just curious, maybe a dumb question but are header tubes and exhaust tubing the same ? I don't mean I diameter I mean like in wall thickness
In my experience, header tubing is thicker. In fact, sometimes it's double walled. However, every exhaust shop I've been in just uses whatever tubing for the header that's going to be used overall.
most headers are 18 gauge steel , most exhaust is 16 gauge or thicker , same material unless you got stainless headers or tails .
.065 and hd is .083 if I rember correct on exhaust the hd stuff is pretty tough and the light stuff seems quite flimsy
I'm sorry, thought you were referring to header pipe as in Y pipe on an old car or truck. Yes. Headers are made from thinner material.
When I was in the muffler business years ago there were 2 grades of mild steel pipe. Thin and thick. We always used the good stuff but most shops use the cheap stuff. Same with headers. You get what you pay for. Buy good headers get good pipe, buy cheap headers get cheap pipe.
In Chicago we used to call it the 2 year or 10 year pipe , thin stuff ( 18 Ga) was 2 years before the salt ate it away, wasted a load of that crap before I got the hang of bending it kept folding it in the bender , the 10 year was thick stuff and would dim the lights when you bent it IIRc it was 14 gauge . we made demo derby headers from that stuff could flatten the car and reuse the pipes .
im thinking of attempting to make my own headers ... I know they sell boxes of bends and stuff was just curious if I couldn't go to an exhaust shop and get some bends from them and use it
its easier to by a kit for a the pipes and the flanges seperate . the header kits use mandrel bends which have no kinks , the machine will neck it down in the bends and makes the outer walls thin and prone to burn out
for the Pontiacs I buy a BBc kit from the place Nebraska thats is Hamb hissed at , and my flanges from a place in Fargo N dakota , he also sells mandrel pipe too .
The heavy duty stuff was actually easier to work with because it did not kink and dent so easily. Easier to weld without blowing through too. We could give a lifetime guarantee with confidence, like you say it was 2 year vs 10 year pipe. After a few weeks practice you could bend it by eye and almost never waste a length of pipe. The difference in cost was small. $5 on the average car, would get you the good pipe and the heavy duty muffler. Bending and welding took a little longer. Why anybody went to the cheap shops I don't know. I suppose they thought they were saving money. Maybe they were $25 or $50 cheaper on a $125 to $250 exhaust system but like you say, they were all rotted out in 2 years, sometimes less.
many a cheap tight asses around were I grew up that were penny rich for dollar poor , and I didn't care if I took there money because of there stupidity and cheapness either . and the extra money also got you a condensation drain hole in the muffler to keep it from rotting out quicker too . heck I remember seeing heavy wall pipe sit in our racks so long it was rusting, from the dust sitting on it , the thin stuff we got a weekly shipment of it .
Whenever doing headers or exhaust systems I always used .065 304ss, when I would build turbo manifolds used sch10 304ss.
Most exhaust shops don't carry bends and such in 1 1/2", or 1 5/8" that a lot of headers are made of. I make them with bends from Summit racing, or some other place. No difference between header and exhaust pipe, except the size.
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