Any tips for making headers?

The chicken tube isn't just for chickens....we also use the same stuff in BREWERIES! And it sure is sweet. There are all sorts of fancy parts available that can be used with a bit of imagination. Some of the reducers make awesome velocity stacks.We used the SS304 in schedule 5. It's easy to tack everything, just fuse it (small tacks). I was able to use the orbital welding machine at my union hall for a lot of the welds and what I couldn't do there, I tigged. The same piping and fittings are used for food processing plants. You may be able source a catalog of fittings from a piping supply house. Great stuff to use for intake manifolds also.

One wood and plastic header coming right up.

I have had stainless steel tubing bent using the sand method. Well it was actualy 18" & 20" diameter pipe for a bridge project that I worked on.

a401cj wrote:

mainlandboy wrote: I built my own headers for my Locost. I used a 1/2" thick piece of flatbar for the flange, and used a holesaw to cut the ports (took forever to cut the 4 holes). I then bought a box of 90 degree elbows, cut them to fit, then joined them into a 4 into 1 collector. There are some pics in my online build gallery here: http://picasaweb.google.com/marktsui1975/MarkSLocost# Hope this helps, Mark

1/2"? One-Half of an inch? yeah...I see you did. That flange must weigh more than the whole rest of the car! WTF?

I have heard of headers that used a 3/8" flange that have warped, and I didn't want to take any chances welding it together, or have to mill the mating surface flat after welding. The total weight of the car is 1380 lbs, so it's still much lighter than almost any car on the street.

Mark

Here's what I came up with for my first attempt at making a header... Not the prettiest, but once the welds were ground down it's ok. It fits and no leak. Luckily, I've got a tube bender with a 1 5/8 die so I could do a little tweaking I got a passenger header from an MG conversion guy's scrap pile. It fits, but it's 1 1/2". Mine is 1 5/8". Guess I'll be making another soon.

What's your firing order? Some folks suggest that arranging the exhaust pulses to arrive at the collector in a circular order will yield better results. OTH, screw them, I like the way those look.

Not a bad start! It's pretty fun, isn't it?

Definitely takes some patience. Satisfying when all the tubes come together. The good news is that in order to get nice cuts (at least that's my excuse)I picked up a 14" metal chop saw. I have everything I need to start on the locost (except space).

Yes, chop saw is pretty much required. A belt sander helps a lot too to make sure all the cuts are completely flat. That's also true of Locost construction.

I made do with a hand file but I see a nice sander in my future. Got it in tonight. The collector is a little low, but there's a little room to trim.

nice job!

Can i just say that that's a seriously awesome looking suspension setup?

Agreed!

That header and routing looks very similar to what I built for my GT. The long lower control arm from the grafted-on Miata suspension forced me to run the header a bit closer to the firewall, but we're on the same page

There's not a lot of options where you can route them. I mounted the engine lower than most of the mg conversion crowd so there wasn't room inside the rails. I've seen some flip a stock manifold or shorty headers and route in front of the engine- it works, but looks dorky and has more exhaust tubing and heat in the engine bay. My upper control arm and shock mounts take up a little more room than stock - pretty much leaving me with through the fender at the firewall.

The suspension is blend of stuff out of herb adams' book, Keith's locost build, the locost forum and a freeware suspension program called Wishbone. Wish I'd thought of grafting the miata suspension on. I ended up stretching the wheelbase 2" and the track is about 6" wider than a stock mg.

a401cj wrote: 1/2"? One-Half of an inch? yeah...I see you did. That flange must weigh more than the whole rest of the car! WTF?

Oh ye who hath not knowledge of heat distortion. It will turn thinner flanges into a pretzel.

Anyhow, here's the two I've made, both from 321 stainless. A bandsaw works really sweet. I really enjoy making headers.