backdrive rod away. Those things arre impossible to find.

Dave