I was planning on touching up my header a little bit. At one point in the collector, there is a lip of welding that spilled over and I want to see if that is causing my whooshing noice when at WOT. It is on just one pipe and I think that the lip may be slowing the flow right there and causing the noise.

Do you think with a stainless steel ceramic coated header, that a compressor with a rotary grinder or wire grinder would be enough to touch up rough spots? I've never done that before and I don't know if that wouldbe enough to do it.

Also, I just got my XTC 2.5" downpipe today (CA FTW) and I want to clean up the header and put on the downpipe at the same time. I am thinking maybe this weekend if it warms up a little. Man, I am excited.

Any tips or thoughts would be helpful!

 

If you've got a CA addiction header, here's what I did to mine (from a previous post).

"I wish I had photographed my work before I bolted it up, but alas, I didn't anticipate this thread.

In a nutshell, all you have to do is get some mounted stones with 4-6" shafts in various diameters and grits and buy/make a flap wheel. Carbide augors are nice (a great time saver,) but they are primo expensive and can remove too much metal too quick, so if you don't know what you are doing, stay away. They can't run in reverse and put the metal back. A die grinder or a porting tool with a flexible shaft works best, but a high speed drill can also be used. It's a little cumbersome, so give yourself plenty of time. Dremel tools should be avoided, as they don't have enough torque to do a good job.

I like to start at the cylinder head end and imagine I'm the exiting exhaust gasses. Make sure the openings on the header line up with the ports on the cylinder head. The most accurate way is to use prussian blue on the head to mark the header and vica-versa, but you have to have the head off to do a true port match. The next best method is to use the old manifold gasket to check for allignment, as it should have markings where it mated to the head. They did a pretty good job of alligning the ports on my header flange, so I just concentrated on flatening the center of the floor and ceiling of the rectangular header flange ports.

Next, feel with your fingers for the seams inside the primarys and check for small welding beads that penetrated through to the inside of the tubes. A header is usually made by jig-welding short sections of tubing together to create complex bends. These seams never mate perfectly, creating imperfections that should be smoothed out using stones and later a flap wheel. Make your own improvised flap wheel by cutting a 1 1/8" slit lengthwise in a 1/4" metal rod or bolt with a hacksaw or thin cut-off wheel. Insert a 1 1/2" strip of coarse grit emry cloth and about wrap it around the shaft so that it wears away as you polish.

After you're satisfied with your job, spin the header around and work on the collector. Most collectors have a ring welded in the flange end that needs to be radiused to smooth the airflow. Remember the pressure waves are reflecting around inside the collector, so don't create a flat, conical surface, make your surface bell out like a velocity stack. Do the same, as best you can, for each primary tube outlet into the collector. You won't be able to get it looking anything like the above picture of the "Great Pyramid" unless you add metal - easily accomplished by your local welder. Don't try to braze it yourself, or use any type of filler such as jb-weld or 1800 degree port filler, because even if it survived the high temperatures, the expanding and contracting of the dissimilar metals will cause it to crack, rattle and eventually fall out.

If you don't want to add metal, just do the best job you can with what you've got, being careful not to weaken the collector by removing too much metal. If you do make a mistake, take a trip to the welder and pick up where you left off. Do as little or as much as you feel comfortable with - even a little will help smooth the flow. "

Have fun and good luck.

 

I have no idea what mounted stones, flap wheels, Carbide augors, or prussian blue are. Will a compressor with a tool like this work?



Now I have some grinding tools and wire brush attachments to use instead of the pictured attachments.

 

I would get with someone who's done porting work first. Let them look at the piece and make some recommendations. I would hate to see you screw it up. It's very easy to take off too much metal - and much harder to put it back. You can easily do more harm than good.

Without knowing your talents and abilities, I would suggest you do not tackle the project on your own. If you don't know what the proper tools are to do the job correctly, it is unlikely you have the skill to use them, no offence.

Here is a link to a source for porting, grinding and polishing tools that may help if you'd like to learn more. http://www.ruffstuff.com/

The die grinder you have will work ok, but most augers require much lower rpm and more torque to use them properly. I would stick with mounted stones and flap wheels or rubberized abrasives. Stones will take longer, but will be safer to use. Wire brushes are useless for porting, unless you want to remove carbon or rust first.

Remember, always wear eye protection - this is no joke.

Good luck.

 

Cool thanks for the info! I will look into it and see if it would be a solo job or a larger project.