So, what is the first thing I did to these nicely crafted beauties? I cut them into pieces! Well, it’s not quite as bad as it sounds! What I did was cut in between every port so that I was working with individual flanges, knowing that I wanted the headers to be completely removable and installable on an individual basis. I also used a number stamp set and numbered the individual plates to the corresponding cylinders they would be used on so that in the futureit would be easy to assemble the puzzle.

I then cut the stubs shorter to about a half inch length because I only wanted them long enough to locate the primary tubes. For collectors I went with part #14049, which is a 2-1/8” primary into a 4 inch exit. Hedman Husler Slip-on collectors are 4-into-1 design, and provide a smooth transition to the collector outlet for maximum power production. They are not a “merge” style collector, but Hedman does offer these and I am working on getting a set to do some testing with in the future. The reason I went with the slip-on style collectors is the ease of assembly and disassembly. Also, I may want to play with adding primary length in the future and I can do that very easily with slip on collectors. They are held in place with weld tabs that come with the collectors.

So, now that I have covered what I used and why I used it, I guess it’s time to show how I did it and why. Both sides of the engine bay presented their own problems. The driver side was the easier of the two because the number 8 (rear for you Chevy guys -- I know you’re reading this) cylinder was the only port with an obstruction in the immediate way of the tubes. The obstruction is the steering shaft and it just about couldn’t have been in a worse spot.

The passenger side had problems going for it also, such as the engine being offset towards that side about an inch and the starter being smack dab in the middle of the opening I wanted to go through. I always try to tackle the worst stuff first, so I started on the passenger side. My primary goal, pun intended, was to create as smooth and flowing of a path for the exhaust as possible while snaking around the starter and keeping the tubes as far outboard as I could so that I can have an oil pan made with some width and depth to it. This is, by the way, not as simple as it may sound. I also wanted to keep the collectors sucked up under the car as much as possible so they wouldn’t be victimized by the car coming down from wheelies.

I had to fabricate a new transmission crossmember to meet the SFI 25.5 cage rules yet so I didn’t worry about the collectors hitting the stock crossmember. I’ll cover that next month. I also modified the TCI trans shield safety strap (not the shield!) to make it narrower to clear the collector. I didn’t get too psychotic about getting all the tubes exactly equal length either. There is, after all, only so much room to work with.

I started at the rear tube because it is the closest to the collector and I made it snake around the bell housing and starter as much as I could to add length to the tube.