I see a lot of Hedman's that have Ball & Socket style collector flanges. How do these seal? Do they work as well as a standard collector flange? Can they marry up to the same exhaust pipe flanges as a standard??

Thanks-

They seal fine. The only thing I don't like about them is the reducers hedman gives rot out VERY quickly. They used to offer stainless ones but I don't see them anymore.

got them on mine in the truck

works very well on sealing them to the collector

I was changing lower gaskets about every 4 months with the flat gasket type

I really like the ball and socket collector. They are more forgiving as to lining up the pipes.

Had mine on for a year now with no hassles. Just periodically retighten the bolts. I had one loosen up and find it's way out. Going to use lock washers next.

Another vote for them sealing up fine. I've tightened mine once since installation and they are good.

This ball and socket connection is used in a lot of OEM exhaust nowadays. It must work fairly well.

Yep, and most smallblock manifolds from teh late 60s-early 70s were ball-socket. Bigblock started ball-socket around '75 on the car engines.

Ball-socket headers will NOT seal on a standard flat flange (99% of the time). The ball would nead to seal on the ID of teh flange hole/pipe, and that is not a trued surface like the socket is.