New Turbo Buick Headers

[TurboNova]

Thanks Geno for letting me use your block and heads, I am going to have to find a junk set if I am going to keep building these. They really turned out excellent. The only thing left is the flex joint in the crossover, it should be here this week. This set is 321 stainless but we will also build these in mild steel and 304 stainless, I am working on the price now. We will also be selling just the driver side header with a v-band clamp and a stub to splice on your crossover. These headers are almost exactly in the same location as the stock headers. Check out some pictures of the header kit at

http://www.brianmacy.com/buickheaders.htm

We are still working on them and they are not quite finished. There is still a little left on the jig along with the flex joint. Check them out and give me some feed back.

 

[BandAid]

Awesome work............
1 When you sell that stub with the driveres side header,make that stub long enough and have a flex on the end,that way I can just cut it under the car and weld the other half of the flex to my existing crossover...

2 relocated the O2 sensor ,stock location sux donkey poop,dont need to keep that crappy location..

.just my thoughts :smile:

3 price them cheap :wink:

 

[FastRegalWE2]

those look nice. Im glad there is still enough interest in these cars to keep people coming up with new stuff for us.

 

[XXQUICK6XX]

Headers

Hey Brian,
First nice nova and I heard you do good work. http://www.brianmacy.com/horsepower/Products.htm But I think where you are putting the clamp for the crossover would be a real pita for working on the exhaust on a car with the heater still in the car. Please take this as constructive critisim because I am glad that you have intrest in trying to do this. Plus you have to consider how much space between body /heater/motor/starter/downpipe that you have to operate in. But in my opinion good planning is the is just one of the steps to a successful product. But so far looks good pry just needs some tweaking.

Steve Pitts

 

[TurboNova]

Awesome work............
1 When you sell that stub with the driveres side header,make that stub long enough and have a flex on the end,that way I can just cut it under the car and weld the other half of the flex to my existing crossover...

2 relocated the O2 sensor ,stock location sux donkey poop,dont need to keep that crappy location..

.just my thoughts :smile:

3 price them cheap :wink:

Where would you want the O2 located?
I was thinking about a v-band on the drivers side header that you could cut the stock flare off and slip it into the other end of the v-band and weld. It is mild steel so you could mig weld it. I think a flex that close to the end of the header is asking for trouble.

Cheap, well I doubt it, the time involved in building these as a set takes quite a bit with all of the little things. I can build a set of small block chevy turbo headers in about half the time. Maybe the driver side header in mild steel we could do cheap but the stainless stuff takes alot longer. I would rather do less headers and quality work than a bunch of them cheap and half ass.

 

[TurboNova]

Hey Brian,
First nice nova and I heard you do good work. http://www.brianmacy.com/horsepower/Products.htm But I think where you are putting the clamp for the crossover would be a real pita for working on the exhaust on a car with the heater still in the car. Please take this as constructive critisim because I am glad that you have intrest in trying to do this. Plus you have to consider how much space between body /heater/motor/starter/downpipe that you have to operate in. But in my opinion good planning is the is just one of the steps to a successful product. But so far looks good pry just needs some tweaking.

Steve Pitts

That is exactly what I am looking for, thanks Steve. I do not have a car here to try them on. We are just building the Jig off of a stock set and the block/heads that Geno supplied. The headers and crossover were built to be almost exactly the same as the stock crossover. The most they might vary 1/8" at the crossover. The Headers are exactly the same. We tried to make the V-band in the same location as the orginal crossover connection. The clamp can be rotated for better access to the bolt.

Keep the ideas coming.

 

[Lee Thompson]

idea

On the drivers side header--between where #3 and # 5 go in the runner-- the stock header are very prone to cracking there. One fix is to weld a gussett @ that location. The O-2 would be better served rotated 90 degrees and pointing toward the front of car. Also the v-band on the pass side needs to be a few inches farther back on the crossover. On stock headers the 2 bolts are easily accessed @ that joint but with a v-band it will be hard to get to. Just a thought.

 

[TurboDave]

Where would you want the O2 located?
I was thinking about a v-band on the drivers side header that you could cut the stock flare off and slip it into the other end of the v-band and weld. It is mild steel so you could mig weld it. I think a flex that close to the end of the header is asking for trouble.

Cheap, well I doubt it, the time involved in building these as a set takes quite a bit with all of the little things. I can build a set of small block chevy turbo headers in about half the time. Maybe the driver side header in mild steel we could do cheap but the stainless stuff takes alot longer. I would rather do less headers and quality work than a bunch of them cheap and half ass.

Why not just rotate the O2 bunk about another 90° (in either direction actually), so it can be sticking straight out the front of the tube or rear. At least it could be gotten to rather easilly, and at the very worst, a short cable extension is all that would be required, if at all.

 

[TurboNova]

On the drivers side header--between where #3 and # 5 go in the runner-- the stock header are very prone to cracking there. One fix is to weld a gussett @ that location. The O-2 would be better served rotated 90 degrees and pointing toward the front of car. Also the v-band on the pass side needs to be a few inches farther back on the crossover. On stock headers the 2 bolts are easily accessed @ that joint but with a v-band it will be hard to get to. Just a thought.

The cracking issue is addressed with far better material and better welding than the factory did. Everything is Tig welded and back purged, the material these are made out of is 321 and is the best you can use. Even 304 or mild steel coated would work better than the factory headers did. The factory welding joints were really bad. I heard about the O2 sensor location but without having a car to put these together on I was a little reluctant about changing much that might make these not fit. If I can put the O2 anywhere without hitting anything we could move it on the next pair.

 

[turbohye]

Hey those look really nice man. Would it be just as easy to tap those with an EGT probe? Thanks for supporting the Buick! :redface:

 

[norbs]

:wink: Those look real nice, but i would be interested in a set 4 bolt with a 3" pipe on the passenger side header all the way instead of 2.5" WHats your thinking on this? The gases from all 6 cyl's are forced into a 2.5" pipe i think a 3" would rock!

 

[TurboNova]

Hey those look really nice man. Would it be just as easy to tap those with an EGT probe? Thanks for supporting the Buick! :redface:

It would be easy to drill a EGT probe where ever you want after you get them. I personally don't use EGT's for anything. An O2 will tell you all you need to know.

 

[TurboNova]

:wink: Those look real nice, but i would be interested in a set 4 bolt with a 3" pipe on the passenger side header all the way instead of 2.5" WHats your thinking on this? The gases from all 6 cyl's are forced into a 2.5" pipe i think a 3" would rock!

It wouldn't be hard to put a 4 bolt turbo flange there, the 3" pipe would take another jig to make it the same though. I know several guys running a 2 1/2" crossover on a V8 that run 6 second quarters. I don't think the 2 1/2" is hurting any power. I built these more as a stock replacement set than to be a better design. My plan was to offer these as a bolt in replacement set. If I had a car to build from I would have used a traditional collector and designed the headers different. What we were after was to supply an option to replace the stock cracked set with something better.

 

[TurboNova]

Keep the ideas coming

 

[norbs]

A 6 second car on a single 2.5" pipe feeding all 8 cyls into one turbo?


The crossover is fine 2.5" but the pass side header piece i think should be bigger, but i am no exhaust engineer. Would be interesting to dyno that change though.

 

[TurboNova]

A 6 second car on a single 2.5" pipe feeding all 8 cyls into one turbo?


The crossover is fine 2.5" but the pass side header piece i think should be bigger, but i am no exhaust engineer. Would be interesting to dyno that change though.

Yes, my friend Dal from Canada had a Mustang that runs 6.70s @ 200+ with a single 106mm and a 2 1/2" crossover. I really think for a stock buick or even anything short of the stage 2 engine a 2 1/4" - 2 1/2" crossover would work fine. If you make the crossover bigger then you should also make the header tube bigger or there is no point to it.

The headers that I built have 2 1/4" tube for both headers and the crossover, the same as the factory manifolds that I have. The crossover is the same but is mandrel bends, not crush bent. The passenger side header is actually bigger than the stock tube and transitions much better. With the v-band connections there is no necking down or smaller transitions anywhere. They should flow alot better than the stock exhaust.

It would be fun to dyno test different combinations, if someone would let me use their engine I could do some testing

 

[highboost2000]

Brian
The headers are looking awesome and man we need them, question is , if someone is using a girdle, is there enough room for the pan to move down, (between the pan and the crossover). Just wondering, but keep it going. :biggrin:

 

[norbs]

I am not concerned about the crossover size its good where its at now. The pass side header what is the diameter of pipe your using, just wondering?

 

[sdteb]

headers

these are the headers brian is building for me...he is a great guy and obviously does great work...my motor is girdled and he is making sure they work with girdle in place....
brian check out my new motor these headers are going on www.shandy.com/newmotor

later...

 

[TurboNova]

I am not concerned about the crossover size its good where its at now. The pass side header what is the diameter of pipe your using, just wondering?

All of the bigger tube is 2 1/4" all the way from the header through the crossover. The driver header tube is a little larger than the factory one that we have and the rest is the same size as the stock stuff we have.