MX6.0

The end of the flange on the drivers side at #7 seems to be off between 1/16" - 1/8". Unfortunately I think it's going to take more than just a gasket to seal it up.


What about heating it up to get it mostly straight, then having them milled flat?

My concern with only milling them is that it would take too much meat off the flange and remove too much of the welds on the insides of the tubing.

2001CamaroGuy

iTrader: (6)

Agreed (about the milling). I would heat the flanges (not red hot) to let them stress relieve before milling. I'm sure they have quite a bit of stress in them.

I don't see an issue with cutting the flanges to make them individual. As long as they are bolted to the heads when they heat cycle, they should take the form of the head. Motorcycles and European cars all have separate flanges and don't have any issues.

ig109

Ideally welding them together while bolted to a head would have been the best option.. thus using the aluminum as a heat sink and preventing warpage.. as well as holding them flat..

Have them milled.. heating and pulling will cause cracks..

MX6.0

I suggested that since I had old heads laying around anyway but they didn't think they would be able to get enough heat in the flange doing it that way.

usdmholden

I did not realize the extent to which they had warped. If it's .063" or larger, that's a whole lot more than I expected. I suspect you will have to heat then mill. If there was .020" of warpage then milling only, no issue at all. If you have to cut .100" off the flange, that's alot more than I would want to do.

Mount to the head, tighten the bolts you can tighten without putting alot of stress into to flange/tubes, heat required areas with a torch and tighten the rest while hot / heating, then let it all cool. After that, mill flat.

I've been tacking my headers (modified steel Mustang Accufabs, 3/8" steel ebay flanges) with the flange bolted to the head and the tubes in the ports. Granted, I'm tacking with a TIG so I can heat on the flange for a bit before I move the puddle towards the tube and dip in the filler rod. It would be a little harder with the MIG because of the material thickness differences, and the giant aluminum heat sink

If you cut them, you will have to cut between the two bolts in the center of the flange, otherwise cutting elsewhere the port near the cut will not have an exhaust bolt on each side of the seal, and that port with the missing bolt will leak. Unless you can cut through the center of the bolt hole, and then use a thick washer to clamp both sides.

MX6.0

Made some progress today. Dad came by and we decided to file off the excess welds on the head side of the flange to see exactly how far things were out of whack. Upon close inspection, the warping on the drivers side is at cylinder #5 and the gap just gets larger toward #7. Here's a shot of it without #5 and #7 bolted down.




Since we were just test fitting them on some old heads we decided to see how hard it would be to tighten down the last 2 bolts. Much to my surprise it tightened down with very little force....definitely less than the recommended 20ft/lbs. Crisis #1 averted!




Next I decided test for leaks. I covered the flange end with tape and blew into the collector to see if I could hear air escaping anywhere. Turns out there are a couple leaks where the collector slides onto the primaries. Not exactly sure how to fill the gaps now that it's all welded together Here's the spots that are leaky.




And lastly, a shot next to the shortys.

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Great job on the headers, I'm going to have to try my hand at a set.

I've seen people weld the bits where you have leaks straight off when they weld the cone, then carry on to the rest. I don't know of another way to get that area without separating the merge and collector.

zuffen

It may sound stupid but have you thought about having the leaks stick welded.

I know it isn't the perfect solution but it may just be the simplest way to go.

Tig

Your headers look amazing.
Man, that's not cool about the collectors leaking.
How did your weldor miss this?

MX6.0

This is the what we ended up doing. My dad was able to reach all the way in there with a an old stick welder and some stainless rod. Got the collectors all sealed up without cutting anything!




Filed the extra welds on the flange down flat and smoothed out the insides of the primaries.




Headers all packed up and ready for ceramic coating.

ig109

Look good.. Cant wait to see your performance gains as well as what you do with the rest of the exhaust..

Wish i had room for another project.. Id have me one of these!!

MX6.0

Right now my plan is to use this Magnaflow X-pipe after the trans mount then a couple of these Vibrant resonators between the X-pipe and axle. The resonators will quiet the car down some and resemble catalytic converters. I haven't decided what I'm going to do for mufflers yet. I'd also like to run cut-outs, so a quiet muffler would be better.

Tig

Nice man, your dad did a great job.
Stainless stick welding is awesome, so clean.

Have you thought about Magna packs for another resonator?

Who's doing the ceramic coating?

MX6.0

You mean the straight through round ones? I actually bought a couple 14419's but they are too long to fit between the X pipe and the rear. I was considering using them sideways behind the axle but I'm not sure they'll be quiet enough.

Just got my emissions notice, so I have until October 2nd to figure it out. lol

Pony Exp.305

iTrader: (6)

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gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

That is awesome news!

vazfx16

Great job and the headers, the save and the write up. They look great. The welding is top notch too

Tig

Yup, they are the ones I'm talkin about.
Hmm you're right, they might not quiet it down enough.
I know Burns makes some decent re-buildable mufflers. Maybe you could look into them and maybe throw some extra packing in them. They have quite the selection to.
Maybe you could throw a couple of high flow cats in instead of mufflers.

You have a little time

MX6.0

Had a big box waiting for me when I got home today. Lucy couldn't wait to see what was inside.




NitroPlate couldn't have done a better job on the ceramic coating....and they got them back to me ahead of schedule!






Turns out the Magnaflow X-Pipe I ordered from Summit isn't going to work. It's just too wide to fit up high enough in the transmission tunnel. So after looking around for a while I figured I'd see about making my own.

After some measurements I decided how I wanted them positioned. Next step was to figure out where to cut the 45* bends. For this I plan on using a 2" wide ruler and marking straight lines (or as straight as I can get) with a sharpie.




Before possibly ruining 2 expensive stainless pipes I decided to try to make one out of the 1 7/8" header scrap pipe. I did one quickly just to see how it would turn out and was surprised how easy it was to get both sides relatively equal. Here's how the mini X-pipe turned out. Tomorrow I'll make the full scale version.

Jimbo1367

As you noticed, slow your speed down some. I am sure it was because it was practice pc. Headers look great!!!