Joseph T Header 4: The Trilogy.

So, a D shaped die was made to get the exhaust pipe to fit into the flange. Then, it was discovered that the port that the die was built for became smaller when the starter tube was inserted.

The primary pipes are 2” OD and the opening I want is now larger than that. I am not going to a larger pipe.

The red circles. This is the mocked-up Cammer in the Mustang and the circled area is how much room there is for the header pipes. The 2 inchers barely fit, going larger probably isn’t an option.

I’m already stretching this out longer than I should so let me skip all of the ideas I had and tell you that the decision was made to expand the end of starter pipe instead of trying to use a larger pipe as a starter.

I found a pipe with the tightest bend I could. It’s really a metal donut. 2’ diameter on a 2” center line radius. I need something this tight in hopes of making the turn out of the head without hitting body parts or the engine itself.

Here’s a shot of the metal donut next to the modeling pieces I made on a 3D printer. Each segment is a 22.5 degrees arc. The pipe will have to have a tight bend right off of the header flange. The starter pipe will need a 3/8” straight extension ring fused to one end so the starter pipe secures solidly into the flange.

First things first. I need to expand the end of a pipe regardless the shape.

I was watching an episode of “Bitchin’ Rides” and one of the guys had to make a shaping die and he used something called Kirksite. It’s also known as Zamak 2. It’s some material made mostly of Zinc. It has a low melting point, maybe a little higher than Lead but it’s very tough. I ordered a couple of bars from Amazon. I could have gotten away with half of a bar but at the time I had no idea what to expect how this stuff was going to act.

My thinking was this. The header flange had to be enlarged just enough so the primary pipes will clear the exhaust ports. If I can make a “plug” that is the same outside diameter of the D shaped pipe that I can create with the Die, that plug, if forced into the opening of another D shaped pipe made from the same die, should be able to expand the pipe enough so the ID will now be larger than the exhaust port opening.

Does that make sense?

and here’s the start. A short piece of pipe that’s been passed through the D Die and a nasty piece of scrap sheet of 22 gauge steel.

I’m making a mould for the Zamak expander by wrapping that nasty piece of 22 gauge around the D shaped pipe, welding the seams closed and then capping it with that D shaped nasty metal.

The D shaped form isn’t used beyond being a form.