Old Hooker headers...any good?

[Pengineer1]

I'm visiting Portland OR and thanks to THIS GROUP I'd heard about Ram light truck junkyard near PDX... I wasn't yet looking for headers for my new to me 1986 Power Ram 50. I just finished a Weber Carb swap, (38 outlaw)

But yes, my original exhaust manifold was cracked in at least 3 places, so I knew someday I'd like to do something about it...

Does anybody know if the old Hooker headers were good for our old 2.6liter motors????????

My truck is still back in Colorado so I'm having to trust the guys at the Ram scrap yard that these ARE the right headers for a '86 2.6 liter???????

Any advice on what I should do to save these from rusting away any further????

I paid $40. Seemed like a fair deal to me...What do you guys think??????

Thanks in advance for any and all comments/ advice!!
Bill

[geezer101]

Those are some really nice headers. I wouldn't get them sand blasted to clean off the rust for a start, use some kind of rust converter. Even if they don't fit your truck (but they should) you can resell them and make profit. Definitely a bargain!

[yamahlr]

If you decide to sell, PM me. Good find, did not know Hooker made them for our truck.

[yamahlr]

I would use media blasting to clean off the rust and have it ceramic coated.

[Pengineer1]

Thanks again geezer! I've often been skeptical of all those miracle rust treatments but it would be great to at least stop the rusting process and then preserve and protect what's still there.

[Pengineer1]

Yamahlr, I will go to a good muffler shop that can do all that good stuff...I am planning to preserve them and use them If at all possible...gotta be better than my original cracked manifold!

[geezer101]

I would also think about getting an O2 sensor bung welded into the collector. Having a O2 meter in the cab is a convenient way to keep an eye on your engine tune (I was using a narrow band sensor with a simple 3 light O2 meter I made from a kit just to monitor fuel economy - and it was the first electronics kit I'd built that actually worked despite my ineptitude!:lmao:

[Pengineer1]

Geezer, I was already thinking about having the bung welded on only because the current exhaust has one, but I didn't know there was a gauge I could monitor from the cab??? Tell me more...and I'll google for more info. Thanks!!

[tortron]

Grab a wideband sensor if you are, can get for example an innovate wideband guage (for search terms) narrowband is a bit oldschool nowdays. Real helpful for tuning. The new guages even have datalogging built in. The set up i have can datalog rpm and fuel so you can map out the fuel map and tune for peak performance

[Pengineer1]

Thats awesome tortron! I already wasn't crazy about Weber's instructions that only tells you how to tune in the idle and assumes the rest of the power curve will be fine. I normally don't mind checking the spark plug color but my spark plug hole threads seem close to needing renewed...so I'd rather have a gauge!

[geezer101]

Tons of gauges on ebay for every budget - anything from $20 to $200+. Depends on what you're happy with and what you need (some kits come with the wideband O2 sensor included)

[pennyman1]

That Hooker super comp header was pricy back in the day - over 200 in 1980's dollars. It was the better of the 2 headers they made - on a par with the Doug Thorley Tri-y in price and quality for the day. My friend Trkdesigner has a Cyclone anti-reversionary header I gave him years ago from the early 80's - it has anti-reversion cones in the exhaust ports to promote better scavenging of the exhaust.

[Pengineer1]

Awesome, thanks. I'm really looking forward to getting these headers fixed up, mounted, and fire up my Dodgie!

[geezer101]

I did this just out of curiosity. If you convert the 1980 price of these headers @ approximately $200 they would cost just over $600 USD now. Compare it to the DG headers that the board has invested in and you know why they're asking what seems like a lot for sexy stainless steel custom headers. Those Hooker headers would've been a nightmare to mandrel bend each of the runners...

[Pengineer1]

And imagine if my junkyard headers had been made of STAINLESS STEEL??!

[jamesw]

Old Hooker headers...any good?

all depends if they have their teeth in or not lmao :lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao:
sorry pengineer1 i couldn't help myself :lmao:

[geezer101]

Old Hooker headers...any good?

all depends if they have their teeth in or not lmao :lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao:
sorry pengineer1 i couldn't help myself :lmao:

Somebody just had to go there, didn't they... :banplz:

[jamesw]

Somebody just had to go there, didn't they... :banplz:
lol you knew i would didn't you? lol

[royster]

I thought camoit's closed-circuit t.v. cameras took care of that problem...

[Pengineer1]

Oooops! Did I title this thread like that on purpose?? LOL.

[geezer101]

I thought camoit's closed-circuit t.v. cameras took care of that problem...

No, it's only solved his lack of night time entertainment issues :lmao: