it's just wierd, the hookers were each stamped 6901, and then I started looking at the other threads on the subject. I cant figure it out. Is it possible my pitman arm isn't correct, or on right, but still allow full range of moting without the reducer on the header? if that collector were pionted up more, I think it would clear, with a mile of clearence. How bad can these cars really sag and never affect the opeing of the doors?
cut the headers and reweld it a bit to get it away from the pitman arm, rather than smash the pipe...
I suppose it could be. Now that I think about it, 2 of the pipes on that side duck in real tight to the oil pan or bellhousing right there. The other 2 go high and are free and clear. Anyway, the 2 that turn under the engine slightly are in line with the arm, but duck in tight enough to clear it's swing. If the arm was out of whack and swung too far, I suppose it could hit. Either that or if your engine was biased to that side. It doesn't sound like something is twisted, more like the tie rod ends are biased hard to one side like suggested earlier in the thread. Maybe over the years, when the car was aligned, without thinking about it, the alignment techs focused on that other side out of coincidence. Dave
before you went to do any fitting ...did you actually turn the wheel both ways and center it? it is possible the pittman arm is off, as was mentioned earlier. id look at that first. to add a piece to lower the arm wont change the trajectory, or geometry. but if all else fails, id grab my goggles , my cutoff wheel, and make it work!
Dave, did you find out about the interference AFTER you tried to make a left hand turn? I didn't think so, but that'd suck - going from to in an instant.
Heres a picture of what my car looks like up in there, not as clear with the power steering stuff in the way. I also found this while digging around the net, www.tffn.net
Actually I did find out about it after the install was done. I never had issues like this before, and always assumed the Tri-Ys would fit fine. That is why I just turned the wheel hard and let it pinch the pipe before I drove it. I didn't feel like taking everything back apart. The pipe was about 50% blocked with the pinch in the tube, and being Tri-Y, that tube supported 2 cylinders. So it was noticable and made the exhaust sound strange with pops and such. Dave
The thing that really pi$$ed me off was the clutch arm linkage. When I made a left turn, the clutch could not be engaged if it was disengaged when the turn began, or vise-versa, could not disengage after the turn started. The steering bent the pipe in enough to steer, but the flex of the headers still pushed the tubes over a bit anyway and blocked the clutch linkage that can be seen in the pic. I am dead serious though, Tri-Ys are considered the ultimate mating of ground clearance, streetable torque, and just mild all around usage. We should be asking Thorley to get them to work... IIRC Thorley is considered cutting edge with Tri-Ys.
How much did it pinch the pipe? 50% or so? If thats it I'm sure the socket on the Doug Thorley headers could be dimpled to give enough clearance??? Hmmmm....
On the Try-Y it cause about a 50% loss in pipe. That is quite a bit for a pipe handling 2 cylinders IMO. Also, the pipe was only 1.75"... The shorty pipe where he is having issue is larger than 1.75" and is supporting all 4 cylinders on that side. If it crushed 50%, then you are losing a full 50% of your flow on that bank. A pipe crushed 50% that is only supporting half the bank means that only 25% total flow is lost. Brainstorming here... Does this sound right or am I missing something?
I'm just thinking, that if the socket that connects to the collector could be dimpled enough to allow full travel, it shouldn't really restrict flow, heres a picture (off a falcon, same headers) with the socket removed, the header is above the steering arm, is more or less just the exhaust pipe that will need to be adjusted to clear....
Looking at that pic, it seems to me that all is needed to be done (by manufacturer) is point the collector back at more of an angle. If it didn't point down quite as much, the attaching pipe should shoot right over the steering, as opposed to right into it's path of movement... or swing of the pitman arm.
Your pic here illustrates my point. See how it's angle of attack is much shallower compared to the shorty collector? If the shorty went at that angle, we wouldn't be discussing it. Look at this pic and the pic of the shorty collector going much deeper and right into the pitman arm.
