I read this thread with amusement. A pushrod engine is antiquated? Good one! Someone needs to tell the Buick Grand National guys, Here that they're running antiquated motors. I don't want to be the one though. Let's see, they're pushing low 7's in the quarter with a 3500# car, (and a Buick V6 pushrod block), what do you have? On another note, maybe you're old enough to remember in 1975 when Smokey Yunick ran a 207 cube small block Chevrolet at Indy. 3.4L at 1200 horsepower. Indy changed the rules so he couldn't run the next year. Maybe you also remember Gale Banks, in the early 80's drove a twin turbo 350 Chevrolet small block in a Pontiac Firebird to the Utah Salt Flats to set a land speed record in a doorslammer. 240 mph with 1300 hp as I recall. Then he drove it home. What did you say you had? OHC, what's that? Let's not forget NASCAR, those guys are running ~6 liters at about 770 horsepower, all day long. 130 horsepower/liter NA isn't too bad on a restricted motor, wouldn't you say? If you want to see what a street pushrod motor will do, visit Lingenfelter's site. And hey, remember, his cars are street cars and very refined (read driveable for the mucky mucks). I remember reading about the new Ford V8 when it came out several years ago. Being a small block Chevrolet nut for the past 26 or 27 years, I recall that the Ford SOHC and DOHC's weigh more than a small Chevy. And they are WIDE.

Even though you may not like pushrod motors, there is a design aspect of them that makes them desirable in certain applications. They make for a small, lightweight and rigid package. With the sloping hoodlines of some cars, (Corvette), an overhead cam isn't an option when you mount the engine longitudinally. When Chevrolet redesigned the small block several years ago, they found that there wasn't a benefit to going with OHC's on a production car. This is the exact same conclusion Smokey came to in the late 60's when Chevrolet started playing with multivalves and cams atop the heads. (remember the Moser heads? arrgh!) Smokey advocated port refinement. That's the direction the small block has gone. You will find some of the best flowing intake/exhaust port configurations in the world on the latest small block heads. In case you haven't noticed, I am a small block Chevrolet man. I like my Datsun, but there's just something about the music of a V8 winding up through the gears, no need for a radio or cd player. And yes Dodgeman, one of these days I will be building a "Reynolds Wrap Hemi trap" and I will go Hemi hunting. A good retirement project. Have a good day.

Instead of bending your headers, I would suggest buying the bends. Get some 45's and 90's and cut off what you don't need. Too bad your not in the States, Stahl has a box of misbent tubing and you could probably do several headers.

http://www.stahlheaders.com/Frame%20Tubing.htm

You can also buy the merged portions too, but by using steel you could also make your own fairly easy. In this pic, you can see that they used small straight and curved sections to make the header. It'd be alot easier than trying to bend each pipe kink-free in one piece.

http://www.magnumforceracing.com/services/headers_FALCON.htm

This is the easy way as you can make the flange and tack a piece at a time on while checking for fit. If you get into a bind, you can always backtrack a section or two. You'll refine your tig experience undoubtedly. Pay attention to how you are going to weld each joint. Make a couple of test pieces so you can check the inside of the tube, you want a smooth transition. The curves will need a little persuasion where they meet the straights as the cross section of the curve isn't exactly round. Patience and fit are the keys.

I encourage you to build your own headers, you'll learn alot about welding and construction and that is never a waste. You'll also have something unique. That said, production headers are a compromise. Theory touts equal length primaries, but seldom does a set of headers costing less than $500 have equal primaries. Does it really matter? No, not really unless you're chasing all the miniscule horsepower you can. By constructing your own though, you can pay attention to alot more detail than a sweatshop header manufacturer will. In addition, you can tune to an operating range that may not be available off the shelf. Ever see a set of headers for an A series made of stainless or inconel? I would suppose they are quite rare. By building your own, you can choose your material. I say go ahead and build you own. Look for some books online with header formulas and construction techniques. Draw up your primary mounting flange in cad and get it milled, laser cut or water jetted. A 4-2-1 header would do well on an A series. Spend your extra money getting them ceramic coated and they will last you a lifetime, or darn near. By all mean, have fun and learn alot.

For the price of some of those additives, just get some Redline synthetic and be done with it. It's about 8 bucks a quart here. I run it in trans and rear. Shifts gooood

Not wanting to argue with you Dodgeman, but here is a "quiet" cam drive with spur gears. Not all quiet drives are helical. This one's a Pete Jackson, Cloyes makes one too. I imagine Edelbrock and Comp Cams have their own too but I haven't looked for a gear drive in several yeares.

http://store.summitracing.com/default ... &N=0&target=egnsearch.asp

To be clear, you can't necessarily tell if a gear drive will be noisy just by looking at it.

Dodgeman, Chevrolet gear drives are available quiet or noisy. I don't know which category the Datsun gear drive in question is. Regardless, it's way out of my price range.

I'll keep a lookout. I don't make regular trips. Yesterday I had to burn a vacation day or lose it, it was sunny, I had some extra cash, and all the planets were aligned

Went to the wrecking yard today... bought two 5 speeds for $95 and looked closer at that engine I mentioned a month ago with the H75 head on it. This engine really intrigues me. This time I looked for an indication of the size cast in the block above the fuel pump boss. There is none What gives? It was in a B310 wagon and it didn't have any emissions equipment on the intake or exhaust. Not even any provisions for emissions except a pcv. It had a foil sticker with a bunch of Japanese characters on the oil cap. Japanese crate motor? I'm contemplating buying it just to learn more. Different head than I've ever seen, maybe a different cam and pistons?

I'd be suspicious your GF is peeing in your ute. Maybe she's jealous cuz she has to take a taxi? You need another ute for her.

Advice:
Put your location in your profile. You'll have alot more luck finding parts that way.