Vortec 5.7 Haaders or Stock

[capps]

I installed a 97 Vortec 350 in my 84 Suburban. The exhaust bolts on the manifolds were sheared off. I attempted to drill them out without success. I was looking at installing some shorty headers, but since the 84 frame is narrower than the 97, I was not sure if they would fit. The stock manifold has a heat shield that only misses the frame by about 1/8 of an inch. Has anyone used headers with this engine swap? Did they fit? Does the frame need to be ground down a little for clearance? Should I just go back stock since it fits?

 

[RootBreaker]

not sure if I will be too much help but I put 1996 tahoe vortec heads on my 1991 caprice police motor in my 1978 chevy truck... TRUE REDNECK TRUCK!!!


oh yeah... I put full tube headers in.... and have plenty of room...

 

[fortcollinsram]

just use headers for the model of truck you have...All SBC's had the same exhaust bolt pattern on the head (except LS-series motors)... In other words headers designed for an 84 suburban will bolt right to that motor no problem...


I am a big fan of Thorley headers as that is what I hav eon my 454 and they fit GREAT

 

[sweetk30]

gm has a big problem with the bolts holding the manifolds on to the heads breaking off in the head flush. i have on many many times removed them with a neat trick.

remove manifolds. clean areas were bolts broken. gram a nut ( 3/8 bolt then 3/8 nut and so on) welder and oxy/act tourch with brazing tip for fine control of heat. hold nut on broken bolt in head. then plug weld the nut to the bolt starting on the bolt then work in to the nut. let cool. then heat area of head up in a circular pattern. cool off with cold water to shock the metal. then try to remove the broken bolt with the welded on nut as your new head on the bolt.

some times thay only need 1 nut welded on but others need 2 or more tryes at this. i have found it much easyer than drill and tap. also you have 99.9% less chance of screwing up the hole and threads in the head of the motor. then when all removed i get new bolts from hardware store as who wants to install same dealer problem matic bolts back in. also run a tap in the head holes to clean out the junk build up.

i saved a guys truck a few weeks ago with this. he was ready to pull the heads and send out to machine shop to have them drilled out and taped. i charged him book time for manifold replacement as i removed them and reinstalled them. but i only charged him 1 extra hr to do this trick to his heads on the motor and saved him a big bill and down time of 3-5 days. all done in 3-4 hrs in shop.

he upgraded at the same time to gibson shorty headers that bolt in inplace of cast manifolds. he loves them. he feels a little more bottom end power.

 

[beater_k20]

i've always used a small ~6"(+/-) pipe wrench. never had one break off flush with the head.