Anyone Made Thier Own Headers (pics)
- Thread starter blackgn1
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There are several that have made their own headers on the board. Look in the fabrication section to see the ones DonWG made. I'm in the process of making a set now and will be posting them when I'm done. It's a total PITA if you don't have everything right and I would suggest that you do quite a bit of reading on it before attempting it. I did a ton of reading as well as asking a bunch of questions to those that have built them. I've even experimented with a few theories on the exhaust flow to see how well it would work.
Thanks Charlie. I'm too darn old to go back to school but I have decided to go back and take a certified welders class at night. Just because I always wanted too. I weld fairly good but I want to learn to be "real good". I thought this class would be a great opportunity to make my own set. I have two months to study before I even attempt to make the design. Thanks for the advice. I will for sure do alot of reading.
Your in TN aren't you? I'll trade you some header building lessons for some of those nice custom plug wires. :biggrin:
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/fa...-stage-2-single-turbo-header-fabrication.html
In my opinion having the right tools makes building headers pretty easy. Stainless tube can be a bear to cut. I've used an abrasive chop saw in the past and I ended up with a lot of scrap tube. Now I have a metal cutting vertical bandsaw and a fine pitch carbon tooth blade I use to cut the tubing. Ask your teacher in the welding class to demonstrate or let you practice with a backpurge setup on tubing. That is shielding gas running through the inside of the tube while you weld. IMO this is a must for stainless. Some reccomend solarflux instead of backpurging, but I personally like backpurging.
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/fa...-stage-2-single-turbo-header-fabrication.html
In my opinion having the right tools makes building headers pretty easy. Stainless tube can be a bear to cut. I've used an abrasive chop saw in the past and I ended up with a lot of scrap tube. Now I have a metal cutting vertical bandsaw and a fine pitch carbon tooth blade I use to cut the tubing. Ask your teacher in the welding class to demonstrate or let you practice with a backpurge setup on tubing. That is shielding gas running through the inside of the tube while you weld. IMO this is a must for stainless. Some reccomend solarflux instead of backpurging, but I personally like backpurging.
Well I may be able to help you on the drivers side if you're interested. I've got a drivers side hooker that I was going to shorten which will make it more like a set of the older DS race headers. It give you a good base to make the crossover but you will need to do some mods. They are not stainless how ever. 
the only suggestion I can offer is DO NOT think bigger is better!!!!!!
look at what everyone is using on street cars, NOT RACE CARS!,
primary tubes are either 1 1/2 or 1 5/8, you need velocity to spool up the turbo, and most are NOT spinning the motor beyond 6000-6500 rpm.
a large primary will make the car/ motor sluggish.
look at what everyone is using on street cars, NOT RACE CARS!,
primary tubes are either 1 1/2 or 1 5/8, you need velocity to spool up the turbo, and most are NOT spinning the motor beyond 6000-6500 rpm.
a large primary will make the car/ motor sluggish.
Thanks guys. I will take you all up on the offers. I saw the thread on using gas in the tubes. That's way past my skills at the present time. I have always welded just never been where I could take a class. There's just something about making your own parts that makes the car much more interesting. Thanks guys and any more information will be appreciated.
ek02
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- Jan 31, 2008
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Be sure to bolt the header to an old head or a piece of channel iron when welding the tubes together where they merge, and when welding the collector on. I had the flange warp pretty bad on the first set of full length headers I ever built. It may not happen with the short primary tubes used on a Turbo V6, but I don't take that chance. Good luck with it.
That is a very good point. They will warp if not bolted to a head and it is a pain to fix them again.
I guess my first attempt should be with steel instead of stainless. Cheaper for the novice. I could mock them up then if it is successful go to stainless. I can see from doing a little studing the crossover is where things get out of line. Should I attempt to get all the exhaust tubes the same lenght? Where's the best place to get the exhaust flange? I'm thinking 1 1/2" tubes.
