Road Runner Nest

I installed Hooker headers on my beeper about a year ago and I have no complaints except that they burn my wires within a few drive cycles. I have no clue what to do. I have heat shields on the boots and wires and it still melts through. Just replaced my wires again and the car is running great, but I know it won't last. Any suggestions on how to cope with this issue? Some old timers told me that it was a usual occurrence back then and it always will be.

I had super comp headers on my first road runner and never did figure out how to keep them from melting everything in sight,...plug wires, speedometer cables, aftermarket shifter cables, etc.

I also put headers on my first roadrunner back in the 70's, big mistake! My wires and my starter also got cooked from the heat. i installed 8 millimeter solid core wires and routed them as far as I could from the headers. Good luck, on my roadrunner I will not be installing headers. TTI exhaust with stock manifolds. I think that accel also has shortie plugs that help to.

Get good wires that are 100% silicon including the boots. A lot of headers have a problem with clearance around the plugs. So it pays to do some research before you buy. Also use wire looms to keep the wires neat and away from the headers.

thanks for the advice guys, I love these headers, but they have been nothin but a pain.

It's always fun replacing a starter with those big super comps too.

Eric wrote:It's always fun replacing a starter with those big super comps too.

Yep, headers plus power steering plus big block plus bad starter equal hours of work

But seriously, I used something called rajah clips? They were sold by Mr. Gasket and were a bootless spark plug end. I think I only had to use 2 or 3. They seemed to work fine on a mild 440. They're small enough that they wouldn't touch the tubes (well, mostly). Good luck!

I was only having the issue on #s 5 & 6. I fashions a couple of heat sheilds out of aluminum. They are acutally the damper flap from an over the range microwave. I cut them and bent them then made a hole and bolted them directly to the header using the header bolt. I just made sure that there was a little space between the header, the sheild, and the boot. I really haven't got my car to a status where I can drive it a lot, but the little I have taken it out, it seems to be working ok. I'll see if I can post a picture.

Jim

unionjack1940 wrote:I installed Hooker headers on my beeper about a year ago and I have no complaints except that they burn my wires within a few drive cycles. I have no clue what to do. I have heat shields on the boots and wires and it still melts through. Just replaced my wires again and the car is running great, but I know it won't last. Any suggestions on how to cope with this issue? Some old timers told me that it was a usual occurrence back then and it always will be.

I've always had the same problem even with my Dodge pickups. I now have Probably the same hooker headers on my 73 as you have on your car, but I had mine coated by JETHOT and no more problems with wires or starter! I've had them on the car for 6 years with absolutely no problems, and the coating puts the heat under the car and out of the engine bay. I hate the way the Hooker Headers fit though, and will pull them eventually and go with coated tti's. The Hookers capture the starter and drop under the k member on the drivers side. The tti's are a much better fit IMHO. I hope this helps you, I've been there before!