[taff2]

Progress has been a bit slow lately but I thought I would show you a couple of pics of the cheapo headers I just made up using a $90 weld up SBC shorty header kit,a pair of $30 Dougs flanges,and a pair of $20 3" to 2 1/2" reducers ,all from Summit. I made the T4 flanges and wastegate flanges from 10mm steel plate and after cutting and shutting to suit I then had them nickel plated over here for £40 (about $60). The Summit shorty kit is ideal for making up a set of turbo headers,they're 1 3/4" primaries with 3" collectors, yeah, they're mild steel but for $90 you cant complain! The 'gate entries are not at the most efficient angle so I increased the tube diameter to 2",and besides,I don't plan on 'wasting' a lot of the exhaust pressure,I paid for it and I'm gonna use it!
I had originally made up a set of 2" equal length headers,but because of the convoluted shape they had to be for equal lengths they were close to the brake master cylinder/chassis/various coolant pipes etc, so I ended up having to wrap them with fibreglass heat wrap and I f******* hate that stuff! Every time I worked in the engine bay I ended up itching badly all over so I painted the wrap with heatproof paint,however,when I fired up the engine to break in the new cam the bloody wrap caught fire! Lucky that my son was there and we caught it before any damage was done,but I took the headers off and threw them in the bin and made this new set.

[walterd]

I really like those headers, great ingenuity! Hope my boy pulls me out of jam someday like your son, quick thinker!

[Curly Joe]

you did an Ausie-um job. A real showcase of talent and injun-uety. Really, lookin good. Congrats on the new set of headers and not getting cooked. Bolt em on and crank that baby up.

[bankbook]

Looks good.
Post up the pics when they are on the car.

[Tom Vaught]

Must not have a GTO, especially a 64, LOL!

Tom Vaught

[taff2]

Couple of not very good pics of the headers fitted. Since these pics were taken I've fired up the engine to break in the cam etc, most of the plating has bubbled,flaked and discoloured,I may have to try industrial chrome plating.
I'll also have to insulate a couple of things-the header evac tubes,a couple of plug leads- it don't half get hot

[70 bird]

I have had good luck with VHT rattle can paint, I touch it up once a year and at $6 a can its cheap enough.

I just wish they made a VHT Pontiac blue paint for the exhaust runners on the heads.

[taff2]

Not where I expected to be at this moment in time. I changed the oil and filter after breaking in my new engine,the oil looked a bit silvery and when I cut open the filter besides finding some swarf I also found quite a lot of the 'supposedly' heatproof paint that I coated my valley in. So,it's a complete stripdown,clean up, and rebuild with a roller cam this time.
Lets hope I haven't done any damage to the crank and other bits.

[BruceWilkie]

Taff that stinks... lot of work for sure. Hopefully no serious damage.

Glyptol from Eastwood for internal paint is what has been suggested to me...A friend did his motor with it 6-7 years ago...refresh this year all seemed to be there...I'm not going to bother myself... my gut has always told me I'd be the guy for something to go wrong!!

I'm having tremendous luck/life with Rustoleum high-temp ceramic silver on Debs street headers.(6 years and only a few minor blems that touched up with a brush).

Might try it as an undercoat for the Pontiac blue. My best luck with Pontiac blue on ex-ports has been using thinnest coat needed to color it.

[taff2]

Just stripped the motor,nothing at all wrong with the cam and lifters,it was a HS roller rocker contacting the side of one of the polylocks. It's amazing how bad just a tiny amount of ali swarf looks when it's suspended in oil and you're paranoid about breaking in a new cam! It did have me a bit baffled as to why there was a little swarf in the one head as all the oil had to go through the oil filter first,so it shouldn't have been possible for swarf to travel up a pushrod. Haven't had time to measure the polylock or have a good look at the rocker to see what caused the interference,but I did carefully check them all when I built the engine. I only used these 'pre owned' HS rocker to give the cam an easier time on break in (they are 1.5 ratio versus the new Scorpion 1.65's I have).
I just have to strip off the paint in the valley and clean everything out. I won't be using paint inside an engine again that's for sure. I only used it so that if I developed a crack in the welded up valley it would be easier to spot on maintenance checks.

[marks73ta]

Taff, in my 455 that I had in my '73 TA, I basically ported and polished the whole valley area instead of painting. I know people have been doing it forever but there's just something that bothers me about putting paint of any sort in the valley area. So I just took time before all the machining etc was done and polished the area, took off all the casting slag, especially around the open lifter boss edges, etc. I just felt more comfortable about it. Plus I probably saved a lot of weight too, lol---couple ounces maybe??? Mark L

[taff2]

Yeah Mark,that's what I normally do in the valley. I was wary of painting in there so I was very careful prepping it, I think that the heat from breaking in the engine caused the paint to blister before it had fully cured. As Bruce mentioned earlier,Glyptol is normally used for this,but I wouldn't even use this in future,I dont see an advantage as far as oil drainage is concerned anyway,what with the open valley of a Pontiac block
I've stripped it all and there wasn't any damage to the reciprocating assembly or block so I think I dodged a bullet there. It gave me a chance to inspect the main and rod shells anyway,nothing unusual as far as wear patterns there. I can't see any reason why the HS rocker arm rubbed on the stud though,maybe a little non -concentricity on the stud girdle polylock,I'll check carefully when I re assemble .
After the break in ,I let it idle for a short while and it idled really nicely,even with the dual 600's and big open plenum manifold,no doubt the locked out timing helped there.

[SupergasDil]

Hey Taff, I have also built a couple of sets of headers now using some small block chevy stuff, but mine were fenderwell headers.
Just wondering if the sbc kit you used had the pipe ends you needed to match up to the flanges you used or did you have to do any mods there where the pipes met the flange?

[taff2]

'Dil, the Summit primary pipe diameters were 1 3/4" ,but I had to flare the ends a bit to match the D port flanges so that there wasn't any mismatch when the exhaust gases flowed out of the heads ports. I also had to 'reverse' the end cylinder pipes,in other words ,the end that normally goes into the collector was now welded to the flange.
I couldn't buy the bends for what I paid for the Summit kit.

[SupergasDil]

Do you have a machine to flare the pipes to the sizes you needed ? Just looking for the best way to do this kind of deal again

[SupergasDil]

Great work by the way. I love to see guys build their own stuff.

[BruceWilkie]

Building your own stuff is as real as it gets, especially in the hot rod arena... I do enjoy it and often it makes better economic sense. I dont mind buying a finished piece that needs no changes and only costs a bit more than it would cost me to do or helps me make something that hasnt been made.

Speaking of the valley area...
I was going through some mags the other morning and Len Caverly's EMC build caught my attention. Instead of conventional lifter bore brace he simply filled the valley with epoxy. Used a swim pool toy(noodle) wrapped in duct tape then mold release to block off below the lifters. I prefer JB Weld (the regular stuff not quick weld) But largest unit you can buy is the 10 oz Industroweld. I really like the properties of this stuff. Have a few other ideas in mind beyond just the JB Weld... Maybe some braces both across and lengthwise in the valley. Steel flat bar shaped as needed, a few plates shaped as needed to weld them to, then screwed/JBWeld in place. I think that more than solves the lifter bore issue plus really reinforces the entire valley. IMO if you have enough force to break the lifter bores with the valley full of JBweld an SD type brace isnt going to fare any better. Besides I dont like the conventional lifter bore braces. Not so much of fitting required but tightening in place pulls them down into the V...a direction that seems to remind me of a log splitter. Splayed caps pull the bottom in...makes sense to me, to do something to keep the top from spreading.(cross tie) (lengthwise to cover any forces in that direction)

Also figured out how to priority oil the mains 1st... havent decided if its really needed... seems alot of work... but basically if you block all the lifter feed holes on the driver side then drill new feeds on other side of those lifter bores, then plumb over to the passenger galley, the oil goes to the mains first. Then instead of restricting 16 lifter feeds restrict the passenger galley entrance just beyond where it gets its oil. If I remember the math I did, a single 1/4" hole there equals the area of 16 .075" lifter restrictions. Certainly less worry of a clog in a feed restriction that size. (a .125" hole vs 16 at .03125"). I'm really holdin off on this one but it may get done and if I do I'll do it before I fill the valley with JB which would seal against any possible leaks.

Anybody radius the under cuts in the casting below the cylinder bores??? I'm going to. I've been rounding edges here and there and figure this cant hurt anything. I hate seeing sharp edges.

BTW Taff, glad nothing serious went wrong with your motor.

[taff2]

'Dil, I just clamped a piece of 1" steel bar in the vice and used this as an anvil to shape the tube end. After I tacked the tube to the flange I used a ball end piece of ali bar as a drift to tap the tube (from the inside) into place,before final welding it.
Bruce,the priority mains feed sounds good,like you I'm not sure that the Pontiac needs it once all the lifter bore feeds have been restricted? I suggested a similar fix to your idea of cross feeding the lifter bores to a friend of mine who recently bought an old Keith Black Hemi block to use in his street/strip van,the KB came without any provision for oiling to the lifter bores. As he wants to use it on the street I suggested he drills and taps holes into the lifter bores ,and then connect hard lines from each hole to a distribution block with one bigger diameter hard line tapped into the main oil gallery.

[SupergasDil]

Brilliant. Thanks for the tips.

[taff2]

I eventually got all the paint out of the valley,although it blistered and flaked off initially,just try and get the b*****d stuff off now,it took days! Got the engine back together now ,going to drop in back in the car tomorrow. I may make a test n tune meeting in the next couple of weeks if my new slicks come back in time.