Header Lego’s

I took to calling the header modeling pieces, header Lego’s.

I took my pile of header Lego’s, crawled under the car and started forming header pipes.

I wish I could say when I started this but the exact start date slips my mind and if I try harder to remember, I just might recall the exact when and get really depressed. I don’t want to be depressed so let’s move on with the story.

Damn, I remember. I started the slow tedious trial and error towards the end of 2020. C’mon, we were in Covid lock down, what else am I gonna do?

Ok, header design.

I started out with a simple idea, build a basic 4 into 1 header for each side of the engine. Yeeeahhhhh, simple.

Because I just had to keep the shock towers, I have severely limited the space in the Mustangs engine bay. Add in my decision to make my headers with 2 inch primaries and what room I do have is quickly depleted.

Most headers I have seen for a Mustang with an FE engine have the front pipes taking a dive straight down out of the exhaust port and then under the engine. This causes the headers to hang real low under the car making them very vulnerable to speed bumps and driveways.

Because of the oil pan I chose for my engine, this would cause the header pipes to hang even lower.

Here’s the mock up of the engine sitting in the Mustang. This thing is wide.

The exhaust ports are pointing nearly straight down. I have a flange bolted to the exhaust ports. What you see is all the room there is to squeeze two 2 inch pipes through.

Header lego snaking its way through the space.

I plan to drop the car under stock, not slammed, just a tad lower. I need as much ground clearance as I can get so I chose the path of highest resistance, as you can see from the attached pictures.