I have a 1968 Camaro, originally a standard coupe with a
six cylinder and a power glide. The VIN# is 123378L303966. I
now have a 383 stroker with a Turbo 400. I have always had
clearance problems with my Flowtech Afterburner long tube
headers(1 1/2 inch primaries, 3 inch collectors) rubbing against
the stock power steering gear box. The number 3 tube would rub
and create an awful loud vibration at low rpm but would usually
go away once I'm up to speed.
I recently upgraded my cast iron SR Torquer heads to the GM
Aluminum Fast Burn heads. Because of this upgrade, I also had
to change my headers. I ordered a set of Hedman Shorty headers
from Jet Hot with 1 5/8 inch primaries and 3 inch collectors.
Now I can't even move the header into place to bolt it in
because the number 3 tube hits the power steering box even worse
than before.
Is there a smaller power steering gear box that I could swap
over to that would give me the room I need to bolt the header in
place? I thought I read somewhere about either an aftermarket
gear box for a Nova that would work, or a third or fourth
generation gear box that would be smaller. If not, does that
mean I'll have to convert to manual steering, and if so, would
that fix my clearance problem?
I know I've consistently read about guys with headers even
bigger than mine that have power steering and it looks like they
have plenty of room. Any help you can give would be great!

Thanks!
Earl Brunson
Pensacola, FL
ebrunson@ureach.com

Earl ...I'm not going to be much help to you here, but I think your looking at this problem all wrong. The power steering is not the problem, it's your headers! I have a 69 vette and had a set of Hedman headers also. The headers rubbed on the steering box! Until I finally changed them out with another set of headers (Hooker's) ...the problem went away! I'm not sure you can return your headers, but I would try. Don't end up trying to make "poor quality" work! My $0.02, Good Luck! ...Mark

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm still wondering about the gear box since I had the same problem with Flowtech Afterburner headers. Those just barely fit, but still rubbed. They were 1 1/2 inches, my Hedman's are 1 5/8 inches. I opted for the Hedman's instead of Hooker's because of the setup with the Fastburn heads, they were the only one's guaranteed to fit. Plus I'm not sure if Jet Hot will take them back since they are scratched up from the gear box. I guess I'll just keep trying to figure it out!

I've been building camaros since day one and I don't know of any other stock type sector that fits. Have had some guys tell me they used the later model ones, but had some kind of ratio problems.

Any header is very close to the sector. some will fit and some will not, most will not. I gently massage the tube to get about a 1/4 inch clearance. I have even bolted them to another engine in the floor and sprung them enough to get some clearance. Good Luck

Troy

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What's the best way to massage the header pipe to fit around the steering gear box?

That's a nice way of saying....Hit it with a hammer................

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