Making Custom Headers for HS Senior Project

[/6 Matt]

Well, I finally have a job now and I'm going to start sometime next week after a year an a half job search with no calls or interviews, thank goodness.

Today was the first day of my senior year in high school and because I'm going to school in Burke County, the only county in NC that I'm aware has this graduation requirement, I have to do a senior project. You write a paper, do a project and make a speech. I have to pick a mentor for the project portion and yada yada. But I have a two barrel and an intake to put on the car someday and I'd like some headers. I don't know how to weld but I'm confident I peice together a set of two piece headers as I was in drafting last year and I acceled so fast in there I actually took measurements off my two barrel intake during my freetime in class to make a three barrel intake. I've pieced together quite alot of things in my time working at my best friend's dad's body shop so I'm good at the assembly. Well I figure why not have my friend's dad teach me to weld and set me free on it.

I know I need a header flange if there is a good one out there or I can make one myself with a metal plate. I need to know what kind of metal plate, I do believe I'd need carbon steel right? That's what the make exhaust pipes out of if I'm not mistaken. How thick should the plate be? On the actual exaust tubes for the headers. how big should the primary tubes be? I wanna use two inch collectors and run them open because my car is so old, I don't have to get it inspected. No noise ordinances either. Is there anything I'm forgetting to ask? Am I making this project sound easier in my head than it actually will be?

I'll probably have more questions shortly after I post this. And by the way, here's that manifold.

On a side note, some of looks you get when you carry around a cast Iron two barrel intake in school, you get some funny looks and questions.

 

[/6 Matt]

I have been reffered to a flange so that problem is solved.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Slan...r_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4aae257b85

 

[805moparkid]

well for starters what have you/weill you do to your motor?

as you planning on building it for daily, street/strip?

have you/ will you port the head?

you have to figure these out first so we can figure tube size and length...

and welding isn't as easy as you think... so be prepared to spend alot of time learning...

 

[/6 Matt]

well for starters what have you/weill you do to your motor?

as you planning on building it for daily, street/strip?

have you/ will you port the head?

you have to figure these out first so we can figure tube size and length...

and welding isn't as easy as you think... so be prepared to spend alot of time learning...

I'll have nothing more than a two barrel and an electronic ignition setup. I will port the head eventually, just gasket matching. Daily and weekend driver are my plans.

 

[805moparkid]

I'll have nothing more than a two barrel and an electronic ignition setup. I will port the head eventually, just gasket matching. Daily and weekend driver are my plans.

ok so i would think a 1.5" I.D tubing would be fine, maybe even a little bit smaller...

just get some thin wall DOM tubing like .068-.090 if they have it...

 

[805moparkid]

also think you can buy collectors from Hooker that you can use...

here is a pick of the hooker headers... i think they are a good design that just need some tweaking...

 

[/6 Matt]

Thanks for the help and I also forgot to mention that I have to put on at least 8 hours documented work with my mentor and 15 or more hours on the project portion itself. So i'll have good time to learn...

 

[805moparkid]

Thanks for the help and I also forgot to mention that I have to put on at least 8 hours documented work with my mentor and 15 or more hours on the project portion itself. So i'll have good time to learn...

you can probably double that...

but its all good!

also you should either make some sort of heat riser from the header to the intake manifold for cold weather and cold starts...

 

[grimreaper]

I have had a couple of sets of headers on slant sixes. They were 1-5/8 tubing about 40" long into 2-1/2 collectors. I think one set was Mopar Peformance and I don't remembe what the brand of the others was. I think maybe J/R. If you're not building for a specific RPM/ torque/ HP those rough dimensions would probably work.
You can also search the web for header length/ diameter calculators for a more accurate build. You can buy mandrel bends from these guys http://www.schoenfeldheaders.com/U&JBends.htm or watch ebay for a bunch of bends. 16 gauge would be better for street headers. Good luck with your project.

 

[pishta]

butt welding thin wall tubing is a bit+h. If you can get some sort of tube expander, like one of those exhaust pipe expander things from anywhere but Harbor Freight (they strip, I know) You can expand/heat one pipe and cool another and slip them together, even a little. Thatll make welding it that much easier. 15 hours will be eaten up quickly. I did about an hour or 2 a week on a set I just had to modify and it took me 3 months! I was in no hurry and the motor was in and out about 5 times for various reasons. home made V8 headers in a narrow A is quite a project, L6 will be much easier. On the intake: Do you want to use an existing intake and modify it? The triple duece intake is 3 pods of a pair of intake runners each, that keeps the runners somewhat equal, the dual is similiar, 2X3 runners to a pod. Both had a common plenum connector. You tune the intake runners for a powerband. The longer the tubes, the peakier the powerband is (long rams came in 2 sizes, the street version was shorter than the race version, internal divider was different length) Mopar had a R&D hyper-pak intake that had rubber hoses for runners, they changed the lengths to tune the final intake design. An EFI intake would be very EZ, basically a long cylinder with equal length runners coming off it like a giant comb. Since its a dry intake, there is no fuel distribution problem like a carb intake. That would be a cool project too, Megasquirt'd EFI, custom intake/header slant 6!

 

[805moparkid]

butt welding thin wall tubing is a bit+h. If you can get some sort of tube expander, like one of those exhaust pipe expander things from anywhere but Harbor Freight (they strip, I know) You can expand/heat one pipe and cool another and slip them together, even a little. Thatll make welding it that much easier. 15 hours will be eaten up quickly. I did about an hour or 2 a week on a set I just had to modify and it took me 3 months! I was in no hurry and the motor was in and out about 5 times for various reasons. home made V8 headers in a narrow A is quite a project, L6 will be much easier. On the intake: Do you want to use an existing intake and modify it? The triple duece intake is 3 pods of a pair of intake runners each, that keeps the runners somewhat equal, the dual is similiar, 2X3 runners to a pod. Both had a common plenum connector. You tune the intake runners for a powerband. The longer the tubes, the peakier the powerband is (long rams came in 2 sizes, the street version was shorter than the race version, internal divider was different length) Mopar had a R&D hyper-pak intake that had rubber hoses for runners, they changed the lengths to tune the final intake design. An EFI intake would be very EZ, basically a long cylinder with equal length runners coming off it like a giant comb. Since its a dry intake, there is no fuel distribution problem like a carb intake. That would be a cool project too, Megasquirt'd EFI, custom intake/header slant 6!

you still have a big variation on air speed though...

 

[pishta]

Really? What about this?

bad design, or maybe ? $1900-2100 bucks...Supra N/A intake Ross engineering pricey piece.