broke parts, got bored, BUILT STUFF

[slimtastic]

well this time i managed to trash the hell out of my modified pass side manifold in two sections. cracked one of the primarys and then managed to fold over metal in the wastegate section. the jurys out on the cause of the folded metalin the wastegate section, possible low quality 409 stainless and red hot temp?

great example of the difference in size in a GN1 exhaust port vs. a stock header port with the charred outline. ths was evident on all 6 ports

so i figured it was time to start over and make a nice full stainless pass side manifold and 2.5 inch crossover to compliment my previously built dr side 3to1 header. this is just the starting and inital mock up of the crossover and manifold with me working 2.5 inch tubing from the turbo inlet all the way over to the dr side v band flange. after final welding of the 2.5 inch tubing ill go back and add inthe 1.5 inch primarys. all flanges that are buick specific are from RJC.

more room here than it looks. ill be moving the tranny lines soon as well

2.5 flex coupler in the crossover section

driver side header with 2.5 v band

ill update the thread as soon as i get more stuff done...but thats a wrap for tonight!

 

[Squid4life]

Nice progress so far. I am jealous... threads like this make me want a better welder...

 

[Phoneguy]

Threads like these make me wish I had a welder...and knew how to use it! LOL

Bryan

 

[slimtastic]

pics of fully welded pipes...
the fully welded main pipe for the pass side manifold that bolts to the turbine housing

finished crossover pipe.. fits like a gem

this is how im going to transition my primary 1.5 tubing into the rjc flange (putting a round peg in a square hole). this is basicly a practice run to get a feel for hammering this size of tubing

i hammered out the tubing into an oval shape then placed it in my3/4 thick aluminum homemade dye. 5 minutes later and a few whacks. i have aprimary that slips right into the rjc flange. how much time thats spent on making it fit is largly dependant on how accurate the dye is to the flange

 

[Phoneguy]

Nice work man...

Bryan

 

[charlief1]

Thank you for the idea of the flange forming. You've just solved one of the headaches I've been trying to figure out. Now I can use the flanges I've got for the 1 & 5/8" tubes.

 

[slimtastic]

ok with the main tube fully built and the crossover done its time to tackle the hardest part of this process. adding the primary tubes to a preexisting tube from a flange...both that are locked and immoveable from one another. since i have only bought what i needed to make the header, i dont have any backup bends on site. so this is how i took an edjucated guess for where i need to cut holes inthe main tube.

knowing that the pipes and the primarys were going to run into eachother from the excess primary length, i decided to take some welding wire and fix it directly over the main tube as to act as a guide line for the proper hole cutter location. once the wire was parrellel with the angle of the main tube. i removed the tube and installed the header flange with the overly long primary ends all while not disturbing the welding wire as its now a point of reference.

looking throught the wheel well and using a sharpie i marked the sectionof welding wire and intersects the primary tubing. from there a few measurements of the primarys off the car and i can take an educated guess of the primary locations on the maintube

and push come to shove ...if im a little bit off when hole cutting the primarys into the main tube, i can always adjust the angle the primarys take out of the header flange

 

[Mike E]

Nice. I'm steeling your primary die idea. How quick is it to make them fit with that setup? I usually go back and forth between a vice and a hammer trying to square them and it takes a lot of time and frustration. I'll be building some 1.5" primary 2" crossover headers for my motor soon with rjc flanges. I pickled the flanges in muratic acid to take the scale off.

 

[slimtastic]

its about 3-5 minutes per primary..... its super quick unce you get an idea of where and how you need to hammer the tube...ill start by crushing the tube in a vice untill i get an oval that will slide down into the aluminum form...then hammer one side flat...flip ot over and hammer the other side flat

i dont usually take the flange scale off,,i mean sure its kinda ugly but it keeps rust off for a while untill i can send the headers out to ceramic coat.

 

[slimtastic]

somtimes the corners will not form to the dye properly, so when its inthe aluminum dye ill go back with a blunt end punch in the "shallow corner" and swat it square a couple times.

 

[charlief1]

I'm suprised you didn't use steel to make the tube form. It would hold up better than aluminum wouldn't it?

 

[Phoneguy]

Damn you make that look easy...Well done.

Bryan

 

[slimtastic]

I'm suprised you didn't use steel to make the tube form. It would hold up better than aluminum wouldn't it?

yes it would but i dont want to mark up the stainless tube more than i have too.. besides putting a tube form notch like that in 3/4 steel would be a pain in the butt

 

[slimtastic]

Nice. I'm steeling your primary die idea. How quick is it to make them fit with that setup? I usually go back and forth between a vice and a hammer trying to square them and it takes a lot of time and frustration. I'll be building some 1.5" primary 2" crossover headers for my motor soon with rjc flanges. I pickled the flanges in muratic acid to take the scale off.

dude i just stumbled into your s2-header build thread......your better at this fab stuff than i am lol

 

[slimtastic]

finially got some time to start work on the primary tubes, which is the biggest pain it the a$$ out of the whole header build process if your not building a 3to1 style collector...

taking a rought ballpark guess of the Xand Y demensions of the oval hole id have to make (1.5 by 2.35+) i went ahead and made a few ovals on MS paint to get the genneral idea of the odd shape that id have to grind out, then print/cut the shape out and transpose it over the area that i had previously marked for the "primary landing" of my 1.5 header tubes.

first tube in place no4.

second tube in place no6.

with both tubes mocked up. i went ahead and gave both tubes a strong batch of tacks while in the car. then pulled the assembly and ran full welds.

now dont be fooled by how fast it may look to do....each primary tube took me around 45-50 minutes to fully FULLY set,grind, adjust and prep for welding, so take your time. the last primary tube (no2) will most likley take me a full hour to "ready" for welding as i have to cut a few bends out and "snake" the no2 a bit.

 

[karolko]

i would really like to see how you finished off the last primary, mainly since it is soo close to the main exhaust and then were you chose to put your wastegate piping in...

Keep going, great thread, and good work.

 

[slimtastic]

yea it should be interesting, the pictures are deceiving but theres enough room to pull off a no2 primary, ill just have to run it nearly straight up then make an advance towards the main tube.

 

[BIGPSI]

looks great!

 

[slimtastic]

i accidently changed the style of this thread from "look what i made" to "this is how you make it" lol

 

[Top Speed]

Very nice work!