Building solder headers which way ?

[Greg Myers]

Building up some fenderwell headers which way is the easiest to go ?

From the heads out to the collector or 

from the collector up to the heads ?

Lots of room, the fender wells are gone and it's on a jacked up tube axle with skinny wheels and tires.

[afx]

I build my headers from styrene rod in lieu of solder and work from the cylinder head out.  I like to drill the head to accept the exhaust header.

Edited November 13, 2017 by afx

[Mark]

1: How do you bend the styrene rod?

2: I scratched a set of headers awhile back using insulated single-strand electrical wire.  I've got some aluminum floral wire, which I imagine will be easier to bend and have it hold the desired shape.  (The electrical wire was passable, but I did have to "over-bend" a bit due to a small amount of "spring-back").  With the electrical wire, I epoxied four lengths together two-on-two and started from the collector end (after first trying it from the flange end).  When I try the aluminum wire, I'll do it the same way.

2a: Rather than handle the long block over and over again, I drilled the exhaust ports into a piece of hardwood.  I drilled both sides adjacent to each other so I could compare the left and right side headers, to get them to match up.

 

Edited November 13, 2017 by Mark
Added info

[afx]

I bend the rod with my fingers or round needle nose pliers.  When I am happy with the shape I heat the bend over a candle to set the shape.

I use a drilled jig made from solid square rod with the correct exhaust port spacing while I am building the headers to keep from possibly damaging the drilled cylinder heads.

I dissolve bits of styrene in liquid cement and use it like putty to form the collectors.

Edited November 13, 2017 by afx

[10thumbs]

Hi Greg,

Great choice with the solder wire headers.  I have some experience with solder rod.

Important:  Here in Europe we still have lead solder, and in the size you'll use for scale headers, the flux is built in.  Meaning, the rosin is filled into about 5 channels through the soldering rod.  This rosin will have to be removed as good as possible!  Otherwise with time, and if the material gets sunlight and/or warmth, the flux will run out the ends.  A real mess will incur.

Either, you take care in drilling out the ends as far as possible (2mm maybe?) and seal them off with CA, or you cut the lengths to about the size you'll need, and with tweezers, dunk them in boiling water to melt the flux out.  As an extra kicker, the solder rod gets a nice color from hot water.

Sorry if you already knew this info.

Good idea too, to drill out the exhaust ports to make a nice connection.  I like to drill the ports out a lot, so the solder can be really stuck into the block.  This way it's a lot easier to make the remaining bends needed.

Another tip, if you don't mind.  Cut a length about twice the size you need, and work both ends.  Here a little, there a little.  You can easily snip off either end when it starts getting close.

Again, great choice with solder headers.

This was a couple of years ago, 2.5mm makes to a scale 2 1/2 ".  Perfect.  The AMT '33 Willys;

Good luck and let us see some pics.

Michael

 

 

[W-409]

I think it's a lot easier to build headers from styrene rod rather than using solder. Styrene rod is easy to bend with a candle and the plastic headers are a lot lighter than solder headers. These headers were made from styrene rod:

[Greg Myers]

A better size as well. I find the solder being a bit undersized for high performance use.

[10thumbs]

A better size as well. I find the solder being a bit undersized for high performance use.

You could also buy the right sized solder.

I have solder in 1" to 3", scale of course, and in various sizes in between.

For a big block fender well header, 2.5" is big enough.  Don't you think?