66sprint6's Boosted Inline still alive and doin well!

Heres the slow progress on the header so far. I work slow and its a heck of a learning curve but after some words of encouragement from Mike and reminding myself to slooooow down and take my time, Im starting to have fun rather than stress out and doubt myself. I have about 4 hours, one entire evening after work in the last pic alone. Everything is tacked for mock up so I can break it all loose again to adjust or mod and then it will all be welded up when finished.

After alot of thinking, researching and measuring I had some plans drawn up for a header that would scavenge, keep exhaust flow up and spool the turbo with no lag all while not adding any extra heat to the engine bay and guaranteed to never crack under stress and look amazing while doing it. Then I woke up from the nightmare (you know the one, where you spend too much time studying and thinking about something and it haunts your dreams) and drew this up instead.



Itll work for the space I have, be affordable and do the job better than the stock manifold with Jpipe. Ive created a little bit of a headache to do the transitions but doing a 6-2-1 with collectors or even a 6-1 with a big collector just wouldnt fit with the limited space without costing me a fortune. Money isnt the issue, its that IM making it so I dont want a ton of $$$ in something I put together for the first time. If I redo it down the road I might try something different but this should do for now. I kinda stole the idea from a collection of old school Lake pipe headers, try Ys (sorta) and LS truck manifold designs.

Decided to tackle the first obstacle first, clearing the starter.



I then put the middle two pipes in to see where everything else was going to end up. I got started on 1-3 to gain some momentum, see some results and convince myself that I didnt just waste a bunch of pipe. I made some mistakes but nothing that couldnt be sorted out.



Fixed the mistake and got to work on the hardest part so far, the transition of #2 into #1 and then #1 into #3. One down, another to go!



I hope to have 1, 2 and 3 all together this week so I can get started on 4, 5 and 6 soon!

Matt
 
Im debating doing the mini starter...will make this header deal alot easier as well. What mini starters work with our 2 bolt 200s?

Matt
 
Little more progress from last night. Got cylinders 1-3 mocked up and tacked in place...hopefully for good but to where I can easily cut any one of em loose and adjust if necessary.



Put it in the car and decided to wanted to adjust the angle that it exits to the collector. If I had realized this ahead of time I could have turned the entire pipe but thats ok, little cut and a tack or two and were back on schedule. Added the #4 pipe and got it pointing where I want it to as well.



This part looks a little funky to me but I mocked up the collector and itll line up nicely with a little work and should put the collector exactly where I want it. Gonna mess with the #6 pipe and get it sorted out next I think.

Matt
 
drag-200stang":7smi65ch said:
Call Robbmc they should be able to help you.
Click to expand...

Will do! Thanks for the heads up. If I can find one decent enough Ill jump on it, if not Ill make the stock style work.

Matt
 
Almost there!!!



All tacked up in the back so the ugly welds wont show.



Got the collector together best I could



All I have to do now is get the collector to meet up at the right angle and then this part of mock up is done.



Next will be adding a Vband to the end of the collector. This will allow me to remove the up pipe to the turbo and then remove the header from the engine bay easier. I have the 2" pipe to go from the collector to the turbo, just waiting for the Vband to show up as well as a 2" to 2.25" reducer to meet up with the turbo flange.

Matt
 
That's looking great, and should be a quite an improvement in flow over a stock exhaust manifold with a J pipe! :nod:
 
I sure hope so! I guess so long as it doesnt flow WORSE than the stock setup Ill be good :rolflmao: I had every intention to do a simple log setup BUT decided to have some fun and try something else instead. Almost done with it too, cant wait to get it welded up and see how she does!

Matt
 
Ok, got back to work on the header last night and got the #3 pipe to collector set up nicely after a couple tweaks. Getting #4 to the collector was another thing entirely. Probably one of the hardest parts of the entire build and when I thought ide have to buy another 180* pipe to get the bend I needed, a piece of scrap that was hiding out under the welding cart ended up saving the day. It had a minor bend at one end and after some massaging to get the opening angles right it worked out nicely.



Im 100% more happy with the way the #4 pipe looks going into the collector now.



I still have to bolt it onto the head and make sure its 100% but Im almost positive that it is. If so I can move on!

Matt
 
Heres a shot with the intake on to show the clearance for the downpipe. Im hoping to be able to drop the downpipe low and have some room between it and the intake for heat reasons. I may also put together a heat shield but we will cross that bridge when we get there.



This shows the angle of the collector to where the turbo will sit. Im very happy with this so far, should be a simple short run to the turbo from here.

Matt
 
Wow - I am impressed - nicely done.

Will you be adding any bracing/supports on the turbo items to reduce weight-based stress on the header?
 
YES!!!! Once I get the turbo mocked up and where I want it the first thing I will be doing is putting together a good brace for it to try and take most if not all the weight off the header itself. I dont want this sucker cracking after all Ive done getting it together!

Matt
 
Wow, Matt. You're making some really good progress. I'm really looking forward to seeing the final product. I just wish I had some metal skills myself.
 
I didnt and technically still dont :LOL: but I just ended up grabbing some old tubing, cutting it into a bunch of pieces then practiced making it stick back together. Did the same with some thin sheet metal and once I got good enough to make it stick without blowing holes or warping I got to work on the car. TONS of fun and when your done you have alot to be proud of.

Matt
 
Thanks Will! Its gonna be a bit before I fire her up again but Im having a blast fabbing this stuff up!

Didnt have a ton of time this weekend but I got the 3 bolt flange cut off the old J pipe, pressed the 2"-2.5" reducer into the 2.25" hole in the flange, tacked it together and cut off the excess. I then mocked and measured up where I wanted the turbo to sit and got the up pipe tacked in place. If these pics are too dark Ill try to get better ones.



Heres the turbo in place. After accidentally breaking off the bottom of the header when the turbo slipped out of my hand I wedged some wood blocks under it to support the weight and then put some silicone couplers under the air filter and the sharpie between the turbo and radiator to hold it all together. Should live fairly happy in this spot and should allow the downpipe and oil drain line room to live in peace with everything else.



Im gonna have to redo the intercooler pipe on that side to move it closer to the turbo and probably make a heat shield for the intake but its the only place I can make this thing fit and be happy. Oil drain line will be a little longer than before but should still be ok. Ive got the 3" bends on the way to get the downpipe sorted out THEN I can tackle the turbo brace to keep the weight off the header.

Matt
 
Thanks guys! Eager to see what this setup is all about. Ive had this car long enough to be on my 4th or 5th build/refresh/rebuild/setup under the hood and it only gets better and better every time I fiddle with it :mrgreen: Look forward to seein whats next!

Matt
 
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