How to build a header

[8valves]

Well this will serve as a follow up to the thread about the van intercooler. This weekend my friend Zach and I got to work doing a GT35R setup on his Evo. We started on it early friday morning and finished it up to take it out to the local meet by saturday night at 9:30, so it went pretty damn well!

This will be mostly pictures, as there are a lot, start to finish.

Enjoy!

Getting the car situated in the AMotion garage...



As is, EVO9 turbo setup on a cheapie manifold...







Old IC plumbing we made had to move to allow clearance...







Me getting busy... gotta love the chair!













Turbo mock up positioning. At this point the heim joint brace was done, and the downpipe will be done first as the design of the header could prevent the DP from getting back under the oil pan if there wasn't room alloted for it. You have to remember order of operations in a full system build like this, so you don't end up having to change/cut stuff up afterwards.

[8valves]

Downpipe started...







Remember to NOT use the flex section to make it fit, because then it's not really a flex section anymore. It needs to be at rest in the system when cold.



On to the wastegate and secondary with collector location. Lots of thought has to go into this as for turbo and turbo line clearance, vacuum routing, wastegate positioning, clearance to wiring/sensors with appropriate heat shields if necessary, diameter, and collector positioning to make sure the primaries will clear everything without having any cheated bends/miter cuts. This is why the downpipe was done first.









Now onto the primaries! Keep nice gradual bends in mind, and you need a plan before you start running tubes anywhere. Radiator clearance, bolt access, length of primaries, radius bends you have available, etc.







Now we're getting somewhere!



The collector I made for it...

[8valves]

Once all the tubes are tacked together it gets removed and broken down into individual primaries and welded. Then fit back on to the car and tacked again to ensure location, then final welded.













While the header was off and being welded the downpipe got wrapped and lower charge pipe were done since the turbo location has been finalized.





And there it is! Just some small pieces like a custom upper water pipe made, etc.



And it's running! With a brushed SS header and tubing like this it is imperative to clean all surfaces thoroughly before first fireup so that gorgeous gold color can come through. Now it's time for some tuning and driving!

















Car is wrapped up and on it's way home. Not bad for a weekend! His larger injectors didn't fit into the intake well so we had to leave the car on minor power for now. So soon the fuel system will be brought up to spec with the rest of the car with some 1200cc injectors and I will dial it in and have it running good on the AEM in no time.

The sounds it makes now are just wicked, and the local guys freaked out seeing under the hood. It's always nice to hear, "man, where did you buy THAT!?"

Hope you guys enjoyed it!

[BoostedDrummer]

That looks wicked!

[zin]

Very nice work! I'm happy to see the collector is sequential, most don't know to do that!

Mike

[Mopar318]

Awesome work. What type and thickness of tubing do you use? Stainless Chinese weld-els never look that good after warmup!

Now you have made the manifold bolts look like poop, time for some trick hardware.

[BadAssPerformance]

Beautiful work as always

[8valves]

Awesome work. What type and thickness of tubing do you use? Stainless Chinese weld-els never look that good after warmup!

Now you have made the manifold bolts look like poop, time for some trick hardware.

That's all SS304 .063" wall tubing. I don't prefer to do sch10 manifolds unless it's for a rediculously abused road race car. I honestly just don't like how they look.

Funny you mentioned that! He's getting all ARP hardware for the system to match the looks.

Thanks for the compliments! It was a lot of fun but we are both ready to relax and enjoy the weekend a bit.

[turboshad]

Looks great Aaron!! When welding the primaries seperately how do you keep them from pulling? Is there any muscle work need to get them realigned when putting it all back together?

[rx2mazda]

...Is there any muscle work need to get them realigned when putting it all back together?

if there is, you in trouble! lol.

Nice work Aaron!

[Force Fed Mopar]

I can honestly say that I would have no problem letting you do anything on my car Excellent work.

[8valves]

Looks great Aaron!! When welding the primaries seperately how do you keep them from pulling? Is there any muscle work need to get them realigned when putting it all back together?

Now you know why I haven't had the time to go through those PM's or drawings from you DJ! Haha!

No not really. It's an extremely tight fit to begin with, but I allow for zero gaps on the primary seams and have at least 4 tacks per joint before finish welding. If you notice I make the collector out of 1 7/8" so the 1 3/4" tubing slip fits into it, then it gets welded. This makes the fitment much more precise, not allowing any mismatching of the primary to the collector. A little tap of the BFH and the tubing gets stuck back where it started per some marks and then it is finish welded.

[168glhs1986]

It's always nice to hear, "man, where did you buy THAT!?"

Aaron, I'd like to buy one of the headers for my GLHS, how much?....lol

[8valves]

Aaron, I'd like to buy one of the headers for my GLHS, how much?....lol

I would love to build something like this for a Turbo Mopar. There's a whole new world of appearance and power waiting for those that end up going a similar route to this.

[turbovanman²]

I hate you, but in a good way,

That is simply awesome,

Makes me want to get my new header done sooner than later.

[86seeS]

Amazing work man!!!

[fishcleaner]

I hate you, but in a good way,

That is simply awesome,

Couldn't have been said any better. Want to share some of your secrets on cutting tubing and how you calculate the cut angle lengths?

[8valves]

Thanks everyone!

Secrets? Well, as far as fitment goes. I hate to sound arrogant somewhat but 95% of it is eyeball measurements. I think I've just done it enough to learn how/when to eyeball it and not. Sometimes you can throw a little math in for simple situations like running 90* to the head, but higher or lower than the exhaust port can be achieved simply but cutting a 90* bend without altering it's radius and rotating the two pieces to achieve your desired height.

Other than that, I always keep my box of small pieces of scrap that were misfits or remnants from other projects, that way you can test fit just the angle by tacking a piece of straight onto it. Too much angle for what you need? No problem, match the scrap piece to the same radius fresh piece and trace it out adjust the angle accordingly. Same goes for the leg off of the bend. Do that and voila, you eliminate having excess weld seams with little pieces all over, which also tend to warp and move the tube during finish welding a lot more.

That's tough to put in words, but can you visualize what I'm saying?

[fishcleaner]

That's tough to put in words, but can you visualize what I'm saying?

yea, you're just better at it than me, what do you use to cut the tubing, bandsaw or chopbox, the cuts look great

[cordes]

So you're saying we just need to practice.

Very nice work. Impressive as usual to say the least. I feel like I've totally squandered a day off to boot.