Stainless BB Sidemount Headers

Uh,Oh. I just searched the inventory of Summit Racing. I was going to price stainless steel sidemount heades for a big block. Looks like they don't exist. The Hookers are available in painted steel, chrome steel, or ceramic coated steel.

Any source of stainless steel sidemount headers for a BB? If Hookers are the sidemounts of choice, what are the best to buy. If I have to buy steel, I'll be inclined to get the ceramic coated. I would think the chrome headers would get rust very soon.

Comment? Thanks

I have ceramic coated headers on my BB, and I love them. They look great, and about 10 minutes after shutting off the engine, the pipes are cold to the touch!

damoroso said:

I have ceramic coated headers on my BB, and I love them. They look great, and about 10 minutes after shutting off the engine, the pipes are cold to the touch!

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Convinced me, I'll go with the ceramics.

I was really interested to see your Serpentine Assembly. It doesn't look at all like the GMPP Serpentine sold for BB's. It looks like the Serpentine sold for SB's. Im trying to get a SB Serpentine to fit my BB. (The GMPP Serpentine kit for BB's has cast iron brackets...gross...it weighs about 105 pounds) I bought some adapter plates on ebay. They don't really work for the passenger's side SB aluminum bracket.

How did you get your SB Serpentine kit to fit? Does someone make the correct adapter plates.

I like the SB Serperpentine since it's cast aluminum. I have an aluminum Keith Black Block and Brodix al heads. Just can't see putting a cast iron bracketed Serpentine kit on it. The March system requires knotching the frame. Don't want to do that either.

Thanks

68/70Vette said:

Uh,Oh. I just searched the inventory of Summit Racing. I was going to price stainless steel sidemount heades for a big block. Looks like they don't exist. The Hookers are available in painted steel, chrome steel, or ceramic coated steel.

Any source of stainless steel sidemount headers for a BB? If Hookers are the sidemounts of choice, what are the best to buy. If I have to buy steel, I'll be inclined to get the ceramic coated. I would think the chrome headers would get rust very soon.

Comment? Thanks

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Not to side track, but it sounds like you have a seriously built engine. While the Hookers are the most common sidemount header, their long unequal tubes are not optimal for performance. I am replacing my Hookers with a set of Stahl sidemounts that have larger/shorter equal length primary tubes. The fitment is great and the quality is good. Once I finish tuning my FI conversion, I will be getting them ceramic coated and install some stainless heat shields for my passengers! Good luck with your build. regards, Stephen

The headers I used were Headman from Summit. They were about $500 with shipping.

The serpentine set up was off of a V6 Chevy pickup. The V8 is the same, but the trucks didn't have the air pump under the AC compressor, that's why I used these. I fabricated the mounting brackets that bolt to the heads and block out of 3/4" bar stock 6061 Aluminum (cost me $30 with shipping). BBShark helped me out with this, check out this thread http://www.vettemod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4310 There are some pics of the serpentine set up there too.

To get the belt to line up, I had to mill 3/8" off the backside of the AC bracket and shim the water pump and crank pulleys out 1/2". You have to use a long reverse flow water pump, and you can use the small block lower pulley. Saves a few more bucks. The belt runs perfectly straight on this set up.

I was able to fabricate the brackets with a band saw and a bench top drill press....

Hi

The HOOKER stainless sidemount exhaust does exist.
Just been delivered to a friend in Luxembourg.
Wonder why SUMMIT doesn't list them ?

Rgds. Günther

Hooker does sell SS for small block engines. Does your friend have a big block? If so, maybe he can cite a Hooker part number from the invoice.
Thanks

I have the JET-Hot coated BB Sidemounts- So far, the coating has proven to be pretty tough and easy to clean. I'd suggest going with Jet-Hot, even over stainless simply becasue of the coating. Stainless will have more of a shine than the Jet-Hot Sterling.