thinking about speedways lake style header kit how hard to fab up wat tools?? mig or tig. going in a 38 ford pu 302 sbf any help will be apreaseated thanks frankie c 38 sled
The key to doing these is a GOOD welder and taking your time fitting the pipes. The megaphone section is made by Cone engineering and is good quality but thin material and very easy to burn holes if you are not a very experienced welder. The kit is good quality, I have done a few of them.
Ditto...... Good fit and take your time welding. Also make sure you jig up at least well enought to get both sides to match. Nothing looks worse than a limp one on one side of the pickup! Easy to do and good welding, (or grinding), practice.
Well a pain in the ass. I did some for a sbf about 8 months ago. Downside the pipes come u have to beat them with a hammer to make them square to fit the flanges. The cone has to be ovaled where the pipes connect to them. I cut a square whith a cutoff wheel the reamed them oval but I'm happy with them.
www.lakeheaders.com Cut, jigged, fitted, and tacked, ready for a finish weld for $275. You can't beat it for the money. I believe they are alliance vendors also.
I have a few shots of making a set for my flathead in a T. Very tedious fitting but I enjoyed every minute of it. http://rides.webshots.com/album/563411548zlCxPq?start=84 Fourdy
These were made from that kit. Burt above is correct about needing to fit them to the port, as Ford ports are square and the tubes are left long to allow you to make your own design. But for $169.00 and your time well worth it. Or you can get them fully welded ready to bolt as well.
Yes u can save time buying them done but my cab was to wide for the longest pieces sent. I had to lengthen the back pipes so the would clear.
Might I add...most mild steel headers should be gas welded to avoid the cracking problems associated with MIG & TIG as the gas welded joint is left in the annealed state. also a nice fillet of braze around the tube/headder flange will also increase the headders life, plus it looks cool...you can use MIG & TIG, But I have had better luck gas welding steel header/pipes for cars & race bikes,also if you look at 2-storke expansion chambers (lots of vibration) they are gas welded as well, and as mentioned above , spend the time fitting the joints, you should be able to tack them without filler(TIG/GAS). A good set of tin snips, and a good file help, along with a disk sander...Shawn
PS...to shape the ends going into the port, cut a chunk of tube off 1-1/2 to 2" long on each of the pipes, find a chunk of steel/aluminum /hardwood roughly the same size as the hole in the headder flange, shape it so it is a tapered square/rectangle,to the tubes inside diameter (round to square/rectangle) then insert this tool into the short pieces you took from the end of the tube(1 1/2 2" pieces) and use a small press, or good bench vice, to form the tubes to the tool you made, you can use some help from a hammer to tap the sides to "hammerform " them into the correct shape, remove the tool, and repeat 7 more times...save tool for next headder job....
I'm gonna second this one. Running these on two cars now. They fit perfectly and they look the way they're supposed to. Very good price for top quality headers.
I don't know what Burts problem was , but they are not at all hard to build, I build mine from mandrel bent tubing and a cone I made on a machine my friend built.
Like a lot of things in hot rodding your end result will be determined by your skill and patience. I've built dozens of headers in my life so it's a pleasure for me to fabricate a set. Frank
I'm running the you-fab lakes kit for sbf. yes you have to bend the ends of the tubes to fit the flanges. But if you take your time they work just fine. I spot mig welded mine then tig wiled them the rest of they way.
thanks for all your input i think i will try jakesheaders thanks Jerry let you all know how they are soon!!!!
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