Working on a stroker swap for my 83 SX4. It has the 4.0 block and head. I know several/many have completed swaps involving the 4.0 head. Reading through the posts, sounds like most have fabricated headers from tubing or from one or two cut up Cherokee manifolds. Has anyone found an off the shelf set of headers that will bolt on and clear the differential and everything else, or at least with minimal modification? There's lots of different designs offered, does anyone have an idea about one or more that look like they're the right shape to fit? Prafeston, what did you do? Thanks.
On both my strokers i used regular 4.0 cherokee headers. One is cut where the 2 sets come together to make dual exaust that was a bitc h to acomplish lots of put it on take it off bend it weld it yell at it hit it with a bfh. The other is single exaust and i just had to bend the pipe after the header to make it clear. Wasn't hard at all.
Forgot to add i modified that diff bracket a bit to clear an exaust pipe or 2. Its really a no brainer.
When I had my 4.0 head installed, I used the "header" style exhaust manifold with the built in expansion joints. The guy that installed it said they heated the header and bent it to fit, and I think they then modified the exhaust pipe to fit. I think its easier to access the joint between the header and exhaust pipe now than the stock configuration.
http://forums.amceaglesden.com/index.php?topic=42319.0;all
Thanks for the help mudkicker715 and vangremlin! Excellent pictures on your thread, too. I must say I'm a big fan of Pepe. I'm wondering if something like this will clear the differential bracket and then new pipes could be formed and brought up to connect?
I'm no expert but those look like they could be made to work. Price is always a consideration, not sure how much something like that cost. I think I paid about $20 for my header style exhaust manifold from the junkyard.
Point well taken, vangremlin! Those are Drakes, listed for 280 something in stainless @ Quadratec. The factory header type manifold is by far the better value. Just trying to build a little of the dream here, so asking questions, and exploring all options.
Its good to know all the options, because even if you don't end up buying the Drakes they might give you some ideas on how to deal with the problem. Good luck with your build, I'm enjoying reading about it. That is going to be one fun Eagle!!