Unfortunately your options are long tube headers that hang low or shorties that don't.  Honestly, I don't know why you are married to long tubes.  I've found over the years that in most car applications the hassle of living with them isn't worth the perceived power gain.  I've seen this born out in numerous dyno tests.  Long tubes may have better peak power, but they actually make less torque in the mid range, which is where most street driving is done.  I ran long tubes on one 5.0 back in the day and the 5.0s that I had shorties on seemed to have more power and had no fitment or clearance issues.  I have shorties on my '67 and my '89 and am quite happy with them.  Both are from JBA.  Just my $0.02.

6sally6 wrote:

Oh butt the sound!!!!!!!!!! Long tubes...Worth it all. Heddman has them I tink. Black jack?? Haven't looked lately butt unless everybody just quit making them ........several companys make 'real' headers for your car.
6sally6

Sorry, Sally,  my shorties sound much better than the long tubes I had for years, which were constantly scraping the ground.  And when I removed them some of the pipes were reduced to small ovals that surprised me with how small the openings had become.  I couldn't believe that the engine still ran.

And, yes I had messaged them a number of times to increase ground clearance.
 

Yeah, I'll second that, headers are only part of the sound.  I've had so many compliments on how my '67 sounds (JBA shorties, JBA X-pipe, Magnaflow 2-1/2" exhaust, modified GT tips).  I used to get compliments all the time on my '89 as well (MAC shorties, MAC catted H-pipe, 2 chamber Flowmasters). 

I was thinking of going the same route and running a Z bar.   Is anyone running a Z bar with shorty headers?

I thought the Z bar wouldn't work with Shorty Headers? 

For a set of headers that will meet all your needs, there is always FPA.  They can build them for your specific application and tuck them up tight.  However, there is a price to pay.  For convenience and cost, shorties may work best.  For a nice but expensive header setup, FPA would be once and done forever.
  http://www.fordpowertrain.com/FPAindex/Mustang1.htm

Those tuck up pretty nice.  My bro-in-law sent me a link to a header dent test - a lot of people worry about minor clearance mods.  Turns out you can get pretty aggressive and not lose any HP.  Header bash 

I had to put a pretty serious dent in one tube on the LH side of my JBA shorties because of the larger size of the Borgeson steering box.  I doubt it hurt performance, but I surely wasn't a fan of having to do that to a brand new set of coated headers.  I used a large round bar (either an intermediate shaft out of a Dana 20 t-case or a countergear pin out of a Muncie, can't remember which, but over 1" in diameter) I had and hammered on that over a rag as opposed to directly hitting the headers with a hammer.  It seems to have spared the coating by and large. 

There was a video circulating a while ago where an engine on a dyno with headers that were continually bashed and beaten almost beyond recognition and no loss in performance.

What did ya come up with for a solution Gary?

Inquiring minds want to know.😁

Just put a 351w and headers, won’t be low anymore.😁

Sounds like Mikey eh?😂

RV6 wrote:

Find me a first run 351W and I'll do it. 
 

 
Isn’t that like a bigfoot or ufo sighting?

6sally6 wrote:

Just took mine to the weld shop to have a couple pin holes welded up. The guy is pretty much 'doing me biggy' because we were swapping welding stories about the Navy yard. 2030 bux.
These headers ARE realllllly old butt they fit so darn good and I have no idea who made them!  Be hard to find a reasonably priced set that don't hang too low and fit around by T-5 and Z-bar.
6sal6

 



Please share Mike😁