Looks like your using stainless Sani pipe, that's what I used, stainless moves a lot when it's welded. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I have visions of installing a place on one bank of pipes for an oxygen sensor to help with tuning. I read somewhere that racing gokarts use a oxygen sensor and a gauge with colored lights going from red, amber and green and the sensor provides a reading according to the burn quality and hence a color reading.
Not much progress today! I am getting ready to have a pair of stainless steel cones rolled to form my lake header tubes. I have found a guy who will do them for me for what I feel is a fair price. I need the small end rolled to 2" diameter and the large end to 3 1/2" diameter. The small end will accept the front 1 3/4" pipe from the engine, so I have gone ahead and made my own taper from an 1 3/4" offcut to run out to 2" diameter for the pipe to attach to the lake header tube. I also managed to acquire two large 90 degree bends in S/S at 3 1/2" diameter which I will trim back one side of the bend to create my turn outs to couple to the large end of the lake header tubes. I plan to visit my local laser cutting shop to get a couple of s/s circular flanges cut out and have them attached to the large end of my lake header tubes and to the turnouts to give me an effect similar to the pic below.
2" looks perfect from this side of the computer screen. So you going to make a 2nd set to sell me???? LOL Whats you plans for those oddball manifolds? Were they marine application or something? I'd love to take them off your hands, and use on my motor as I think that style would be more fitting of my build than Sledge style lakesters even though I drool profusely everytime I see pics of that car. Wyatt
Hey Wyatt, its been a while, thanks for your thoughts. Those old manifolds, I will hold them for now or at least until I am sure about a few things. I've only ever seen one other pair of these stock style manifolds and figure they were probably military but not sure if they were used in the tanks. I'll keep you in mind for later regarding the manifolds.
Its been a while now, but I've finally gotten some stainless steel rings laser cut for the ends of my fluted pipes and had my 1 3/4" to 2" tapers welded onto the front pipes exiting the engine. Have acquired a pair of 90 degree 3 1/2" diameter bends to be cut down slightly and used as turn outs at the end of my flutes. Things are starting to take shape now. I am waiting on my fluted side pipes to be rolled and welded.
Just picked up my fluted pipes and they look pretty good IMHO. Next question is how to cut openings in the flute for the other pipes to enter? I am thinking a hole saw for now unless there is a better way I dont know about!!!
Spent a little time trying to get the sweep and look about right for the car. Seems a little tricky allowing for a smooth curve of each individual pipe into the flute. I am hoping it will go better than it looks right now. I can for see a lot of die grinder work to get those holes cut out nice and snug...
Well, I've made a little more progress with my exhaust pipework. I made a sling style jig to hold the flute in place which provided me with a clear and simple work area around the pipes and flute. Worked out well and I plan to re-work it to fit the other side when I start on that side. In the mean time I've tacked my pipes in place before finishing the welds and doing a little polishing and cleaning prior to final weld up of all pipes into the flute. My main concern for now is the front pipe which from the side looks just OK, but from the front it looks way out of sync with the others, so I plan to re-work that shape and change the bend to help get a little symmetry happening.
Here are a couple of pic's of the jig I used to setup my pipes. Sure helps to get both sides the same and makes working around the flute easy.
Just an up date on my progress as the second side has now been cut and tacked in place. I have gained access to a TIG welder and hope to get a little practice in before completing the final welds on my pipework. In the meantime I will continue with my pipework with a discrete drop pipe from the underside of each flute which will become the start of my twin exhaust system under the car. I will be using 2 1/4" diameter pipe.
Wow those pipes are looking great, you have a lot of talent. I want to build a cad l-head at some point.
Well, not much happening on my exhaust project right now. I am still trying to teach myself TIG welding and it is kinder slow. I need to get much better at it before I try my hand with the real thing. I've just spent a little down time cutting out the openings in my fluted pipes. As it turns out, it would be quite easy to forget about doing the cut outs and weld the whole thing up and then discover later that no exhaust was getting thru...
Well, I have not gain enough TIG welding skills to start on my pipes yet, but I have progressed a little and setup my flute outlets (2 1/4" diameter pipe) which drop down and go under the chassis as a means of maintaining a discrete exhaust system. I dont need pipe noise that loud these days... I am also a little unsure about how close or far away from the body work this drop pipe should be. I guess I'll know once it gets hot if I am too close.
if you tig weld on the pipe`s ,you mite think of purge welding the pipe`s with argon so the weld will go all the way thought for a full pin weld
Well, I got one side of my headers welded with the otherside hopefully done by early next week. It is slow going and the welds wont win any fashion competitions, but who cares as long as they are stout.
Finally, I managed to setup my drop pipes that will run down under my chassis. It has been challenging to feed these pipes past my battery box and brake booster and master cylinder. The intention is to preserve my hearing and also ensure these pipes are tucked up high enough under the car so that they can not be easily seen for the most part.
Hey Russ.. Thanks heaps for posting the header build and pix.. Great 'how to' & heaps of clues in there for me re mine.
It has been a while since last posting on my progress. What with xmas and new year and other family stuff I kinder dropped the ball there for a while. Just when I thought I had some space to breath, my panel guy turned up and we have spent the past 3 weeks off and on preparing the body for paint and getting the roof wood to fit better. Any ways, with respect to my exhaust progress, I have basically finished. I ended up getting a TIG guy to do all the final welding using my new machine. All welds are finished including under the car thru to the mufflers. I came out of the exhaust flutes with a 2 1/4" pipe and dropped it down and under the frame. There is not a lot of space under there, but it seems I have gotten away with it. Next step is to grind my welds to a more presentable state, as my main concern was getting TIG weld penetration on all the welds. The welds ended up a little heavy but on an internal inspection where possible penetration appears to be good, so here is hoping there will be no cracks down the road. I will grind the welds for a clean effect but will not be polishing any of it. The next step once the welds are ground is to finish the pipe work out of the mufflers with a turn out on each side in front of the rear tire. More later...
Just for the record, I discovered that the LH side exhaust flange had moved slightly after welding and it was going to be difficult to ensure a good seal on the rear outlet. So I decided to cut out a section of the header pipe to relieve the stress. It did move a little but a little heat persausion was also needed to get to come back down flat again. Now that is sitting flat, I will keep this side bolted to the block and have the cut section re-welded into position. Better to find and fix it now rather than later, especially since the dizzy sit close to that side as well...
Well, all TIG welding is done from headers thru to tail pipes and mufflers. It has been a good learning experience if nothing else. The pile of pipes sitting on the floor waiting to have the welds cleaned up looks like nothing really. For those of you who are interested, I got flanges laser cut to fit gaskets I could easily source at my parts store, I used two sizes, front where it was a little tight I used some smaller Japanese car gaskets and further back I used GM items. I also made a couple of rubberised hangers and stole from an old pair of pipes the screw in flanges for oxygen sensors. I am planning to try using the oxygen sensors with those guages which indicate the quality of the combustion burn. It is just a novel idea at this stage but may pay dividends for tuning on long runs. It was easier to weld the oxygen sensor screw in flanges now and decide later whether I will follow up on using them. If anybody out there has used them or has extra knowledge about there use please post your thoughts and ideas...
I want to run similar headers from my '36 Cad 322 (a smaller bore than 346). Please let us know how your car treats you with this setup. Some of the old timers have told me it causes a fire hazard, and makes it harder to work on the car. I don't see how the headers can be any more hazardous than the stock manifolds, but they probably do get more in the way. Thanks for the posts and pics -- great job!
Well, your comments are worth considering, but mostly due to the fact that this engine bay is not in a Cadillac or Lasalle, surely makes it more accessible than it would ever have been in one of the original cars. By using headers it is possible to direct pipes poorly without thought and hence block easy access to some engine areas. The heat is probably the biggest issue preventing immediate access to awkward areas. With respect to being a fire hazard, well I dont know! I guess if you are near to anything that could burn easily it could be possible, but since the end of the fluted chambers are closed, then the chance for a naked flame to ignite any materials would be remote. However driving thru a dry corn field would not be advisable. On the other side of the coin, remember the orginal exhaust/intake configuration was well known to have vapourising problems during hot weather and probably wont make the additional HP that a header system will.
I started making a few stainless steel tags to be welded onto my new pipes so that they can be held in place like the original Cadillacs were. It seems to be the way to go...
Looking real good Russ and I am envious of your progress. I know I'm a little late to the party but the more pictures the merrier, right? I know these would all be loud and tough to tune but pictures are always fun. Here is a set that have more of a custom look. These are to the extreme (remind me of a big rig) Some shorties on a drag car (no back pressure) Theses headers almost look exactly like the headers I put on my bike.
The Jalopy Journal
