Beretta.net

Had this in another thread, but figured it could use it's own build thread.

Got a hold of the flanges yesterday, so have been able to make some progress on these. First and foremost, I have to figure out how to get the tube into a D shape for the flanges...

After some thinking, I came up with this...




Works pretty good too...




After a lot of cutting, test fitting and tack welding; I have the first primary (cyl 2) of the build routed to where they will join with the rear primaries.





Then a little while later, I worked on the second primary of the build.



and this is where I ended tonight because of lack of bends remaining.



More bends arriving tomorrow, so shouldn't be too much of a hold up on progress. Also need to figure out where to get a 3 into 1 collector. Looks like I'll more then likely have to have one custom made.

The design I am going for will hopefully produce an exhaust similar to this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNBsihULlSw

The goal is to try and get the pulses to perform in an even interval through the exhaust. Which could possibly yield better results then a standard header. Even if all it does is makes it sound better, oh well. I think the sound they produce is much more refined, and would definitely get a few people curious when they hear it out of a Beretta of all things. Still hoping I will see decent numbers when i get a chance to dyno the car. Never know for sure how much the headers help, being I don't have any baseline numbers of any sort. Either way, if I'm going through the work of building them, might as well try to get as much as possible out of it.

What got me interested in this was a topic over on 60v6. bob442 built a set like this for his high comp N/A build in a Monte Carlo. The Beretta has a little less room, but I'm going to give it a shot. So far, things are looking pretty good. Will have to do some heat shielding by the clutch slave cylinder, steering rack and probably wrap the shift cables with something. Going to get started on the rear header tomorrow, which are going to be interesting to figure out.

looks like fun! im curious to see how these turn out, Im toying with the idea of building turbo headers..

I have never built headers but going off my s&s headers (which are a huge PITA), make sure you have plenty of room for the flange bolts!

This is the first set of headers I've ever attempted, so far it's not too bad. Merging the primaries will probably be a bit of work, haven't quite made it that far to find out yet though. I did notice the flange bolts are going to be crowded on the bottom. I gave them as much room as I could, but they are probably still going to be a pain to get at. Can't really do much about that though. Not sure about the S&S headers, but at least with these flanges you can put the bottom nut on most of the way and just slide header onto the bottom studs studs. Then all you have to do is put the top studs in and tighten the bottom ones.

Got a little more work done yesterday. Spent a lot of it on the mock up outside of the car, getting the pipes to sit in a tighter configuration. Also trying to figure out a fitment issue with the thermostat housing.










Will probably be changing a few things with primaries four and six today. Then hopefully get started on one, three and five. Those are going to be interesting.

Wow, getting the mig in there to fully weld the seams should be fun! haha

They're only tack welded to the flanges right now. After getting all the primaries where I want them, they'll be removed, welded up then welded into their final positions for installation into the car.

I do wish I had a better welder so I could get some cleaner looking welds, but I am getting some nice solid welds out of it. Only thing I've noticed so far is it's going to be a pain to get the flange to weld to the primaries. Might have to heat them up before welding to make sure I get good penetration with the welds. Don't want to have to pull it a week or so later because of bad welds at the flanges.

Don't really plan on getting too much done till I figure out what I want to do for the collector. Would like to get the current primaries built all the way up to the collector, then I'll know where would be the best spots to join the sets of primaries. Not sure if I'll attempt to make my own collector, or just have someone make me one.

It looks good but are they gonna fit in the car? Bends seem wide and trying to bring all 3 pipes over the trans were normally one goes is asking for a lot too. Granted I dont know what the engine is going in, just curious.

They are fitting without a problem right now. I do most of the routing while in the car itself, then put them on the mock up outside of the car to finish up and make sure there are no issues with the intakes. Then there are also a lot of back and forth between car and mock up to make sure the changes I do make, don't cause an issue with fitment.

-edit- Also, the bends could have been a little tighter, but so far they are working. Didn't expect to get it perfect first time around, so next time I'll go with tighter bends and stainless. Whenever there will be a next time anyways. I'll probably coat these and use them till I decide to do a full rebuild. At which point, I will re-do them in stainless. That could be years from now, though (hopefully). Want to be able to just drive this thing without any worries for a while, so I can get going on my other projects that need attention.

what about near the thermostat neck? The rad hose might end up laying on the header tube, might be a problem for hose longevity....

I've already taken care of the thermostat problem. I adjusted the primaries a little and I also got the neck of the thermostat housing angle towards the engine a little more. When all is said and done, there should be plenty of room.

I did put together a collector the other day. Not the prettiest looking piece, but it will do the job just fine. I'm also going to have the exhaust wrapped from the collector down the down pipe, this way I will be able to avoid heat issues with all the stuff that could possibly melt (and hide the ugly collector).

Waiting on some 2.5" flanges so I can finish the collector and get it where I want it. Then onto the rear primaries. Going to try and make some sort of "jig", to show me how much room I have to build on my mock-up. That way I can save time by not having to continually test fit it in the car. The front was easy, because I could see and just do most of it in the car. The back I can't get a good look at and isn't as convenient to get to.

Make it pretty...

http://www.coneeng.com/pdf/3-1%20&%20%2 ... %20PDF.pdf

http://www.coneeng.com/collectors.html

That's the site I looked at the most. I'm just gonna stick with my homemade collector though. It's not pretty, but I'm sure it will do just as good as anything I could buy. Well, maybe not anything, but the basic style of collectors. I would even bet that it is better then just a basic collector. I'll eventually get pics of it up, along with some of my other progress. Probably tomorrow, being I'm about to go out and work on it some more right now. Had to go buy a new cutting blade and welding wire the other day, so now I'm going to hopefully get the collector in position tonight.

any updates on this elroy hope u get ur car done this yr