alloy

iTrader: (16)

I picked up a set of used Edelbrock headers yesterday for $100. They are in pretty good condition for being used and I've read a number of statements here, both pro and con about these headers. I've also seen questions about these headers and the Y pipe they come with, and also several people have mentioned about needing to grind the excess weld out of the flanges where the tubes connect. So I've taken a few pics and wanted to give my opinion on this brand of header. I have not installed them yet as m going to have them sand blasted and try one of the high temp header paints on them.

First of all if I hadn’t gotten these header so cheaply, I would have not bought them new if I had the opportunity to see them before I laid my money down. As numerous people have stated, the “Y” pipe design really sucks. I won’t go into it, just look at the pic of the Y section and you will understand what I mean. I’m going to look into making my own y pipe for this installation.

Next is the huge amount of excess welding material left in the pipe openings. I ground out as little as 1/8” to as much as ¼” of excess weld. And there were around 5 pieces of mig wire still stuck in the inside of the headers I knocked off with my die grinder. Take a look at the one port that I’ve ground out, and the one that hasn’t been ground yet. Then there were the air injection tubes that stick into the primary pipe. The amount they stuck into the pipe varied from 1/16” to ¾” of an inch! Somehow I don’t think this was done for emission reasons. I ground these off flush with the inside of the tubes.

The other thing I don’t like about them is how the clearance the primary tubes for bolt head clearance. You can see what I mean in the pic of the flange. To me it looks like this creates a major restriction at the flange-mating surface. I’ve got a set of old $79 headers for another vehicle with an SBC in it with the same primary tube diameter and the tubes on them isn’t clearanced for the bolt heads in any way, and I have no problem getting header bolts in and tight with this set of headers.

Anyway the purpose of this post isn’t to knock the Edelbrock headers, but to answer questions that I’ve seen asked time and time again.

I just realized that I really didn't have a good pic showing the way the primary tubes are "dimpled" for bolt clearence, so I took another pic and added it so everyone could clearly see what I'm describing.

llvll4l2c91350

[QUOTE]Originally posted by alloy
"As numerous people have stated, the “Y” pipe design really sucks. I won’t go into it, just look at the pic of the Y section and you will understand what I mean. I’m going to look into making my own y pipe for this installation."

This must be for the single cat setup. But I know what you mean. Luckily I have dual cats and my set came with mandrel bent sections to weld to stock or custom made pipes.

"Next is the huge amount of excess welding material left in the pipe openings. I ground out as little as 1/8” to ¼” of an inch of excess weld. And there were around 5 pieces of mig wire still stuck in the inside of the headers I knocked off with my die grinder. Take a look at the one port that I’ve ground out, and the one that hasn’t been ground yet. Then there were the air injection tubes that stick into the primary pipe. The amount they stuck into the pipe varied from 1/16” to ¾” of an inch! Somehow I don’t think this was done for emission reasons. I ground these off flush with the inside of the tubes."

Big difference when grinding out the welds. I will definitely be doing this to mine. I regret not doing it before the installation. I wonder if I'd actually feel a slight improvement though...

"The other thing I don’t like about them is how the clearance the primary tubes for bolt head clearance. You can see what I mean in the pic of the flange. To me it looks like this creates a major restriction at the flange-mating surface."

Some of the bolts, like the one that goes in that flange, you will have to use an open end wrench. No room for sockets. Real PITA.

"Anyway the purpose of this post isn’t to knock the Edelbrock headers, but to answer questions that I’ve seen asked time and time again."

Good pics. I like these headers. Gave me a noticeable power improvement. But obviously they are not perfect. The only other complain I have is to me it seems there's no way to route the oil dipstick tube without having it touch one of the primaries. I had to remove the tube tonight, reposition it (it's still touching )and put RTV around the area where it goes into the block cuz it was leaking oil outta there.

alloy

iTrader: (16)

Well I haven't tried to install these yet, so I don't know about the dipstick tube or potential problems with the AC pump. So I'll probably be emailing you to ask questions about that.

Don't feel bad that you didn't grind the extra weld down on your headers before installing them. The guy I got them from didn't either. And he works as a machinist at a race engine shop.

Camarokid01

hey man how much can I grind off without making a hole to the outside or somthing? I dont wanna mess the headers up. And keep us posted on what you do with the Y-pipe cause the one it comes with is so necked down.

alloy

iTrader: (16)

I just ground the weld down so the lip was gone. Just so you can run your finger in and out and not feel a step. I didn't try to enlarge the opening in the flange, just get rid of the extra weld material.

I also ground the injection tubes off flush inside the tube. Took about 1 hour per header, but my burr is pretty dull though. Just go slowly and you will be fine.

For the y-pipe I ordered a flowmaster one from summit for $37.95. I have to thank llvll4l2c91350 for the part number. I'll know more on how I'm going to modify the y-pipe when the flowmaster part gets here. I've got a pretty good idea on how to do it, but I need the flowmaster part before I can really do anything.

I'll keep everyone posted. Might do a short tech article on it. That way it's easy to reference to in the future.

Camarokid01

Hey could you post the part number for the flowmaster Y-pipe and could you also post some pictures once you get it.

Thanks again

alloy

iTrader: (16)

This is the number that llvll4l2c91350 posted for me in another post. So I give him all the credit for finding it.

Summit # FLO-Y214300A I had a hard time getting that number to come up in summit's online catalog, but I finally did a manufactures part# search and it came up for me. To do this drop the FLO- and just choose flowmaster as the manufacture and then type in Y214300A I just tried it and this works, the FLO number doesn't.

I'll post pics as soon as I get something worked out. Today I'm dropping the headers and y pipe off to be sandblasted.

alloy

iTrader: (16)

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted an update on my progress, but the guy that was cleaning my headers and y-pipe took over two weeks to get them done, and did a crappy job of it in the process. And with him taking so long, I realized that there was no way I could get these modified and installed before our first test and tune race last sunday. So I concentrated on the suspension work and other little items to get the car ready to run. All my work on the getting the car ready was useless, I couldn't put any power on the ground. I could easily light up the race tires in 1st, so I putted around in 2nd. I've got lca relocation brackets on the way to help cure this. Anyway back to the original subject matter.

I got my Flowmaster y-pipe in and have kind of worked out a plan of attack. Here are a couple of pics of the flowmaster y-pipe laid over the edelbrock y pipe. This is how I plan on attaching the new y-pipe to the headers. I'm going to cut the inside pipe and try to get a new 90 deg. bend and slip it over the stock pipe and into the new y-pipe. I know the angels are different, but I will make it work somehow.

I've also been thinking about the massive amounts of weld material I ground out of the inside of the pipe, and have decided to have a buddy of mine do some welding on the outside of the tube where they go into the exhaust port flange. These headers are welded from the inside, and I've taken a lot of the strength away by grinding the welds out of the ports, so considering I don't want to have to pull these things off if they crack at the flange because I removed so much welding material, I'm going to have them reinforced. I get it done for free, so why not? I'll post pics of the welding so everyone will know what I'm talking about.

I'll try and keep this post updated as I make progress on this
project.

NuclearPwrIroc

i know the y pipe sucks and all but unless you have a tubular k member you might run into clearance problemos

alloy

iTrader: (16)

I've checked and I have plenty of room under there to put the flowmaster y-pipe on. They tuck 2 cats on these cars in the same space, so I won't have any problem with that.

The one thing I am running into is finding a mandrel bent 2 1/4" 90deg. bend to use to modify the edelbrock y-pipe with. The ones I've found in the auto parts stores are crap. If anyone knows where I can buy one, or a place that custom bends using a mandrel bender, please let me know.

Here is a pic of the reinforcing welds I mentioned. I realize that I've taken a lot of the strength out of the connecting weld between the tubes and the header mounting flange, so I had a friend of mine run a few short beads with his tig welder to strengthen them a little. He had a big problem with outgassing of dirt and grease from the gap between the tube and the steel flange, and his tig torch is fairly large, so getting the torch in to do the welding was a problem. But we did manage to get some good welds on most of the tubes. Took about 1/2 hour to do this.

llvll4l2c91350

Looks good. I'll be doing the same thing before I send mine out to get coated.