@1Butcher they are looking awesome! It's always good to have a second set of eyes.
Can't wait to see what you come up with.

 

I am focusing on the drivers side now, and where the two sheets of metal are stamp welded, there is a huge lip. It's about 1 inch and points straight down. I bet if you can swing a large dead blow hammer, you can bend this lip further back and get a lot more room. I was looking at this and figured there would be room, but no matter what, as much hassle that it will be turn down these 4 pipes sooner, it's less hassle to be certain.

The right side is much more tight and I was way more cautious how that side is routed.

More to follow.

 

Here is the outcome. I shortened the length of the tubes and angled them down sooner. They should fit for certain, but until I put them in, I will not know.

I will be starting the last half of the passengers side soon. I will be more cautious this time.

 

What's the old saying? Third times a charm.

Something did not look right so I spent several more hours changing the top tubes [#7&8 cylinders]. There should be plenty of room now. My goal was to have the header drop before the block tab. If that was possible, there should be plenty of room.

 

Building/routing headers in a particular non-stock chassis is an ART! My buddies and I have built at least a dozen sets to fit weird combinations. The first was my buddy's '69 Boss 429 ex-drag car in 1979. The race headers were of the 180° variety where one primary tube from each side crossed over to the other side to achieve 180° exhaust pulses from each bank. The 'problem' was that it negated ground clearance! So we modified those headers to fit higher into the chassis. What was the top two primaries into each collector became the bottom, and we cut/shaped/re-routed the others into the top two pipes in the collector. No, the headers are no longer 'equal-length', but the collectors sit 2-1/4" higher so they don't hit the ground on bumps!
Then there is the V-8 Pinto headers - originally two-primary tubes-through-the-fenderwell, and when those rusted out (V-8 Pinto winter-beater duty((??))) became a tri-Y kind-of-affair to his 5-bolt bellhousing '64 289... We modified the routing yet again when the block became a more common 306 - then a J-302-headed (angle-bolt-pattern) 347... Oddball to be sure!!!
Tube-chassis 514-inch '72 Gran Torino Sport with motor plates and Motorsport CJ heads? - easy-peasy!
Tube chassis 557-inch '89 Fox Mustang with Blue Thunder heads w/ BBC-exhaust-ports? also easy
The most difficult challenge was my aforementioned 351W-based stroker with non-OEM CNC'd Edelbrock exhaust-ports in what was a basic column-shift '89 Crown Vic. - and that column-shift drivers' side was the easy side!!! Getting those four primaries to fit between the engine crossmember, the lower A-arm mounts, A/C plenum, Starter, and trans bellhousing was an absolute PITA! BUT it freed up over 30hp over the previous shorty headers!!! I'll take that 10+% in power output all day long, LOL!

 

Yeah, I don't think I'm an artist, more of a butcher who thinks 'I would like to try that'. It's really not that difficult, but it is really time consuming. As you can see, once you are done, then someone points out that it might not work. Then you fix that, look at it again, then say, I can make it look better AND get more room. Like who is going to look? Well, I will and it will bug me.

I am hoping all the U Turns I have done with the 'easy' side will make the other side faster. The firewall is slightly higher on the passengers side so that should not be the issue. The issue is the frame is so much closer to the engine/transmission.

Fortunately, I am not designing these for maximum efficiency. That would just puts more stress on my brain if I did. I do not know the optimum length and equal length header is out of the question. I don't think I will hurt the performance and to gain another skill before I kick the bucket is good enough for me.

Engines running 180° headers sound unique and that amount of work is insane. You need to be 10 steps ahead of what you are doing. Any exhaust that long will change dimensions during the heat cycle so I would think that would have to be designed in.

I'm hoping the passengers side will be done on one take.

 

What you're doing is great.

An equal-length intake or exhaust tube (like with those 180 degree headers, which should be equal-length to maximize the scavenging effect) is going to optimize the torque or horsepower over a narrow rpm range, which is what you want in a race car. But for a daily driver, you don't want a peaky engine, but prefer the torque to be more spread out. This is why Ford never installed equal length headers in the Mustang GTs.

 

Two more pics to add to the collection. I got the right side pretty much done. Yes, I need to finish weld them which means I will be welding each pipe as much as I can, then take each pipe off the flange to weld them completely. Then I will grind the welds to so they look like one pipe. I know, the seam will not be fully invisible, but it would be nice it was.

For those that are curious, I will be back purging each pipe during the welding. The left side pipes are a bit short and I will be lengthening them to fit the collector. I suspect I will have that completed tomorrow. Each header will have a pipe that goes directly in 1 muffler. The muffler has 2 2.5" in and 1 3" out. Maybe not the best way, but it it saves a bit more time/$ joining the two pipes into 1.

The outlet pipe on the collectors are just used for mock up. They won't be there when I am done.

 

Here are my latest pics. I just got so much more important work so sometimes, you got to do that first.



I have cut and trim the drivers side pipes because I keep thinking I can route the pipes more parallel. This was the last attempt. You got to give up at some point and this was the time I did. The blue tape is used to hold it in alignment.




Although, this is not complete, it's getting there. I plan on coating them with Cerakote when I'm done.

Any welds you can see are not mine. I elected to purchase these 1/2" flanges with the stubs prewelded.

 

Got the spike welded in and will weld the collector on tomorrow. V-band will be last. I will do some touch up before I sand blast them for Cerakote.

 

I thought I was pretty much done with the drivers side header. I leak [smoke] tested the header and sure enough, the collector had a leak. Where? Of course in the center of the collector. At least that is where the smoke was coming from. Now, I have no clue what I am doing, but I checked and double checked for signs of leaks before I welded the collector on and I did not see any. I cut the collector off and took another stab at it. Cleaned everything up welded the spike again, checked, double checked, and checked again. We are good to go. I welded the collector on again.

Sure enough, it's leaking again. WTF? What am I doing wrong. Well, when you have no clue, it's hard to know your mistake when it might be clearly visible for a pro. I attempted to fix the leak without cutting the collector off and had no luck. So, I cut the collector off again and used the other new collector and spike to try again. Again, cleaned, checked, double checked, and even tested each individual pipe to confirm the leak is not from a pipe. Thank God, there was no leaks in the pipes because that would have been a real chore to fix.

I welded the new collector on and another leak test. Again, smoke coming out from the center. I was about ready to call it a day and call it good enough, but the O2 sensor would have not liked that so it had to be fixed. I am pretty livid now and I know it's not good to work when you are upset. I also cannot end the day without knowing what is leaking. I cut off the collector and looked at all the welds and I did not see any that could of leaked. I re-welded all of the areas again, cleaned up the excess, then welded everything back together again. One more smoke test and finally, after a complete day of F'n around, the header is now leak free.

I had to order another collector and spike so I can finish weld the passengers side header. I do not know what I have learned and I really don't know how to leak test the area before I weld the collector back on. I guess I can stand the header upright and pour liquid in the center where the pipes join up and see if any liquid comes out. I will probably do that unless someone has a better idea.

Yes, the beer was well earned when I finally turned off the shop lights. I will be cleaning up my welds today, something that looks more presentable. I've got experience with that.