Forward swept header build

[Turboswap]

Hey, some of you guys might have seen my for sale threads but I wanted to toss this out there as well for fun. I picked up a little v6 car for a sick child swallowing turbo LSx build but decided to put together a set of headers for a gentleman who is buying the engine. He is building his own kit but wanted a little help making the ball of snakes fit on the sides of the engine so I volunteered. Got the drivers side done and will hopefully finish up the passenger side in the next couple of days. You v6 guys have it peg when it comes to room in the engine bay!!!

The drivers side header pictured below installs fairly easily but it does require moving the dipstick tube out of the way or removing it and snaking it between the primaries. Once installed, there is plenty of room around the plugs and wires and plug changes should be even easier than stock. I will say I HATE removing those stock v6 manifolds and the 37 heat shield pieces you have to take off to get them out. I almost broke out the torch but refrained with the help of Budweiser and Sawsall (just one stripped nut on the head shield ;))! Enjoy!

[T-Punk]

Re: Forward swept header build

Looks like you did a good job for they guy buying the engine. Post up pics of the turbo LSx when you get it all together, even though I'm sure that will take a while.

[Nachius]

Re: Forward swept header build

Awesome they look very clean. Welds look great!

Would you make them for others?

[redcamaro1996]

Re: Forward swept header build

Me=lucky b****** for getting these bad boys. :D

[T-Punk]

Re: Forward swept header build

Grats man. Make sure you do those justice with the rest of the setup ;)

[derkyboy187]

Re: Forward swept header build

wow....those are very nice

[Turboswap]

Re: Forward swept header build

Thanks for the compliments guys. These suckers aren't easy to build but I think redcamaro1996 will make some good power with them. We spoke a little further and I'm going to help him out with the y-pipe to save him some fab time putting it together.

Tonight I got the passenger side header done. I think it turned out pretty good considering the condensed area to work with. On a couple pics you will see how the header sneaks below the heater hose. When I do these projects, I try to be as non-intrusive to the rest of the engine bay as is reasonable. The lower hose looks rather close in the pic but there is about 3/8s of an inch around them. At worst, he might have to put a little header wrap or a sleeve on it but it should require anything massive. Well I could talk about building them all day but pics speak louder than words so here they are!!!

[Turboswap]

Re: Forward swept header build

[T-Punk]

Re: Forward swept header build

I'm quite jeleous of your fabbing skills. Great job.

[redcamaro1996]

Re: Forward swept header build

wow... how many people have done ffh without moving the heating lines. I'm very excited. :bowdown:

[Forced_Firebird]

Re: Forward swept header build

Nice job. I just sold my previous turbo set up, and am modifying it for they buyer to work with his headers (no not ff headers), by going under the k-member. The next engine will recieve ff headers ;).

What kind of steel is that?

[crysmatic]

Re: Forward swept header build

looks good. what tube size for primary/collector? did you make the flanges? did you buy the elbows, or make them?

[Turboswap]

Re: Forward swept header build

wow... how many people have done ffh without moving the heating lines. I'm very excited. :bowdown:

Glad you like them! I will admit one screw up however. Last night after I got home from dinner, I put the header back on after welding the v-band adapter to the collector and realized not all the bolt holes lined up. It seems the bolt holes for the three cylinders aren’t exactly symmetrical meaning if you flip the flange both longitudinally and laterally, the 4 outside bolt holes match up perfectly but the two middle holes are off by a little bit. Not a big deal as I can just notch the holes but I was beating myself up checking and rechecking the gaskets and original manifolds trying to figure it out! I’ll make the adjustment when the engine is out. I used the inner-most bolt holes on the outer two cylinders to hold the flange on the head for mockup. I just didn’t expect (nor do I see any reason for) those holes to be slightly off from the others! It’s stupid stuff like that which makes these builds interesting lol. :rant:

Nice job. I just sold my previous turbo set up, and am modifying it for they buyer to work with his headers (no not ff headers), by going under the k-member. The next engine will recieve ff headers ;).

What kind of steel is that?

They are made with 16 gauge aluminized mild steel.

looks good. what tube size for primary/collector? did you make the flanges? did you buy the elbows, or make them?

They are made from 1.75in primaries into a 2.5in vband collector. I got them from TOG a couple years ago but never started the build. You can get the elbows (u-bends or j-bends) from Summit, Jegs, or any number of internet resellers. I wish I had a mandrel bender but the one I am looking at is 30k, a bit more than a hobby builder can swallow. ;)

I will be getting a nice plasma cutter and building a cnc table so can start making oddball parts like flanges, and such.

[Forced_Firebird]

Re: Forward swept header build

They are made with 16 gauge aluminized mild steel.

Did you MIG them? How did you like the aluminized steel over galvanized? I have a place to get piping real cheap, they have 304Lss (not good for turbo headers), aluminized steel and mild steel. I can't post a link here, but the name of the site is Racing-Solutions.org, they have a header built kit in mild steel for $47. Intercooler kits start at $49...

[Turboswap]

Re: Forward swept header build

Did you MIG them? How did you like the aluminized steel over galvanized? I have a place to get piping real cheap, they have 304Lss (not good for turbo headers), aluminized steel and mild steel. I can't post a link here, but the name of the site is Racing-Solutions.org, they have a header built kit in mild steel for $47. Intercooler kits start at $49...

I TIG welded these but if you are good with a mig, there is no reason you can't produce good quality results. I've never used galvanized steel for exhaust (assuming you mean like fence post kind of galvanized?). I thought I read somewhere that the zinc or whatever they use in the coating process creates poisonous fumes when welded? Anyway, on the aluminized coated material, I just use a fine file to clean up all the cuts and clean the coating off around the weld site. If you don't, you might get some porsity. I don't normally use stainless for street apps as mild is more ductile and forgiving to heat cycles than stainless in my experience. For double the cost, unless weight is an issue, I would just use mild. The headers I built here are fairly heavy. Not stock manifold heavy but noticeably heavier than a thin set of exhaust headers. Then again, they will have 30+ lbs of turbocharger and y-pipe hanging off them so they need to be. ;)

I tried that site but get an under construction page. 47 bucks isn't bad if you get the good parts. If I recall correctly, I have 11 or so 180* j bends in this set of headers. I can't remember if I bought 11 or 12 for this build and ended up with one left over.