Some more thoughts:
Making an intake is no different from the exhaust, and only three ports.
You need heat to the intake on anything but WFO operation, like drag racing. Otherwise, the vaporisation of the fuel soaks up the heat, then can't vaporize anymore. You can't burn liquid gas. 5 mpg off road means you vaporise one gallon of gas in 12 minutes. Lots of coldness. Even stock heat risers heat the intake in the summer position. Maybe thin walled intakes will grab some of the heat given off by thin walled exhaust?
From my experience installing headers in the early 80's, Tri-Y designs were for fit, not horsepower. Probably not pertinant to straight six engines, since they would take up more space than a tri-y on a v-8. You'd be talking six-to-three, then three to one. I'd guess that after all the work of building headers, you'll want to pitch that single exhaust system anyhow.
Some of the tri-Y headers came apart in the two-tube section with a simple pair of flanges- 6 bolts required. I think there were different tail-sections for different chassis?
My best luck with gaskets was two layers of the foil-backed stock ones.
I've often wondered if the first step in designing headers ought to be firing it up with only an intake, in the dark. Pay attention to the exhaust flame direction, and build you pipes to keep that momentum going.
Different body styles may require different designs, eh Norm? The set I did were for a 1/2t, 1941. Being a straight frame, not a drop center, and a single speed transfer case, there was plenty of clearance for the two mufflers next to each other, ovals vertical. Think a pair of turbo muffs, but I recall the Auger Powers were some slimmer. I think it would fit under the FFPW?
I did 123-456 splits, with the output flanges in front of the bell housing- there was only enough space under the 'ears' for the two exhaust pipes. I'd guess 2 1/4". 123-456 fires every 120 degrees into each header.
Building a high-rise intake gave me plenty of room for the head pipes to exit horizontaly from the block. That length gave me plenty of lee way to adjust the bends, to maintain somewhat equal length. Plus, it would help with room to gain access to the side covers. But you still won't want to try adjusting the valves while hot and running- feeler gauges and oily welding gloves don't mix well.
Exhaust pipe was something called 'aluminum killed'. I always took that to mean it was alloyed to make it dead soft. Other tubes will be tougher to bend.
On the 428 CJ in my F250, I made an aluminum water heated 'riser' under the carb. Think four 4" lengths of aluminum tube surrounded by a 6" dia piece of aluminum tube. Pipe fittings front and rear for heater hose connections. Longer tubes and water heat made it very smooth on the street. It would peg the chassis dyno at 200hp at only 2800 rpms. 11:1, Doug Thorley tri-y's, Ford C60Z-6250BB cam. I decided on the height of the riser by placing a beer can on the air cleaner and slamming the hood. A truly tuned intake would need runners four feet long. Same for exhaust. So headers are only free-flow designs at 3,000 rpms. Anyways, making a heated spacer for under the carb could be done on a drill press. Use a block of aluminum, and drill passages that cross, and plugging with pipe plugs. Lots of passages, lots of pipe plugs.
Who needs cad/cam, or technical programs? Lessee what parameters are given: tube size is set by the ports, length by chassis, bends by how you have to cram all the spaghetti in there. Plus access to various maintenance requirements. But I guess reverse engineering the flange will help with getting it computer cut.
If you have to use bigger tubing, port match the block with a die grinder. Steps are NFG, either way. To prove that to customers, I would have them blow through a straight spark plug boot. Then turn it around, and blow the other way. Just a little step in there. While you ain't no way ending up with a tuned exhaust, you do want to take advantage of whatever reversion you happen to find.
I'm guessing that the 'bendable paper tubes' mentioned up-thread is like defroster duct? or the intake heat stove stuff? Interesting idea. Something else is nagging at the back of my head... pool hose? vinyl electrical conduit? vacuum cleaner? pretzel dough?... PVC tubing and a heat gun?
Oh well, maybe I'll dive into a set for my FFPW...
Making an intake is no different from the exhaust, and only three ports.
You need heat to the intake on anything but WFO operation, like drag racing. Otherwise, the vaporisation of the fuel soaks up the heat, then can't vaporize anymore. You can't burn liquid gas. 5 mpg off road means you vaporise one gallon of gas in 12 minutes. Lots of coldness. Even stock heat risers heat the intake in the summer position. Maybe thin walled intakes will grab some of the heat given off by thin walled exhaust?
From my experience installing headers in the early 80's, Tri-Y designs were for fit, not horsepower. Probably not pertinant to straight six engines, since they would take up more space than a tri-y on a v-8. You'd be talking six-to-three, then three to one. I'd guess that after all the work of building headers, you'll want to pitch that single exhaust system anyhow.
Some of the tri-Y headers came apart in the two-tube section with a simple pair of flanges- 6 bolts required. I think there were different tail-sections for different chassis?
My best luck with gaskets was two layers of the foil-backed stock ones.
I've often wondered if the first step in designing headers ought to be firing it up with only an intake, in the dark. Pay attention to the exhaust flame direction, and build you pipes to keep that momentum going.
Different body styles may require different designs, eh Norm? The set I did were for a 1/2t, 1941. Being a straight frame, not a drop center, and a single speed transfer case, there was plenty of clearance for the two mufflers next to each other, ovals vertical. Think a pair of turbo muffs, but I recall the Auger Powers were some slimmer. I think it would fit under the FFPW?
I did 123-456 splits, with the output flanges in front of the bell housing- there was only enough space under the 'ears' for the two exhaust pipes. I'd guess 2 1/4". 123-456 fires every 120 degrees into each header.
Building a high-rise intake gave me plenty of room for the head pipes to exit horizontaly from the block. That length gave me plenty of lee way to adjust the bends, to maintain somewhat equal length. Plus, it would help with room to gain access to the side covers. But you still won't want to try adjusting the valves while hot and running- feeler gauges and oily welding gloves don't mix well.
Exhaust pipe was something called 'aluminum killed'. I always took that to mean it was alloyed to make it dead soft. Other tubes will be tougher to bend.
On the 428 CJ in my F250, I made an aluminum water heated 'riser' under the carb. Think four 4" lengths of aluminum tube surrounded by a 6" dia piece of aluminum tube. Pipe fittings front and rear for heater hose connections. Longer tubes and water heat made it very smooth on the street. It would peg the chassis dyno at 200hp at only 2800 rpms. 11:1, Doug Thorley tri-y's, Ford C60Z-6250BB cam. I decided on the height of the riser by placing a beer can on the air cleaner and slamming the hood. A truly tuned intake would need runners four feet long. Same for exhaust. So headers are only free-flow designs at 3,000 rpms. Anyways, making a heated spacer for under the carb could be done on a drill press. Use a block of aluminum, and drill passages that cross, and plugging with pipe plugs. Lots of passages, lots of pipe plugs.
Who needs cad/cam, or technical programs? Lessee what parameters are given: tube size is set by the ports, length by chassis, bends by how you have to cram all the spaghetti in there. Plus access to various maintenance requirements. But I guess reverse engineering the flange will help with getting it computer cut.
If you have to use bigger tubing, port match the block with a die grinder. Steps are NFG, either way. To prove that to customers, I would have them blow through a straight spark plug boot. Then turn it around, and blow the other way. Just a little step in there. While you ain't no way ending up with a tuned exhaust, you do want to take advantage of whatever reversion you happen to find.
I'm guessing that the 'bendable paper tubes' mentioned up-thread is like defroster duct? or the intake heat stove stuff? Interesting idea. Something else is nagging at the back of my head... pool hose? vinyl electrical conduit? vacuum cleaner? pretzel dough?... PVC tubing and a heat gun?
Oh well, maybe I'll dive into a set for my FFPW...
Comment