Header flange to round pipe interface

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Bill Dedman

Bill Dedman

bill dedman
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The slant 6 header flanges have square holes in them to match the square holes in the head (intake and exhaust ports.)

To build a set of headers from these flanges, what's the best method to change the shape of the primary 1 5/8" header pipes to square, to match the holes in the flanges? Does anybody sell short pipes (square on one end) that could be used for this?

Any information will be appreciated...
 
Own or have access to porta power spreading jaws? Me neither, You could fashion a piece of solid square stock with a grinder, taper to square/rectangle what ever it is. chuck the flange in a vise, tack one side of pipe to flg. or 2 sides if it fits tight, heating with torch may assist. and pound the die in. don`t wana make a die? try various specialty hammers to streach tube to flange:-D what ever ya try, let us know what ya did and how it turned out:clock:
 
ok so that might be to much work or trouble for you. take a tracing of whole exhaust side of the head. send it to "headers by ed" and he'll make the thing for you with the short pipes you need.
 
If this were for a Jr. Dragster, I might try that, but there are SIX of these little puppies, and I'm afraid at my age (71), I'd "die of natural causes" before I got the last one done...

I thought that as long as slant 6's have been around (FIFTY YEARS???), and as much hot rodding as they have been involved with, that surely-to-goodness, SOMEBODY must have created some "labor savers" for poor souls like me who feel it necessary to fabricate a set of headers for this engine, for whatever reason.

In building slant-six headers, the manufacturers have to stamp out that square-to-round end for all 6 pipes that fit every single set of headers they manufacture. I was in hopes that one or two of these companies might use their imagination and create 4-inch-long pieces that would contain this square-to-round end that that they could sell to folks who want to build their own. Nobody, it seems, makes a bolt-on header for people building turbocharged slant sixes, so they MUST build their own, or hire it done at elevated prices.

I guess my hopes were not well-founded...
 
bOb shingler said:
ok so that might be to much work or trouble for you. take a tracing of whole exhaust side of the head. send it to "headers by ed" and he'll make the thing for you with the short pipes you need.
Click to expand...


"Headers by Ed"..... boy, there's a name out of the past!!! I remember his shop in Minnesota, back in the late sixties.... Didn't realize he was still around!

That's probably the best idea, yet....:cheers: Thanks for it!!!
 
mopar head said:
Own or have access to porta power spreading jaws? Me neither, You could fashion a piece of solid square stock with a grinder, taper to square/rectangle what ever it is. chuck the flange in a vise, tack one side of pipe to flg. or 2 sides if it fits tight, heating with torch may assist. and pound the die in. don`t wana make a die? try various specialty hammers to streach tube to flange:-D what ever ya try, let us know what ya did and how it turned out:clock:
Click to expand...

Boy, that sounds like a lot of hands-on fabrication for a lazy guy....

A "craftsman" I am not; my idea was to buy a set of cheap headers, and cut the primary pipes off about 5" from the flange and weld-on some 90-degree bends and go from there....

But, I can't find any "cheap" headers.... any ideas???
 
Bill Dedman said:
Boy, that sounds like a lot of hands-on fabrication for a lazy guy....

A "craftsman" I am not; my idea was to buy a set of cheap headers, and cut the primary pipes off about 5" from the flange and weld-on some 90-degree bends and go from there....

But, I can't find any "cheap" headers.... any ideas???
Click to expand...


Heck, My idea was to chop off the flanges on an old exhaust manifold with a plasma cutter and fab from there. They are only about 125$ on another site. But, headers by ed sounds like a better way to go cause he would probably charge you for around the same to make those 5" pieces
 
I built a header for a /6 using an old set of headers off a v8 using the tubes and various bends as needed. I used a piece of thick wall 1 1/4 square tube as a die to hammer the tube into a square shape for the flange end, I suppose you could use a piece of hardwood to hammer into the tube to shape the end. Cutting and fitting all the tubes took a lot longer then forming the square ends of the tubes. The v8 headers provided more than enough tubing to build a shorty style header.
 
I'd take a block or iron and grind it to the size of the port. Then heat the tubing red hot and tap it downt o fit the block snuggly. If you're making headers, age aside, you're in for soem labor...lol. But red-hot steel is like medium hard clay to form. A body hammer would be enough to form it.
 
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