Just to update on mine. Car sat for like a year almost but got it out a few times recently. Got a tick under the hood that i noticed and started looking around. Looks like the driver side header primary front cylinder cracked all the way around. Annoying that I will have to pull the header to fix but this also happened on the opposite side pretty early on (same front cylinder but on the pass side). My guess is the short tubing and the lack of any filler rod on this “show” tig pulse welds.

keep an eye on your welds guys.

 

That sucks. When I took a welding class in 1994 the instructor told me strong welds are not pretty and pretty welds are not strong. A lot of guys making 'show quality' stuff are concentrating too hard on making the weld look pretty then adequate penetration and filler.

That said, I'm a huge fan of cast iron/steel for turbo manifolds. They won't flow as well but the durability is better.

 

thanks for the heads up. i remember doing some weld touch-ups on my PS header before getting them coated. i'll have to keep an eye on these.
just realized i haven't updated my progress for this thread in awhile. i got the terminator X system installed and running last summer. wasn't able to get a lot of miles on it though cause i was having some electrical issues and then needed to get the third member rebuilt to fix a bad drone. also haven't been able to drive the car this summer yet either. dropped the car off at the upholstery shop in March. guy said it would be done by June and i'm still waiting. i said i need the car back by 8/18 because i pre-registered for the Trans Am Nationals. even if he gets it done by then, i still have stuff i need to do to get it ready for the show. and then i need to start working on tuning (little overwhelmed by that). fingers crossed it all works out.

 

Ended up pulling it today and welding it. Not
fun getting the weld all the way around but its
done I also found that the support on the front of the driver header cracked at the head flange. Probably either the result of the primary cracking or it pushed the primary into cracking. What’s weird is that it was the same primary as the passenger side front short sweep with a 90. Maybe it’s bc the are the closest and shortest runs to the collector causing them to crack with heat cycles? Idk…. The pass side hasn’t cracked since I fixed it years ago so I hope this one holds too. I welded the support rod back in and added some more weld to reinforce it. Then hit it with some black creakote I had to help with rust. A new PS pump was suppose to come today but USPS never dropped
off I can’t bolt the header in as this new pump is a hydraboost pump which I have a hydro boost in my firebird. The current pump is a standard PS pump and doesn’t have the dual inlets in the reservoir. I have those teed together and run back to the pump return. So I either leave it as is and cap the top return line or try to run dual lines back to the pump. I was getting pump noise so I tried some liquid help and nothing. Not sure if it was the pump itself or the return line setup I have maybe causing and issue. I’ve read it can be done this way so figured it was good. The pump that was on the car was from the donor vehicle which has 150k on it so I figure the pump is just old and worn. since this is a stock firebird steering box and I’ve added the hydro boost I have no idea what pressures I need to be running or flow rates. The noise is annoying as it sounds like a transmission pump groan and it increases with rpm.