[Lee]

Originally Posted by 3fastgtos

I expand about two inches of the exhaust pipe and slide it over the header. Then I weld a tab on the expanded part that bolts to a tab welded on the header. No leaks, no worries.

That is how my Tribal Tubes Tri-Y's are made, and also a set of Headmans on an LS swap of mine.

They create a new problem - how to remove the header, it ever needed repair or to have a gasket changed out. There is not enough fore/aft movement in either the headers or the exhaust system. The engine would have to be removed in order to get the header out.

For the Tri-Y's, my exhaust guy installed 3-bolt flanges at the muffler (I think you can see this all in the picture, and the oil leak HAS been fixed and the stains removed!). With that, I can drop the exhaust there, then slide the entire mid-section off of the slide-on collectors. With an H-pipe or X-pipe, this would make it easier for transmission maintenance and such.

My old Falcon wagon's headers were ball/socket type. One side came loose once, but after tightening a bit more they never gave me another problem, and sealed very well. My only concern was if the design caused turbulence, and may cause a loss of flow.