DIY Headers

Would that be a bad case of DIY ADD?

 

Absolutely! The house first. I need the car to use the trailer for materials. so once the house is buttoned up, the car gets a new fender and hood and tuneup, the other stuff for the car is meant to replace those 26.4 hours of TV, that I don't waste every week!

 

Hi guys, just thought I would show you what I was working on a week or so ago. This is from a 1970-71 XY Ford Falcon with a 250 motor. Remember the 250 is taller so we have to allow for that because the header will be lifted up into the engine bay compared to a 200. And in Australia we have the added penalty of having to clear the steering box and pitman and also column linkages that you guys don't have to deal with on the exhaust side over there.

The reason I was playing with this header is because our catalogue only ever catered for this header design to fit a six cylinder column auto or 4 on the floor manual for some strange reason so I made a change to allow for the three on the tree linkages to move freely as well. From our point of view, I am not sure at this stage if I will need a separate header for a column manual and column auto or if I can merge the design into one to clear everything, but because these cars are so old it takes time to get good clean examples to work from.

Anyway Norm this is what you may need to aim for regarding tube size and lengths. Note how this one is set up for an "old school" twin system but you can still merge the secondary pipes to make a single 2 1/2" outlet. Let me know if that is your intention and I will include an outlet collector in the kit. I can help you out with the design once you get your parts, but don't forget you will still need to source your bends over there though.

For a comparison, this header design has long 1 1/2" primaries and 2 " secondaries that would actually represent the start of a twin system or your would make a Y-piece to merge them into one for a single system. This header design should easily flow 300 hp.






Cheers Mike.

 

That's a nice looking set of pipes. It would be nice to keep them as duals out each side. But you may be restricted over there, or down there, or yonder.

 

Thanks Cat, actually there is no problem with having a twin system on any car in Australia even now, only laws requiring that you have the right amount of cats etc. according to model and year. In this case, it would have not be uncommon in its day to have run a twin 2" system with only two reverse flow centre mufflers (one muffler per each bank), and because it was 2 " tube, the noise levels were not excessive either.

This style of system was very popular back in the 70's and sort of into the 80's until single 2 1/2" took over. This twin system sounded ok on a six until about 3,000 rpm when it started to get a bit farty!

 

That may be good where you live. But I don't think farty is legal in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada where Norman lives.
But it is okay here in Florida too. You should hear some of the redneck pick up trucks.

 

I'll tell you what premier, those pipes look awesome.
And what would be of most interest to Norm and I for our foxbodies would be the three flange assemblies from yours.
The spacing on those would be same as our 200's.

 

Hi Andy, yep they are, all the way from 140 170 200 221 and 250. This is the case in Australia and I can't see why it would be any different in Canada or the States.

 

I don't want 'farty', I want a better breathing engine and with that, I get a bit more HP and Torque, without any other change. If you ever got close to a Testerosa, all you hear is the engine turning/purring, until you hit it. I want mine to idle like that, just the whine/purr of the Alternator, Clutch Fan, AC and power steering. The stock muffler is due anyway, so I'll just replace the 2-1/2" pipe and muffler. Sounds sweet and discreet.

 

Premier, your pics look like something from an MC Escher sketch! The last one had me wondering if the floor was the ceiling, but then I recalled that even the drains flow differently from our Northern Equator drains.

Gorgeous work. Artistry. Too bad we don't have a 3D printer to make those by email.

 

Like my truck, eh Norm?

 

Your truck is all truck! She chortles when coasting, she purrs with a definite roar waiting to let the world know she's lean, mean, and ready to wilt any GM or Ford diesel powered wanna-be!

But Sweet and Discreet. Yeah, like Tina Turner!

 

too funny

 

Maybe you should rename her from Babe to Proud Mary!?

 

Hey guys, i guess I did not make myself real clear on the exhaust note description:confused:

I don't know about the US but the trend from Australia from the 60's and right through the 70's for owners of V8 sedans when they first got them was to go down the road to the muffler shop and have a "custom made" twin 2" exhaust installed, and really back then a twin 2 1/4" was considered a little too racy for the street for the average car owner which was great for a V8 at the time, but also in the late 70's this trend spilled over into the six cylinder market as well. This was due mainly because we have always been a nation of full sized six cylinder sedans and wagons so there were plenty about, and V8 ownership was always just out of reach for most of the youth back then as well, not like today.

Overall the result was pretty satisfactory with some six cylinder cars sounding quite tough at idle and the 250 even sounding ok at low rpm but generally under the hammer, they began to display all of the hallmarks of missing two cylinders! Where a V8 note would normally sound great at 3,000 rpm, the six becomes more farty or raspy than rumble. This was what I was trying to describe. However the twin 2" system on a six was fine for general driving around in normal conditions though. The reason most people did this was the same reason as why we use to stick base ball cards into our spokes when we were kids.

In the end, most of these systems paved the way for the single 2 1/2" which make good power and refines the six cylinder note overall.

Cheers Mike