FPA header fitment problem

[MT]

FPA is closed until next week and I need to get this car to a show on Sunday.  I have the polished chrome ceramic headers for an FE engine in a '57 Ford.  The left side seems to fit well, although the clutch linkage is not fully installed, just the Z bar.  The right side, however, is not even close and hits the upper A arm.  Just eyeballing it, I would say I need to lift the left side of the engine 1.5" or more to clear the A arm.  Has anyone run into this?  Are there pics of these headers floating around the internet anywhere?

Thanks!

[Marc]

There are a few discussions in the "engine swaps" section regarding FPA headers and FE swaps in general that might help you out.

[lalessi1]

Here is a picture of mine, they clear the A arm nicely. I did put a 1/2" spacer between the RH mount and the block trying to move the engine over 3/8" to get clearance between the flange and the frame. (You can see that clearance in the pic as well). My Z bar didn't seem to have a chance of fitting so I went with a hydraulic setup. The driver side header hits the pitman arm at full lock, aggravated by moving the engine over as another problem. Which way are your mounts facing?

[MT]

Are those FPA headers?  Mine are very different.  Here are a couple pics..

[59meteor]

I have the FPA shorty headers on my 428 CJ 4 speed 59 2 door sedan. My right side header was close to the upper control arm , but did not touch. Like Lynn, I too spaced my motor mounts up a but, a little less than 1/2", using 2 large washers between the motor mount and crossmember. Not for control arm issues, but to get a bit of clearance between the collector and frame rail.
As for clutch linkage, since my car was origionally a 332 FE automatic, I needed all the clutch linkage, I have a 59 6 cyl 3 speed parts car that I "borrowed the clutch & brake pedals, rod to the Z bar, and the frame pivot bracket. I was lucky enough to buy the FE Z bar, engine side pivot, and lower rod from a 352 58 Ford. Turns out that the 6 cylinder and Y block Z bar is dimensionally identical to the FE Z bar, only minor differance was that the pin on the lower Z bar lever (for the lower rod to the clutch fork) is reversed, the FE pin points to the frame, the 6 cyl/Y block points towards the engine. The Z bar lower lever hit the header collector quite badly, so we cut the lower lever off at the tube, and moved it a little over 1" to the middle. I also needed to trim a pie shaped section from the lower front area of the engine side Z bar pivot, as the headers hit it. There is a couple of videos on Youtube, where a guy installs a set of FPA headers on a 58 Ranch Wagon, with a FE 4 speed, that covers installing the headers, another showing the clutch linkage mods. I cant link the page, but if you search youtube for 1958 Ford FPA headers, it should come up. I will find the videos, and post the users name. What are you using for a bellhousing on your car? At first I tried using a C5TE PU truck bellhousing, but the clutch fork location was over an inch lower than factory, which caused the clutch rod to point down at a bad angle. I tried a couple of modified lower rods, but I was not happy with any of them. I lucked out, and found a 1961 FE bellhousing at a swap meet , with  clutch fork, for 10 bucks. With this bellhousing, the clutch linkage fit perfectly, although we did have to adress the hole for the Toploader bearing retainer, as the ealy bellhousing has a smaller bore size. Supposedly a 64 Toploader uses the small retainer, or you can cut the bearing retainer down on a lathe. In my case, a machinist I know bored the hole out on his Bridgeport mill. I had looked at using a Lakewood scattershield at 1 point, but like the truck bellhousing, the clutch fork was lower than the early bellhousings. From the backside, the early long starter style bellhousing has the fork sticking out almost straight out, say 9.00 O clock. The Lakewood and truck housings were angled down noticably, between 7 & 8 Oclock. I am sure that the later cast bellhousing could be made to fit, with clutch linkage modifications, but I was lucky enough to find all all style factory stuff.

[MT]

Thanks, I found the video.  His headers are different too. 

[lalessi1]

My headers are FPA. I spoke to Stan at FPA several times and it took him a few weeks to make them. You may have the wrong ones? I don't see how yours will fit, perhaps they are for a later model full size car....

[MT]

They did in fact send me the wrong R side header.