Header Flanges

[ek02]

I found these 3/8" thick header flanges at Advance Adapters for $45.00 for the pair plus shipping. They are the nicest flanges I have ever bought. Now to make the round pegs fit the square holes. I'm going to make another set of Kenne Bell type 3 into 1 headers for the truck like I made years ago, but with a few changes in the collector. I will use 16 gauge mild steel. I could use stainless like I did for my cutouts and exhaust system, but welding small 1 5/8" stainless tubes causes a lot of sugaring inside the tube unless you seal them and flood the tubes with argone while welding. I used a flux on the stainless exhaust system to cut down on sugaring, but those pipes are big so it does not cause much restriction..

 

[WE2Regal]

I may already have what you need. I have a set of new Kenne Bell headers for a GM H body. Think they might work on the truck?

 

[ek02]

The headers on my truck come out of the fenderwells and exit outside the frame. There is no room next to the block for the headers The frame is in the way on the passenger side and the steering box is in the way on the drivers side. If you have the short 3 into 1 headers they work really well. I have full length 1 1/2" headers and the 3 into 1 1 5/8" headers that I built years ago and I believe the short tube headers work the best. The primaries are 14" to the collector. I got that dimension from Jim Bell years ago. I'm going to use Cone collectors with merge bullets ( goulets) on this set. The short headers Smokey Yunick used had 16" primaries. I may try that length, but not sure yet. I saw his 6 into one headers at Don Garlits museum, but there is no way to fit them to my truck or any street car for that matter. Post a photo of your headers if you can. It would be interesting.

 

[WE2Regal]

The Kenne Bell headers I have are full length. I think they are 1 1/2". They are designed to be bolted on one primary tube at a time with a slip on collector installed last. I'm sure it must be tight in those cars too. I'll dig them out and post photos tomorrow. I have a few other odd ball sets of headers but nothing like you need.

 

[ek02]

One flange is finished. Tubes are welded on the backside of the flange and the weld beads ground and then surfaced on a belt sander and checked with a machinists straight edge .

 

[WarWagon]

Those are nice, I may be after a set later. I need to get a better picture of the full length headers on the 3.8 in my Impulse for you guys. Good for NA, my guesstimate is 33-34" long 1.5" dia primaries into 2.5" merge collectors.

 

[grass doctor]

nice work , cant wait to see the final set, great fab work

 

[ek02]

Those are nice, I may be after a set later. I need to get a better picture of the full length headers on the 3.8 in my Impulse for you guys. Good for NA, my guesstimate is 33-34" long 1.5" dia primaries into 2.5" merge collectors.

That's the dimensions of my full length headers. 1.5 tubes 34" long into a 2.5" collector. They work well with ported irons on my spare 4.1. My main engine has GN1 heads, so I think they need 1 5/8" tubes. I finished the other flange today but I won't be working on this project again for about three weeks.

 

[ek02]

I kept looking at the old odd fire flanges and decided to Tig weld the bottoms of the flanges and grind the top to match up with the ports. Came out ok but probably not cost effective considering the time it took. More of a learning experience. Looks like my finished photos disappeared since the site went down. One page is missing from the posts.

 

[ek02]

I picked up 2-3 mph in the 1/8 mile with the new headers and lowered the et 2 tenths. The smoother transition into the collector and the extra 2" with a transition pyramid did the job.

 

[WE2Regal]

Wow! That's a huge gain. Your engine must have been all bottled up with the old headers. Well worth all the time you must have had to put into building them.

 

[ek02]

The old headers had some of the tubes coming into the collector at angles. I made these tubes come in straight plus two more inches on the primary tubes. The little merge triangles where the tubes come into the collector are supposed to help. Well worth doing them. The engine is also louder now out the tailpipe while also lessening an annoying resonance at 2500 rpm.

 

[WarWagon]

Very nice gain Ed. One off headers for the win.