Project: L-body headers

[robertisaar]

well, no shit?

+13.5 man points for John!

[ForcedFirebird]

Well, I "borrowed" Six_Shooter's front header idea

[Superdave]

Well, I "borrowed" Six_Shooter's front header idea

IIRC he's where i got the idea for the shorties that i built for "MajorZ24"


looking good!

[torq455]

Major has headers?! What kind of a gain did he get?

[IsaacHayes]

John, my only concern with you making these better is that you might stay within the dimenions of your jig, but might run into other areas that are not on your motor. Items that you really need to put on that engine to check:

Starter (old ones are large)
Oil pressure sender (the long variable ones)
Dipstick
Coolant return line that goes into the Timing cover/water pump housing.

That last one is a big concern right now, I'm thinking the new routing is going to run into it.

Here is a picture for an idea:

Here are more shots with SS installed:
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...d/100_2206.jpg
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh201/3400modified/100_2205-1.jpg

I just don't want you to have to re-do them multiple times. But the new design does look pimp!

[onefastV6]

Once you get them finished you should send them out and them digitized. Then in the future you could have have pre made mandrel bent tubes that you would just weld to the collectors.

http://www.mandrelbendingsolutions.com/servlet/the-Custom-Mandrel-Bends/Categories

[Superdave]

Major has headers?! What kind of a gain did he get?

I don't think he's used them yet. He bought them several years ago to put on his 3400 that was going in the blue 1st gen.

they were a stepped tube shorty design, i forget the primary length but the started off at 1 5/8 and stepped down to 1 1/2" after a few inches. 2" crossover and a 2.5" collector.

[RedBird]

my big concern is are they going to fit over the tranny on 5 speed cars? a guy over on bstuff had to mod the shit outta his tranny and mount bracket to use S&S headers.....

[IsaacHayes]

Having the collector back further like this and just a smaller 2" cross over tube going should help with the older mount bracket... Clearing the bell housing is another issue though.

[Superdave]

The crossover will tell the story...

Forced, if you want measurements with pictures just let me know... i have a HM282 sitting 12" from a spare block and my headers are up on a shelf.



One of the big concerns with a 5 speed is clearing the shift cables, i had to wrap my cables in a few layers of fiberglass heat wrap because they sat very close to the rear header.

[IsaacHayes]

Yes Dave, please do!!!! please! Shift cables are not something I thought of. I'm sure John will tell you yes as well.

[ForcedFirebird]

Pics are nice.

I started messing with the crossover after welding the primary seems up, but haven't welded anything. The crossover starting so close to the corner of the head makes the jig look HUGE in that area where the collector was on the S&S. Looking straight at the back of the block, you could have a bell housing that literally was straight out from the mounting bosses lol. I'll take pics of that area.

Well, they didn't end up perfectly equal length but they are really close

Issac, Loner's car had trouble with that hard line for his turbo kit (also the fan) so we cut it with some copper cutters, flared the end a little and used rubber to move it.

I noticed the oil pressure sensor, if it's the same location as the 3500, then you will want to either cover it with something, or put an elbow on it and make the sensor face a little down (45* is sufficient).

If you would rather, I can make your set obnoxiously non-equal length to clear everything :P

[Superdave]

I'll try to get some pics tomorrow when i get out of work.


With the first set of long tubes i built i made the mistake of getting the primaries too close to the top of the '282 bell housing, i ended up grinding a lot of material off of the trans bracket to get it to clear. no fun...

[IsaacHayes]

John, sounds like it will clear the OPSU, and 45* angle is what is already on my motor to clear the S&S (Jon used a spark plug insulator instead though).

Cutting the coolant hard line and using rubber isn't something I really want to do, or have the tools to, and I'm sure others won't as well. If you had one there I think you could work around it, just by angling the collector some.

[1988GTU]

Modding the coolant tube is going to be a lot easier than reworking the front header.
If you're modding your car to this extreme, you shouldn't have any issues making the headers work.


Time to gain a new skill for those that dont know how to fabricate.