I installed my Hedman 68470's this afternoon. What a sucky install. Took almost 2 hours. Longer than any header install should take.

<B>Passenger side</B> header wouldn't slide in from the top - made contact with heater line going to firewall. Had to unbolt htat and pry it over. Then when it slid down, it made contact with my pro-torque starter. so I had to unbolt that, and will need to reposition it.

<B>Drivers side</B> header was a mess.. Had to remove the valve cover, had to unbolt the blower (vortech) and slide that out of the way, then had to unbolt hte steering shaft and move that over. Once I did that the header slid right in.. But now the header contacts the oil feed and discharge lines to the blower, this is no good.

<B>Y-Pipe</B> is not in yet. I preligned it up and realized it basicly touches the oil pan. Ugg.. Will have to wrap it really good with header wrap. The way hedman makes the union kinda sucks too cus its RIGHT UNDER the oil pan. No room for a clamp or anything. So we'll have to get it lined up and tack weld it, then pull it out and put a beed around it.

Now whats worse, is the section after the y. Its 2.5" The solution? Cut it off at the Y, weld 3" pipe to replace it.

I didn't have any time to finish the install today. Hopefully get more done tomorrow.

-- Joe

 

wow. you had a bunch of problems with those things. i had the 68460s, the long tubes, and they went in with much less fuss (granted i dont have a blower setup to work around). the drivers side headers went in from the bottom and the passenger sides went in from the top. i had to remove starter and the torque converotr belly pan/inspection cover to get the passenger side to go in. i didnt have to do anything on the drivers side, but twist and turn the header a bit.

have you finished the install yet?

 

No.. I had to run out and get collector bolts since there was none in the box.. Then I ran out of time.

Interestingly enough, the flowtech's came out in like 20 minutes..

The y-pipe needs work. Gonna cut it up and make it better.. The haders are nice, but the y-pipe isn't..

What IS nice is the bolts that come with the hedman are 3/8 head, so you can get a wrench on 'em.

I had considered the full length 1 3/4, then running 2 cats then ying it together but.. thats a lot of work.. heh


-- Joe

 

i had the flowtechs before the hedman long tubes. those things literally drop in from the top on both sides; they are so small they cant help but fit well.

yeah hedman bolts with the 3/8 heads are great, especially around the center primaries.

 

Remember I said install was tight.. Had to move a lot out of the way..

 

Process of y-pipe modification. cut here to replace with 3"

 

Notice the burs inside this y collector? this just won't do. File or dremel to make it nice and smoth, and we'll be ready to add our new 3" pipe.

 

As if stepping down to 2.5" isn't bad enough, Hedman welded the 2.5" pipe about 1/2" into the collector. How much turbulence/restriction do you think this caused? OUr new 3" will be streteched OVER the collector to provide as smooth as possible a transition.

 

Heres what the stock version of the pipe is like. You can see what I cut off in the pic. Looks like a 90d but not really. What we'll do is put the 3" pipe on an expander and open it up to 3"id, then when we slide it over and get the right angle we'll tack 2 small welds on it.

Then a small section of pipe (not shown), then a 45d into the kitty.. meow.

Once everything is lined up, tucked up high and the right angles we'll weld beads around everything.

The last step will be to add some DEI header wrap (actually holds more heat in than ceramic coating) to the part under the oil pan. This should keep us from frying oil, and keep the kitty nice and hot to pass emissions..

Think I should put a flange on the kitty or just weld it in?

 

I popped a primary on my first set of hedmans using that header wrap, only after 4 1/2 months of having it on. Car is my daily driver, i would reccomend that wrap for anything by race cars. BTW, all of the other pipes were abour ready to go too.

 

Yeah thats cuz they got too damn hot.. But on the y-pipe it should be ok.. Besides, if we trash a y-pipe, we buy another for $95.00..

 

ahh...only on the y-pipe, yeah, that should be ok. i'd just check for corrosion on a regular basis, that stuff holds in moisture pretty well.

 

Thats a good point.. What applies to my car may not apply to cars driven in rain, not garaged on a lift when not in use (6 feet in the air mind you).

-- Joe

 

subscribing to this so i can see what happens!

Im thinking of getting the same headers.. but if people keep having this problem with the y pipe... im gunna pass.

 

Thats pretty much how the y-pipe is. The post will explain how to get cheap hedman headers, and modify them to work just as well as other brands.

-- Joe

 

OK.. So we filed out all the ports and they're nice and smooth. Started on the new section of 3" pipe. Thats almost done believe it or not.

Now we gotta test fit it and see if the angle needs slight improvement or not.

 

Few issues with sportsman heads:

1) y-pipe contacts starter (summit ministarter)
2) y-pipe contacts frame.

Had to cut the y-pipe In a few locations and reweld it.

I'll prolly have to cut it again and rework it back to its original form for my trickflow heads.


-- Joe

 

After about 8 modifications over the last two years, the y-pipe is getting replaced again.

This time, I'm going to cut it closer to the weld and expand the pipe to 3" ID so I can slide the 90* inside and weld it, rather than trying to mate it.

-- Joe

 

I wish I read this thread prior to installing mine. I ran into ALL the same things you did. When I put the y-pipe up there and saw how it rested on the oil pan I was just blown away.

A few mods and a 3" section of exhaust pipe and its in there. What a pain in the *** though!

 

Wow... maybe you got a freak set or something? I didn't have to unbolt anything to put my 68470's in my Z28 except the D/S valve cover. I didn't even have to remove the spark plugs!

 

I had to remove the valve covers to prevent from scratching them and for making it easier.

The overall fitment of the y-pipe sucked though. I would have been concerned if I was mating that up to an existing exhaust. Luckily everything was brand new from the headers back.

I put everything up to test fit, tac welded, dropped it, welded it solid and the put back up. The end result is a nice exhaust but the should have made the sections that bolt to the headers a little bit longer. Another 3/4" would have made a world of difference.

 

This was on sportsman heads. My trickflows are no problem. Now I just unbolt the steering shaft, and slide the header in. I've had them out about 10 times.

-- Joe

 

Right so..

I ordered a new hedman y-pipe. Cut it, got it ready to weld up the 3" section. Guess what..

My moroso oil pan don't clear, nor does my pro-torque starter.

SO I raided the bin of mandrel bends. Went 45* down outta a reducer, straight over, 90* back, then 90* into a old hedman y-collector.. Welded all up (6 joints). Works like a charm.

If anyone wants to buy a *new* hedman y-pipe, I got one in box, and I'm throwing in a 90* welded mandrel bend too so you dont even have to do the y-pipe mod.

-- Joe

 

My set has gone off and on several times without haveing to remove anything. Guess I'm just real lucky.

But I definently will not be using these again. Those damn pipes on the Y are 2.25 inches before the collectors. I just went ahead and cut the tine 2.5 inch pipe off and bought mandrel bent 2.25s and ran duals on the same route the singel exhaust would have run.

Once these headers are toasted, I'm going edelbrocks. They seam to have really nice 2.5 inch drops off the headers into a ligitimate 3 inch.

 

the problem with the edelbrocks (other than being designed by a monkey) is they arn't really 1.60" primaries, they're somewhere between 1.50 and 1.60 depending on which tube it is.

Hedmans are definately the best route for the money.

 

That and that the edelcraps are also assembled by a monkey, and the fit is apparent.

 

I had to remove the entire freaking engine to get them off of a parts car. Stupid rusted bolts + collectors turned at really stupid angles.

 

ugh! Well damn. That kind of suprises me since the four edelbrock intakes I've had were really good quality. Especially compared to a knock off brand I tried to use on some vortec heads. Well the headmans don't show any signs of dieing anytime soon anyway. I might just buy a bunch of 2.5 inch mandrel bends and just try to copy hedman's y pipe with decent sized pipe. I actually like the design of the Y especially since I have a T5 with a slave master cylinder right in the way if I wanted to run the pipe straight back on the driver side.

 

hey anesthes, u got any pics of your new y-pipe? Ive got mine comin from summit right now, Im kinda curious how your 2nd round with it turns out, maybe save me a few steps

 

I did two more actually. I sold one to a board member, and the other one is sitting on the shelf. My hedmans (ceramic coated) are on ebay right now, because i bought some coated SLP 1 3/4.

On the second one, I expanded the 3" pipe out a hair so it just barely sat over the y-collector, and welded a bead around it. I don't remember the member who bought it, but he seemed happy.

The third one was made of mandrel bends all welded together.

-- Joe

 

Well hey, you think you can throw together a grocery list as far as what degree bends, and about how much piping is needed? I dont have access to any mandrel bends so Id more than likely have to order some off the net (summit maybe?), or hit up a speed shop and see if they bend some up for me.

Pleeeeeez??

 

 

wtf?? I dont even wanna know what that is.

 

a cookie. I laughed

 

Well if I get a mendrel bent u-pipe from summit, 3", what radius should I get? Im taking my y-pipe off tonight to start the project, but I was wanting to go ahead and order the mandrel bends for the 3" project now. Theres a 4.5" radius one and a 6" radius one. the 4.5" one looks like it should work, I just wanted to get the bends right.