Exhaust to steering box clearance

what is a safe amount of distance between an exhaust pipe and a steering box? I'm having issues getting headers to fit .............

 

My vega box is about 3/4'' away from the header. No problems as of yet. Been running for two years.
A small piece of heat blanket can help

 

Ive owned my 38 Chevy Coupe for 35 years and for the first 25 years I had stock ramhorns on it. The rear of the manifold was about 1/4" from the steering box. Never caused a problem other than hitting once in a while while down shifting.

 

there is no clearance between the header and steering box on my 55, and after 10 years it's starting to cause problems....and I sure don't look forward to pulling it apart to fix it, because it's one of those deals where I can't get the header out without removing the box, and I can't remove the box with the header in the way. looks like I may have to pull the engine at least partway out.

The heat seems to have cooked the pitman seal, causing loss of lubricant, etc. I can't get a puller on the pitman arm to remove it and change the seal.

 

so is a 1/4" enough? generally the engine tweeks to the passenger side under load so I'm thinking it should be but it's a 54 year old steering box so I don't wanna cook it either........

 

do some extra clearancing with a ball peen hammer if you think its necessary and drive it like you stole it.

 

Lobuc, that's how I got the 1/4" of clearance , with a hammer, lol, I can smash it some more if I need a bit more, lol

 

If it's a power box, you could run one of those power steering coolers like Ford used to put on their big cars, that way it would be able to diissapate the heat gained from the exhaust.

 

I recall reading that several Ford Indy? cars, 1935 or so, all had to drop out because exhaust heat cooked the steering boxes.

OK - not exactly a 'street' situation, but...

 

Make sure your steering box is correctly adjusted per factory specs and has good seals, gaskets, and correct lubricant.

 

it's a stock box in a 53 F100, still manual steering, engine is 351w with motor mount running underneath. Think header wrap on the section by the box would help?