Dave, you must have something other than the original LAT headers. I
had a set, still in the original box, with the original instructions,
etc. They were as thin as paper, and there was no way I would put them
on my Tiger.
They had that inside out welded on the collectors for the muffled
exhaust system, and removable caps at the end of the collectors for open
exhaust. The inside out for muffled exhaust was so restrictive, I
wonder what value they had. But they did have the advantage of being
able to go to the drags in the 60's, and you could run open exhaust by
removing 3 bolts per collector. Of course you can't run open exhaust at
most drag strips, with a street car.
If you want to look at them visit Rick at SS, as he is now the owner of
these LAT original headers, and he was going to use them for display
purposes.
Larry
Dave Munroe wrote:
>I agree with Larry on almost all points, except the advice not to coat
>old headers. My car came to me with a set of original LAT headers, so
>they were both old, and coated with surface rust. Plus, the car was
>sagging on the front suspension, and the bottom header tubes on both
>sides had kissed curbs and other obstructions, and were almost flattened
>on the bottom.
>
>I cut the flattened parts out of the tubes and replaced them with
>sections I cut out of new, same size tubing before coating. I was blown
>away by the thickness of the material in these original pipes. I had no
>problem fusion gas welding the pieces in there.
>
>The caveat is that, as Larry says, the coating will not hide the pitted
>surface. None-the-less, I still have a good solid set of original
>headers with a good coating of ceramic to protect them well into the
>future.
>
>I would drill some holes in my headers to see how much material is
>there, however rusty they appear to be, before I tossed 'em. You might
>be surprised!
>
>Dave
>
>
> Behalf Of Larry Paulick
>Sent: November 5, 2004 11:22 AM
>To: Jim Sencindiver
>Cc: FunbeamChuck; Frank Marrone; tigers@Autox.Team.Net
>Subject: Re: Dr. Gas
>
>"I would not fool with old headers, as you don't know the condition, and
>
>why waste your time and money on parts that may be wearing out. Coating
>
>will not take care of thin rusted headers."
>
>Larry
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