Home Made header questions

[austincraig]

Greetings all,when building your own headers,is there a RULE to follow as to WHICH pipe coming from each cylinder HAS TO GO INTO a CERTAIN COLLECTOR LOCATION:TOP LEFT,BTM RIGHT,etc?Does" ANYTHING GOES "rule or should you GUESSTIMATE which HEAD/CYLINDER collector PIPE LENGTH to get EVERY PIPE LENGTH as close as possible to each other to get the "EQUAL PIPE " length that seems to be the BEST/ONLY way to make headers?Who has built there own headers and what head pipe did you put WHERE in the Collector and why.Thanks.

[JMB]

It's not as critical which tube is left/right/top/bottom because they will scavenge the same. What is more critical is the overall length based on desired RPM range, the primary tube diameter, using a stepped primary vs one diameter and then a good quality merge collector.

Equally important is ensuring ground clearance and ability to get the headers in and out without having to completely jack up the motor and also being able to change spark plugs.

The you must build a proper exhaust system to benefit from all of your hard work!

Here are my hand built triple stepped 1-7/8" to 2" to 2-1/8" true equal length primaries (+/- 1/16") 27" long with 4" diameter merge collectors and 4" exhaust system that I fabricated for my 700+RWHP NA LS7 Z06 crate motor in my '88 Monte Carlo SS.

[Xplantdad]

Originally Posted by JMB

It's not as critical which tube is left/right/top/bottom because they will scavenge the same. What is more critical is the overall length based on desired RPM range, the primary tube diameter, using a stepped primary vs one diameter and then a good quality merge collector.

Equally important is ensuring ground clearance and ability to get the headers in and out without having to completely jack up the motor and also being able to change spark plugs.

The you must build a proper exhaust system to benefit from all of your hard work!

Here are my hand built triple stepped 1-7/8" to 2" to 2-1/8" true equal length primaries (+/- 1/16") 27" long with 4" diameter merge collectors and 4" exhaust system that I fabricated for my 700+RWHP NA LS7 Z06 crate motor in my '88 Monte Carlo SS.

Very nice!

[Crossbreed383]

Follow the firing order room permitting for tube location into collector
As for making them equal length.. lots of opinions but those who have dynoed this will tell you 99% of combos wont care one way pr the other
The tubing size, and more importantly using a long smooth bend radius off the heads and in turns has a far greater impact on flow and power than anything else ..