Hedman Elites Installed in 73 Blazer
It’s been over a year since the rusty old exhaust manifold on the passenger side of my Blazer decided to emphatically crack in two, and nearly 5 months since I put the rusty pile up on jack stands, but I’ve finally managed to get a set of better performing and less reliable headers put in.
The first set I attempted to install this summer were no-names from Summit, part number SUM-G9006-9. After receiving them I wasn’t impressed with the build quality, both the welds and coating were sloppy, but I attempted to installed them anyway due to budget constraints. Well, regardless of whatever the manufacture or Summit claim, these headers were NOT intended for my Blazer. The collector was a fraction of an inch from the shackle bolt on the passenger side, not to mention… it contacted the front driveline! I drive a 4×4 truck, and I no intentions of changing that so back to Summit the headers went. Amazingly enough, I had no problems receiving a full refund despite having had them sitting in my shop for over six months. Score one for Summit!
At this point I started looking for a different set, and came across the Hedman Elite 69830, Summit part number HED-69830. At hundred dollars more it would be a bit before I could afford them, but they looked like just the right set. Extra heavy duty with full ceramic coating, I started saving my pennies.
Fast forward to recently, and another Summit box arrived. I went right back to the project, only to come to the conclusion a few hours later that I did in fact need to follow the Hedman instructions and remove the starter and spark plugs. Spark plugs were no big deal, and neither was removing the starter. Putting it BACK however… But of course I first had to install the Hedman’s. They were easily placed from below, and I dropped in the Hedman gasket which was better than the aftermarket one I’d picked up locally in anticipation of a gasket just as sloppy and paper thin as I received with the no-name headers. THEN I had to reinstall the starter. In a word… SUCK. I fought with it another few hours, trying to access its location down low and behind the headers. A trip to the flexible and rigid ratchet extension store the next day proved the pivotal moment, after which it was finished up relatively pain free.
After that I did the obvious stuff, then used some steel conduit/spacer material I found at Home Depot as spacers for the AC bracket. With the help of Summit part number HED-20110 I replaced the now useless bracket that had supported the compressor and bolted to the manifold and got everything bolted up nice and tight. The headers were in! I dropped it off at the exhaust shop where I was quoted $35-40 per side, but later received the bad news that the shift linkage on the driver side was in the way and that the exhaust guy was going to have to get a little “creative”. You can see the linkage in the photo below.
Tomorrow I pick it up from the shop and get to see exactly what he meant by “creative”. Up to this point I am very pleased with the Hedman’s. They had a very good construction quality, and once I stopped ignoring the instructions they went in relatively easy. The key piece is that once I had them in they fit well, looking clean and integrating well with the motor, frame, etc. If they leak horribly, rust up, or otherwise crap out you’ll certainly be hearing from me, but at the moment I’d highly recommend them for application in a 73 Blazer.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Auto, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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[...] my interest an surprise when I receive a comment on my post about installing headers in my truck, not about anything truck related but rather about the “real situation” in [...]