Lakster or Dirt Track ???

You look "right" sitting in that hot little beast. Fine job, maintain your course Brother, all is well. Yes, love the Cromwell.
Dale
Cleveland OH

 

Thom, Looking forward to how the headers come out. I will have the same problem on my "A" Modified . . . .

Dave

 

I picked up another intake and valley pan... I will be able to sell mine and end up with the polished one for less than it would cost to polish one out (at least that is the plan)

 

Thom, Love that polished two 4 BBL intake ! Should make a good finish for this Hot Rod ! The Tweekers stole my T-Bird intake, guess I will have to do with a Offy set of valve covers . . .

We should talk some time about my full Kustom '41 Fordor (Y-Block powered - of course) . . . . .
The header is looking real good.

Dave

 

Torque tube (actually -drive shaft) headers were common in the day... so, after ordering flanges/stubs, 1.5/8" & 3" 90's, baffels, and misc parts we are ready to start

First order of business is that when the ends are removed from the driveshaft you end up with an inlet larger than 1.5/8" and in vintage photos you can see the transition (usually built up weld)... parts store reducer would have worked... but, I wanted a smoother transition... so, Carey cut equally spaced slots in the end of the tube...



A solid 1.5/8" bar stock gave support to clamp down to an maintain symmetry and brass was butted against the tube to prevent weld penitration to the bar stock as the slots were tacked



After tacks were made both at the mid-point and ends the bar stock was removed and everthing was welded



Weld was dressed off



Inside surface was cleaned up so the 1.5/8" tube would side in

 

Well this is as far as it goes for this year! Happy New Year everyone

 

Starting a new year... hopefully I'll get caught up with sorting through this past weeks photos/progress and get them posted... this close up photo (& one above) shows progress on New Years Eve... no design changes from this point... just a whole lot of welding going on to start the new year...

 

Looks like you will be "driving" this year!

 

Thats the plan... It would have been sooner but I keep finding things to change... at least the major mechanical is done...

Anyways, even though I took photos throughout to header build... I won't be posting a step-by-step... so, you won't bored out of your tennyrubbers!

I do plan on documenting details that I haven't seen covered before or that are unique to utilizing driveshaft headers...

First, since we were working around so many obsticles and trying to get a feel for the angle changes to the overall effect... Carey made for lack of a better term - "slip joints" that could be secured and loosened as we went along



After we determined the final exit angle, Carey made a rear mount so the primary tube could not move as we tackled the final fitting and welding



Simple yet effective

 

Seems like "majoring in the minors" is what I do best... as I've repeatedly mentioned - I'm not a happy camper on the "era correctness" of the headers... I'm trying to stay 40's and my only option is to add details that lend to an older style... due to the header length it seemed logical to direct as much of the exhaust away from the cockpit... mandrel bent turn outs wouldn't have been a option... so, I thought a little recontouring would appear more vintage...

Overview of a 3" bend slipped over the driveshaft... top left corner shows final mod



The bend was cut and reduced to the driveshft diameter



The profile of opening was flattened to create an oval... then the end was heated and reworked...



A curved insert closed the opening to match the other end...



Reworked end prior to being dressed off...

 

I thought I'd post a photo to show our restricted path... we ended up with the individual tubes being 2" from the hood and the primary (driveshaft) tube 1.5" from the hood/body... steering clearance varies from lock to lock

 

I'm dying of curiosity... Am I lost in the 60's or did we pull off an older style...

Don't hold back your comments - I really want some opinion!

 

Honestly, While the fab work looks amazing, the era of the headers looks off / to modern to me. Thats just an opinon, this is a top ten build thread for me too.

 

Should the collector run horizontal ?


Or closer to horizontal ?

 

I think I like them, what I don't like is the unmuffled dumping of the exhaust right there in front of or beside you.

Eating exhaust fumes and the noise assosiated hearing loss would get old very quickly for me.

Like after the first trip around the block.

Now you may be planning something else, if so then this is all for naught.

With my RPU I will be doing lakes headers, but will cap them and run to an undercar system out to the back running the Yblocks tones through a pair of Porters.

 

All kidding aside I liked the stubbys.
Maybe go with some Harley baffles to tone down the sound a little.

 

Thats the problem... it can't unless I dropped the individual tubes down 10" which would have been 60's style... the waterfall'd drop that I've found in some of the 30's banger cars seemed era appropriate... bottom line - the 40's era I want was flatheads that sat low in the frame and out the bottom of the hood - just wasn't possible... there is a plan for the noise factor!

 

I don't think you can really do a 40's style with the overhead. Even with the hood closed the pipes will come out too high.

Many old lakes cars run the pipes all the way down the side of the car, sometimes going uphill all the way. If you aren't willing to do that you will be breaking new ground.

I think what you have built is just fine.

Or, maybe sketch up a continuation of those pipes, with a small kink, then running level all the way to the rear tire at the rocker panel elevation.

 

I think it looks great! Compromise and call it a mid-fifties build.

 

Thanks alchemy, you fully understand my dilemma and disappointment... because I was so determined to have a "three point suspension" my motor is a tad higher too... straight back would have meant going over the pitman arm which put it to high and far away from the body... Thanks for your input

I thought these shots might prove interesting...

positioning the driveshaft collector



adding individual tubes and Careys parrallel method madness

 

I like the second option above. It really needs a full length pipe in my opinion ( not that it counts for anything.) I really love this build!

 

Picture 2 looks perfect ! Sweet little Rod , love the sound of a healthy " Y " .

 

I really thought a four into two Jack Calori Roadster type set up would look real good on that little car.
It would also look much less 50's-60's and way more 40's.

Just my couple of cents on the matter...

 

Halfway between the second pic and the third. How about continuing it backward even farther, inside the tires? So the pipes point straight back and end over the rear axle. Is there enough room between the tires and body to snake them through? Or maybe just end them in front of the tires.

I think the turnouts at the end add to the "later" look. A straight pipe cut off would look earlier to me.

 

Don't forget the world was a really big place in the 30s and 40s and a lot of different things had been tried by then maybe not on the salt or El Mirage but certainly at Brooklands or the Pendine sands people were running overhead valves and of course late 40s is after WW2 so those boys could have seen a whole load of aero stuff for inspiration, even seeing the old prewar German racing cars that were seen in bombed out aircraft factories in Germany (According to Horst an old boy I worked with as an apprentice, he was old enough to have been there himself) All sorts of stuff was being bulldozerd into furnaces and landfill to clear up the factories by the allies trying to get Germany back on it's feet as a part of the post war reparations.

Personally If I were looking to go for 40s era lakester but wanted something a little different I'd look at immediate prewar record breakers for inspiration, my favorite being the Napier Railton owned by John Cobb, which would have been known by many hot rodding servicemen that spent any time in the UK as loads of Fly boys spent time at Brooklands the first ever dedicated race track in the world, which was a Nascar style banked oval made of concrete and in WW2 was the centre for Aviation technology in the UK with a Vickers factory being located trackside and an airstrip running across the infield.

Back to your exhaust the Napier Railton had a header system not far different to your's but it was attached to a low mounted muffler and a rear exit fishtail tip, or at least the lower left hand side exhaust was in this style one difference being that the primaries ran straight out of the head as opposed to how yours are swept back, when I say lower left hand exhaust it should be remembered that the Napier was a WW1 bomber engined car with three banks of four cylinders so was a W12 with three separate exhaust systems.

nice work so far,
Rick

http://www.speedmonkey.co.uk/2012/12/ground-shaker-napier-railton.html

 

Don't forget the world was a really big place in the 30s and 40s and a lot of different things had been tried by then maybe not on the salt or El Mirage but certainly at Brooklands or the Pendine sands people were running overhead valves and of course late 40s is after WW2 so those boys could have seen a whole load of aero stuff for inspiration, even seeing the old prewar German racing cars that were seen in bombed out aircraft factories in Germany (According to Horst an old boy I worked with as an apprentice, he was old enough to have been there himself) All sorts of stuff was being bulldozerd into furnaces and landfill to clear up the factories by the allies trying to get Germany back on it's feet as a part of the post war reparations.

Personally If I were looking to go for 40s era lakester but wanted something a little different I'd look at immediate prewar record breakers for inspiration, my favorite being the Napier Railton owned by John Cobb, which would have been known by many hot rodding servicemen that spent any time in the UK as loads of Fly boys spent time at Brooklands the first ever dedicated race track in the world, which was a Nascar style banked oval made of concrete and in WW2 was the leading centre for Aviation technology in the UK with a Vickers factory being located trackside and an airstrip running across the infield.

Back to your exhaust the Napier Railton had a header system not far different to your's but it was attached to a low mounted muffler and a rear exit fishtail tip, or at least the lower left hand side exhaust was in this style, one difference being that the primaries ran straight out of the head as opposed to how yours are swept back, when I say lower left hand exhaust it should be remembered that the Napier was a WW1 bomber engined car with three banks of four cylinders so was a W12 with three separate exhaust systems.

BTW, nice work so far,
Rick

http://www.speedmonkey.co.uk/2012/12/ground-shaker-napier-railton.html

 

How many like the first best?

Reality check... I will incorporate all the work aready done... if, I could get a CNC controlled bend for with the proper diameter (???)... I could extend from the driveshaft collector and place the end that is already fashioned just before the side kick bars end - which would be a combination of two & three... I like seeing the door details and have no intention on covering them... and, I'm not convinced that making them longer makes them anymore "era correct" since they exit so high...

Over 2,000 hits since I started the exhaust... very few comments - there is no right or wrong answer - just opinions... I'm just asking you to share!

 

I too think that some combination/variation of pictures 2 & 3 would be nice. I would personally like to see the top of the exhaust running *just* below the bottom of the door. Place the collector bend radius such that it centers the bottom front of the door molding within it. That sounds like what you're talking about... So I'm in good company!

I like the horizontal pipe better than the drop version in picture 4, but definitely understand wanting to show off the marvelous door work.