headers

essexcoupe3131

Just had a new set of headers made for the coupe
Mark has done a great job of them with a drop out section, so I can fit some side extensions on so I don't throw petrol and oil all over the car
he emailed me pictures just got to figure how to save and post them
the car is being stripped to day so they can be Pro coated
let hope it loosens up a few extra horses

Mike

Ol racer

FYI
Reduce Pic's to 97 (pizels(?)using your Computer's 'Photo Express Program' then 'Save' the Picture to Desk Top. Lastly when in Reply after printing message croll to bottom and Click 'Add File' Button then select picture from DeskTop you want to Insert.
Good Luck

bent metal

Those look very nice!

At the header flange, I see the pipes are welded all the way around. Are they welded on the inside too?

TwinH

Sweet! Really liking the sweeping bends coming off the head and the collector and flange.

I built a set for my 65 Impala wagon with a 500 inch Cadillac motor,but I'd go broke trying to build them for anybody else...









One of my design criteria was no pipes hanging lower than the oil pan. I
smashed too many low hanging headers in the musclecars of my youth. Come
to think of it I smashed a couple low hanging oil pans too so even the pan
is even with the front crossmember. I added oxygen sensor bungs/plugs in
the collectors in case I want to play with a wide-band O2 gauge also. My
head flanges are welded inside and out after reading a header building
discussion that talked about the outside weld cutting down on some noise,
dunno if its true but I bought in,sure can't hurt.And last but not least
that I can get a box end wrench on EVERY header bolt to tighten.The 3/8"
wrench size 12 point header bolts helped here.

Salute for Mark and the great job he did for you.

lsfirth

Wow....nice work...both of you guys!!! I can only hope that one day my headers will look as nice as these!! Does the coating cost much? Definitely gives them a nice uniform finished look.

Thanks for sharing,
Lee

essexcoupe3131

Hes welded the outside only as he didn't want to restrict the flow from the ports, also hand made the collectors and they all go to a vee shape so there no swirling of the exhaust and they are a tight and not welded so the pipes won't crack, once they are pro coated inside and out there shouldn't be any issues,
On our drivers side(your passengers)the steering shaft runs through all the headers was a real head ache for him but seems to have plenty of clearance
luckily I installed some st/steel heat baffles spaced off the hoods to stop any problems from burning the paint
A trick I was taught today (by a friend) is to use he temp silicon in the joints, both at the flanges below and on the heads and header plates instead of gaskets as it only goes off where there is air and it stays soft every where else
the guy has used this set up on 4 engines so far and has no issues what so ever and super easy to clean off if you have to pull them off again at some stage, clean up is just some prepsol
Mike

essexcoupe3131

Thanks for the feed back, I have x members at the front and at to the rear of the engine and trans, if the headers hit so will those I am picking, we used they were put in place particularly for this reason, waiting for some pics to come where here has installed the new pipe and balance tube the the earlier system and installed some Jaguar st/steel oval tips at the rear of the car that I was given to extend them further out at the rear of the coupe to help stop some reverberance back into the car
The set you made are looking pretty slick i must say and looking real cool coated, hoping mine will look like that when finished

Mike

bent metal

Both cars look great! I'd like to try and make a set of headers one day. Looks like a lot of work, and a lot of figuring.

essexcoupe3131

For you bent, this would be a walk in the park, there is nothing that you do that would be short of superb, for some one like me who can't weld and friggen nightmare LOL

Twin H looks like he's has gone to the same school of learning as you
both artists in your own rights
Mike

essexcoupe3131

Got some pictures today before Mark finished the welding and sent to Pro Coat to have them coated

next 1s will be with it all finished

Mike

TwinH

essexcoupe3131 wrote:

For you bent, this would be a walk in the park, there is nothing that you do that would be short of superb, for some one like me who can't weld and friggen nightmare LOL

Twin H looks like he's has gone to the same school of learning as you
both artists in your own rights
Mike

Yah,I wish. I couldn't hold a candle to the work I see BM turning out. And compared to yours Mike,mine look rather frankensteined... Mine were a great exercise tho,once it was mocked up in place(collectors too)I spent considerable time imagining how I was going to get 4 pipes between the header flange and the collector while steering clear of the obstacles in between. (read that;head scratching,talking to myself,and staring a lot...) Still,a great feeling of accomplishment once they were finished and I realized that I could install them with the engine/trans still
bolted in place.

I want to say the coating was around $200,maybe 250 as mine were longer than your
average V-8 headers. It only made sense with all the time and $ I had in making them
to give them the best protection I could. I wish I knew what coating is on my Hudson
headers as they look as good now as when I got it 6 years ago and who knows how long
they've been on it before then. They are a semi-gloss gray color with a tinge of blue
or green maybe.

essexcoupe3131

Hi Twin H, you that feel good feeling of achievement is hard to bet and never forgotten LOL

the coating that you have on the HUD could be what we call HPC extreme and it comes in grey or black if I remember right, it is rated to 1500 Deg wheres the chrome look is rated to 1200 deg
Both are only guaranteed here for 3 years

I am getting her back some time on Thursday and it home foe a wash and 1st thing Friday of for a warrant of Fitness (every 6 months)
and then it is of to the Pre 49 nationals, there is no time for detailing under neath this time. hmmm

The pre 49s is a national show and is 1 of the most prestigious events on our hot rodding calendar and this is where the extreme high end machines have there debut
I am lucky its in Orewa, Auckland this year and is about an hours drive away
They are expecting up to 600 cars I think, from all over New Zealand and the Rod building fabricators wanting there clients projects to win
1 of the builders had a project on show at Sema this year and got huge accolade's up there, no too shabby for a small country LOL
Mike

bent metal

Thank you guys for the nice comments on my work. Nice of you to say. It's really not as good as you think, the camera is very forgiving. I think it's respectable. But certainly not without flaws.

Did you guys consider making header in stainless? Or is it too hard to do that way?

essexcoupe3131

You under value yourself Bent M, all the info I got about the stainless is that they are too prone to cracking, the cost difference in material was only $200 nz

Mike

bent metal

Interesting you should mention the cracking! Day before yesterday my nephew stopped by. He was working on a newer Mustang that had a broken header pipe. Actually it turns out it was made of what looked like 18ga tubing that was welded on the inside only, with a MIG, to about a 3/8th inch flange for the collector. The tubing cracked all the way around, right next to the weld. The entire piece was filthy, but after I got it somewhat cleaned up I noticed there was no rust. Hmm, got the magnet out. No attraction on the tube, sticks to the flange. Wow, the whole thing is a factory stainless header. Ok, I've never welded stainless. But I got the rod and TIG to try it. So here goes! That stuff welds sooo nice. AND pretty welds too. I was excited to think of maybe making some stainless headers. But now that you mention that you have heared of cracking problems! And I just welded up one that is only a five or so years old, with cracking problems! I think now maybe stainless headers is NOT such a good idea.

It must be a problem with the heat affected zone? Maybe it could be fixed by bringing the whole thing up to a high temp and cooling slowly or something? I don't know. Maybe stainless headers is just not a good idea period?

Side note: For those who may not know. Stainless steel can be many different alloys. Depending on if you want high tensile strength (the flange)or bendable (ductility, the tubing). Stainless may, or may not be magnetic.

essexcoupe3131

down under we traditionally only new 2, 304 and 316 for marine
The problem is now china is making all these other 1s 412 421 and so on and technically it is all st/steel and you don't quite now unless you get them (the supplier) to specify it in writing, which means they have to be precise

You are probably right heating it all up and then slowly bring it down would certainly help, the problem at the collectors is that all the pipe lengths are pretty close but if you have a couple a different lengths they will want to move at a different rates stressing the entire system, another reason why racing headers are not welded at the collector but have the pipes running a lot deeper in them for a seal and compensation for movement ( this is what I am Told)

Even steel on my original exhaust I couldn't access bolts at the front of the my transmission with a 1/4 drive set up, though go for a run for a while no problems at all but you don't want to doing stuff when it all hot, no longer a problem as my balance tube used to go through there and the stall cover

Mike

bent metal

Good point Mike. It's hard enough to figure out which metal formula you want. But now you have to make sure they actually give you what you asked for. I have the same problem here. I have to watch them.

I think I'd stick with steel headers. Too much to try and figure out with stainless. If the Ford engineers didn't have it right on a newer Mustang. You are telling me of the same cracking issues. I'm certainly not going to figure it out! I'm convinced, stick with steel.

RL Chilton

BM-

One very feasible and oft-practiced method is to use steel for the headers, along with a coating like jet-coating, and utilizing stainless for the rest of the exhaust system. Then you have no rust issues. I'm seriously considering this very scenario for the convertible.

bent metal

I think that's a good answer Russell. One of the things I've heard too is that stainless expands with heat more than steel. So in places where a thin walled tube meets a three-eighths thick flange (all in stainless), the tube isn't moving as much as the big flange. So you get failure at that intersection. Which looks to be what happened in the Mustang. I've seen a lot of stainless headers for sale for other cars. Don't know if they have the cracking problem figured out? Or if it's just common knowledge that they crack after a few years. I'm just hearing about it now?

Still would like to do it out of stainless. There has to be a way. I've seen some high-end headers that were stainless, in cars that would not tolerate this cracking issue.

essexcoupe3131

Hi Bent, as I said on a previous posting here you don't weld the collector, you run the pipes deeper into the custom collector the standard ones probably wouldn't form deep enough, once you have polished it all (only as you would LOL)slip in some high temp silicon to seal it really works and stays flexible
will post some pics of them finished soon
I can,t believe how much quieter the car is since these have been fitted
I can actually hear the stereo in the car now and seems to be much zipperier
I will have to wait to get some more bucks and see what difference it makes on the dyno
that will be the proof in the pudding LoL

Mike