The headers in my car warped and cracked from the heat and weight of the turbo. So i had to remake them identical to the old ones but a lot stronger... If you have any questions feel free!
This isn't a how-to by the, just my experience doing it.
-- Edited by Takdashark on Sunday 13th of March 2011 09:03:03 AM
-- Edited by Takdashark on Friday 1st of April 2011 12:07:06 PM
I guess I should give some details.. The flanges are 1/2 mild steel laser cut from www.spdexhaust.com which are beautiful i must say. The u and j bends are 1-5/8 16 ga mild steel from www.schoenfeld.com, the 1-5/8 donut is from pro werkz thru www.mandrel-bends.com and the 2-1/2 donut and v band is from race part solutions. All the vendors were great and very helpful. I'm going to have them ceramic coated from htc in rockland. I'll update as I progress.
The motor is great. I'm ditchin the mega squirt in favor of a 03 cobra ecu with a sct. No wanted to mess with the mega squirt as far as tuning and it's not very user friendly. So I'm hoping to have the ac and new computer for the summer.
Update.. got the last 2 pipes cut and fitted, i have to tig weld some of the pieces before i can tack it and fit it. My tig is at my house which really wastes a lot of time but im off tomorrow and hope to have them both in the car all tacked and mount the turbo. Then back to the house to tig them.
What's up Joe! How's the new house and family doing? Have you hooked up my sand blaster yet?
The house and fam are great thanks, I just moved some stuff around in the shop and put the blaster in a better place. I'm going to pick up some more sand this week. The welds look awesome. Oh yeah no e-brake handle set-up @ my dads, someone has one here I'm sure.
Glad to hear Joe, i gotta come by and check out the house. You going to be at your shop today at all? Ralfrizzo on here referred me to a guy who had it and some other stuff i need. Went down the shop and at 7 am and fitted them one last time before i weld the flanges. Im also thinking about making a gusset for the side that doesn't have the flex pipe on the crossover tube to help support it. They'll be done today and off to coating monday. Im gonna cut out my radiator support and make a tubular one thats removable so i can the the radiator and condenser out without taking out the whole hot side.
No wasn't down there today, I will this week though. Those headers look sick, where are you getting them coated? pricey? Did you get the pipes from race part solutions? Good Job Tak
where are you getting them coated? pricey? Did you get the pipes from race part solutions? Good Job Tak
Takdashark wrote:
I guess I should give some details.. The flanges are 1/2 mild steel laser cut from www.spdexhaust.com which are beautiful i must say. The u and j bends are 1-5/8 16 ga mild steel from www.schoenfeld.com, the 1-5/8 donut is from pro werkz thru www.mandrel-bends.com and the 2-1/2 donut and v band is from race part solutions. All the vendors were great and very helpful. I'm going to have them ceramic coated from htc in rockland. I'll update as I progress.
Finally done! I picked them up this morning,. Im very happy with HTC's work and service, they were very friendly and helpful and finished them for mr in time while getting for the world of wheels.
looks good
that coating came out good
only thing i would have done was clean up the welds to make it look even better
I strongly considered it, but the whole reason i had to make these is because the other ones cracked in multiple places. So i didn't want to take away any of the strength from the welds.
Thanks bud! The radiator support is done, I just gotta bend up the brackets for the intercooler, condenser, and radiator and it will be done. Pat's shooting to fire up the car on saturday which would be great!!!
ha, it is. It's a 99 ML430 with 250k. My old man was a MB tech at chambers for years so I got it with a blown tranny in 02 and have a stock pile of parts. Knock on wood it hasn't given me any problem since I got it besides the usual stuff, brakes, water pump etc...
UPDATE: I got the headers wrapped and in last night, mounted the hot side to check fitment of the fan, radiator, condenser and intercooler so i can tack the mounts to the new radiator support and finish welding and painting that. Gonna stop at ford and grab a map sensor and try and get the ecu wrapped up tomorrow.