Home made headers

[tonyton]

I have been experimenting with header length, muffler and various cominations. There is not a lot of selection on the market. The 1st set was 14 1/2 inches and the two to one with the muffler. I never like it much, but it was better than stock for my engine. It took brazing rod, a torch, sawzall. tubing bender and lots of time and tubing. I made the flanges out of flat stock 1/4"

[tonyton]

After discovering the bends would hit the plastic fan housing, I hit the drawing board again, Here is #2 prototype. I'm trying to get 30" headers in there

[tonyton]

Keeping it simple, here is what they look like and when you unscrew those mufflers...WOW The tubing bender won't get the sharp radius for these bends, you need to cut slits in the inner radius to compress it that much. The time and labor probably would have warrnted a $300 aftermarket pipe. I learned a lot and had some fun doing it. Thanks Fred for the input and pointers

[Tonka329]

Awesome Tony! I have been thinking how to do a true "dual" on my G9... What kind of bender and pipe are you using?

[tonyton]

Well, The only real steel pipe I could find was 1" EMT @ about $6-7 per 10' The bender is a standard emt bender but uses too much pipe to make the radius. So there is about 50 slices on the inside of each bend to remove more materail and allow the bend. The 1" bender used to a 45 degree and then slit in the radius will give you a 16" 180 degree turn. It was a little trick with compound bends but the standard S is not too hard. There is a lot of brazing to plug the slitsand make it really strong. Thanks, Glad you like them. I used a wrap instead of paint. It is not worth a crap. use silica/ ceramic paint or raw steel. The galvinized won't rust anyway, or the braze
Also, these are each one piece of steel. no bends welded to bends. Just braze to fill holes!

[tonyton]

I'll see if I can post pics of how much to bend and how deep to cut the slits. Too deep and you have a ton of fill work. If you want to try it, I can ilustarate the basic bending, no problem. No more brazing for me though....
Have a good Sunday.

[Tonka329]

Just curious. I have thought about just using exhaust pipe also. I will be using the rest of it for brush guard and bumpers!!

[rifter]

Tony, if you make another set try making what's called "step headers" start with the 1" for 6 to 8 inches then go to 1-1/4, that step to a larger diameter causes a suction vortex that will help get the exhaust out and supposed to raise the horse power. Just a thought.

[tonyton]

Thanks for the tip Rifter. That makes good sense. I was told of a crossover tube that would allow flow to both mufflers. We'll see how it goes
I used the 1" conduit because of size and availabity and price. You would need to find some chromoly steel for protective devices. There may be better and/or lighter now. That was old M/C frames, now they're aluminum??
In case anyone is interested and isn't sure how, I made a couple photos of as scrap bend.The first picture was a good pre bent 45 degree and betwen the two lines is only 12". Pic 2 shows the degree at the bender, the 3rd is my mark to keep me near where I'm supposed to be. The 4th and 5th show an estimated depth of the cut. That blade was thicker than my previous, so I cut them a little deep. The less you cut the less you braze.

[tonyton]

I start at the center of the bend and try to be consistant different distances between cuts will tweak the bend. Push ten together by hand and there is a sharp turn with 1" pipe