Exhaust Headers

[Captain Ledd]

I'm curious about making some up. I know long tube headers make more torque, and short headers are better for higher horse power. Thats about the extent of what I know.

What have you guys done for a custom header?

What kind of metal do you use? Any special welding techniques?

I'm poking around with the idea of fabing one up for my 4.5 Stroker project and am wondering what is involved in making one.

[GMCsonoma94]

the tubing dia and length affect the power curve of the motor. long tube headers are better if you have the space for them.

[Grandman]

Unless you have a mandrel pipe bender give it up . Another issue is pipe lenght for each cyl . You dont want one longer then the other .

somthing called scavenging , as the exhuast goes thru the header there is a vacuum , or space for the next exhaust blast to fill . if the pipes you make your self are not of the correct length for each cy you will not get this scavenging effect . This could cost you HP and worse case shorten the life of an exhaust valve or two .

From the collector back ya i think a guy could build pretty much any custom exhaust , i would not recommend it for the header its self .:gman: