Style

iTrader: (1)

have got my headers off the car, got some tubulars on for now. was gona port them,

have had a look on search and found a few threads but some are really. old.

what is the best way to port the headers? just try and take a bit off all the edges to nearly match the gasket size?

what tools do i need?

130 WATT DIE GRINDER AND FLEXISHAFT IN HARD CARRY CASE on eBay, also, Air Tools, Power Tools, Business, Office Industrial (end time 07-Jan-09 09:06:40 GMT)

would something like this be up to the job? already have a decent sized hammer drill at home, do i want a dremel, and some sort of die grinder.

are these all the tools? and any tips on technique? do i just want to try and take a few mm off every side

STI5300

iTrader: (4)

I looked to do this on my V3 STi but having taken the original headers off, all the mating surfaces appeared to match up even those onto the head. I eventually used a rotary burr to grind off any casting marks and made the pipe to pipe connections the same. I used an electric router with a flexi drive in it. Search for Harvey he appears to be an expert and as it is a sh---y job best ask him.

Butty

iTrader: (2)

Something with a bit of guts is need to do the job quickly with a Dremel type tool to finish things off.
The open in the link is only as powerful as a Dremel, so will take you quite a while.
Either get an air powered die grinder or a 110v electric grinder - I use a Hitachi X100.
Get right inside the pipes either a long nose (eg X100) or one that can be clamped in place and has a flexi drive on it is needed.

If its a single set of headers then it would be cheaper either hire the grinder or send them off to Harvey to be finished.

Nick

Style

iTrader: (1)

ok, im going to be doing it myself, if nothing else to learn how its done. so will either rent, or probably end up buying one. could end up similar price to paying someone to do it anyway.

budget of around £60 ideally. unless i stumble upon a decent second hand compressor going cheap then ill go the air tools route.

can anyone recommend a electric one around this price? ideally not 110 as i dont own a transformer

KLR16V

iTrader: (2)

I just used a powerful 240 volt drill with a long shaped pear grind stone bought for £4 from local tool shop ,took about an hour to open up pipe entrys to gasket size , its amazing how much material is removed before there was a huge lip now matched . Left pipe outlets as they were .

The first set i did a few years ago i used a air driven grind stone off a compressor but to be honest there was not much difference between that and the 240 volt drill and a new grind stone in the chuck .

Mark

KLR16V

iTrader: (2)

You will need a vice to place the bits of exhaust in so you can apply pressure with the drill .

Mark

overlord

how do you mach up the pipes?

KLR16V

iTrader: (2)

You open up the inlet opening on all pipes to match the size of the gasket opening , when you remove them you will see the pipe openings to be a lot smaller than the gasket openings so cause a flow restriction , there will be a ring of soot use this as a marker line when you open them up .

Mark

Style

iTrader: (1)

ok great, ive got a big hammer drill as i say, so ill get a pear grinder.

luckily there is quite a decent sized vice on the bench in my garage at the moment.

is it best to match the inlet of the pipes to the gasket, or i read somewhere you want to leave a lip. would of thought matching them would be best, is it?

and di you open up any other places along the pipes? or do you just do the inlet pipes of the exhaust manifold? - and doing this do you notice an improvement

KLR16V

iTrader: (2)

You only open up the inlets on the pipes eg manifold on both sides ,crossover pipe ,collector and up pipe .The outlets on all these you leave ,eg the step is left .

Mark

Style

iTrader: (1)

ahhh i see. so only matching up the start of each section to the size of the gasket.

i cant remember how many joins there are but im only doing the start of each join as in the pic.

( i know its a bit basic, but is that the general idea. port out the bits in red to match the gasket and completely leave the sides in blue

Free Virtual Drive - porting pic.bmp

edit: dont laugh at my rubbish pic , i drew it in paint!

Style

iTrader: (1)

ttt think that is right in the pic,

what grind bits can i get? only ones in b&Q were small pink grind stones, not as beefy as i would like but if they'll do the job ill get them.

they were similar to these pink stones below

5 Piece Mixed Mounted Point Pack E, Drill, Die grinder on eBay, also, Air Tools, Power Tools, Business, Office Industrial (end time 01-Feb-09 12:02:19 GMT)

could these do the jpb, (if not a little longer) or do i need to get bigger grind stones? - having trouble finding somewhere that sells them

Style

iTrader: (1)

Rite, got those ones from above. done the cast manifold inlets, they were pretty soft, enlargerd to the size of the soot ring.

on the start of the crossover pipes theres some pretty tough steel pipe welded inside. do you want to grind down the steel pipes in the center a bit?

and how do you do the up pipe? at the inlet do you want to grind the steel tubing in the middle and part of the cast outer case up to the soot mark? hows best to do uppipe

bigsigh

iTrader: (4)

If u can cud you stick a few pics up of what you have done?? im following the thread picking out all the advice as it comes, ideally ill be getting harveys ported and wrapped headers but i dunno if i can afford it before mapping and this might bridge the gap for now , cheers

Style

iTrader: (1)

ok mate, ill see if i can take a few on my camera phone tonight, but i wont have a before picture as ive already grinded out he two main inlets. but you can see where i have done up to though.

still want someone whos done it to comment on the uppipe and crossover parts. i.e the steel piping inside

T5OLF

iTrader: (4)

These are mine, I tried using a drill but soon swapped to an air powered die grinder.

bigsigh

iTrader: (4)

Thats super, thank you for posting, gives a bit of a visual reference, did you notice any difference driving the car ?

Style

iTrader: (1)

hi mate,

yea put them on the car on saturday. love it! will be on full boost just after 3000rpm. it kicks in earlier. however one thing i will say, the tubulars did seem faster top end, but low down acceleration is much better with the ported. really pleased.

next gona raise boost and fit a fmic to try and compensate for the now bit slower top end.

bigsigh

iTrader: (4)

Super, i have an RA so top end doesnt matter much to me i want it to be ballistic down low good to know, will have to get cracking, did you Wrap your headers and downpipe? is it a worthwhile mod? just got heat wrap mega cheap if i want it so was gonna do both

andywiddss1

iTrader: (4)

after reading this i did the same hears a few pics and its a different car spools up so much quicker and sooner ,and to be honest it is not that hard to do and cost me less than 2 quid to buy the drill grinding point ,to do it took about 90 mins and then about 60 mins to heat wrap it


so as advised i ported it out by 2/3mm back to the next ring size this is now the same size near as matters as the gasket



then it was time for the heat wrap easy to do apart from the stupid **** metal tie wraps so used a few extra jubilee clips and wet the wrap first to stop the fibreglass itch

jimbojones1000

Just ran across this thread as i was thinking of porting my headers, and i was gonna suggest using some engineers blue to get the matching perfect, doesnt seem like anyone else has mentioned it.

tjmatt

iTrader: (1)

I believe the step caused by the larger manifold inlet is intentional in order to help prevent reversion in the flow. I wouldn't know if a perfect match would work better or not - I'm sure someone else would know.

I think that the port match isn't far off already its just the gaskets have much larger bores to ensure they never impede the flow however bad any machining is. Whilst this little gap all around is not ideal, it really isn't much of a problem and definitely better than opening up the cylinder head port and manifold inlet to the gasket diameter - that is something you DON'T want to do.

jimbojones1000

Yeah i didnt mean porting the head to the manifold, more the cross pipe and up pipe joints.

Evansawd

Come across this great thread so thought I'd revive it as it's been suggested I port my unequal length headers and upgrade my uppipe from standard and this thread has inspried me to try it myself.

Should I strip the headers and port the cross pipes also or just the areas on the manifold gaskets as pictured.

Have an as performance on its way from a helpful member so looking forward to the install.

TECHNOPUG

iTrader: (1)

Take it apart and port each inlet side. Refit with new gaskets.

Evansawd

I know this is going to sound stupid but as the as performance pipe I have is (I assume) ported what gaskey would I be ordering, import car parts has standard, 2.5" and 3" gaskets for the up pipe. Could I order the 3" and port up pipe to that. Never don't this sort of mod is all.

TECHNOPUG

iTrader: (1)

Call AS Performance

Evansawd

New gaskets have arrived so planning to port the exhaust this weekend fingers crossed. Just to clarify 100% I am gasket matching the sides marked in red and leaving the ends marked blue in this pic...... (sorry to annotate on somebody else's pic was just easier).

TECHNOPUG

iTrader: (1)

Yes.

Evansawd

Thank you. It was explained just wanted to make sure 110% and not ruin them