R3 Header question

[Avanti1963!]

I have what I think is a pair of unused R3 headers.  Three pictures are attached.  Please help to answer a few questions. 

-The left and right look exactly the same. 

-These don't have the alternator bracket sticking out of the front of the passenger side. 

-There is a part number 1558353 cast on the right horizontal face on each.   On the other front face is cast 206-86. 

-Pictures of the reproductions don't seem to have a number.

What do I have?  What models do these fit?  

Thanks

Edited Sunday at 09:04 PM by Avanti1963!

[mfg]

Not sure, but I’d guess you own the real McCoy… Amazing how, after all these years, rare parts like these still turn up !

[Nelson]

They appear to have been port matched. They certainly look original issue but I think the Lionel Stone versions were cast from the same tooling so I think those had the numbers also.

[Dwight FitzSimons]

Left & right exhaust manifolds ARE identical on ALL Studebaker Avantis, whether standard R1-R2 manifolds or R3-R4 "headers."  There was no need for a boss for an alternator bracket on Avanti manifolds.

Your R3-R4 manifolds will fit any Studebaker V8 from 1955 through 1964, whether 224, 259, 289, R1, R2, R3, or R4.

I have a set of Studebaker International's reproduction R3 headers and they have no numbers or letters cast into them, so yours are not the most recent repros. 

--Dwight

[mfg]

One of our Stude venders showed me a pair of R3 type exhaust headers cast in aluminum…. Not sure how that worked out.

[Gunslinger]

17 hours ago, Nelson said:

They appear to have been port matched. They certainly look original issue but I think the Lionel Stone versions were cast from the same tooling so I think those had the numbers also.

 

From what I've always understood Lionel Stone's repops showed a lot of flashing and required some work to get them to fit properly.  

[Gunslinger]

4 hours ago, mfg said:

One of our Stude venders showed me a pair of R3 type exhaust headers cast in aluminum…. Not sure how that worked out.

 

Back in the early '60s when Pontiac was a force on the drag strips...the days of their "Swiss cheese frames" to lighten the car...they also had aluminum headers.  Supposedly one could always tell when one of these cars made a run due to the molten aluminum drops on the track.  

[Dwight FitzSimons]

13 hours ago, mfg said:

One of our Stude venders showed me a pair of R3 type exhaust headers cast in aluminum…. Not sure how that worked out.

Dave Thibeault had some cast in aluminum a few years ago.  Dave generally does things well.

--Dwight

[64StudebakerAvanti]

Not sure aluminum is good material for exhaust manifolds.  According to sources on the internet, pure Aluminum melts around 1200°  with most alloys melting sooner. Exhaust manifolds can reach 1200° - 1800° under hard acceleration, extended high speed driving. Not much room for error.

[Nelson]

I’m not certain but StuV may have made the first set and that tooling could have been acquired by Studebaker or it may have been the other way around. I had or probably still have a set that has the name StuV cast into the header.