[Vic1947]

We pulled up stakes late 2009, moving from TX to KC. The Ford would sit for another year before it got some love. My dislike of the headers had continued to grow to the point I could no longer abide them. The key factor was the stock steering sector. I revisited the power rack and pinion conversion and found an individual that was selling a kit. I ordered one and when it arrived I pulled the engine and got busy with the swap. Regrettably, I don't have a lot of pictures of the final product, but it served it's purpose which was to free up the space to build a new set of headers.

Years ago, in anticipation of this moment, I asked good buddy Shaun Sublet to CNC some stainless header flanges for the 460. I also purchased the stainless U-bends and collectors to build the new set. I dug thru the dusty cardboard boxes that were slowly disintegrating on my shelves and found the long lost treasure. I'd done a few tubes before, but never a full set. You start with flanges on one end and collectors on the other and thin air in between. I'm not a fanatic about equal length, but I still wanted to keep the primaries as close to equal as was reasonable. I'd watched John Harrison build headers in his shop, so I knew the basics. Never, ever, miter a joint ...always cut perpendicular to the tube. Use teeny, tiny ticky tacks to join the tubes because you're going to make mistakes and have to break them apart. The longest tube should be the straightest and the shortest will have the most switchbacks. Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead.

Welding thin stainless tubing is a bit of an art form, but it's a lot easier if you purge the tubes with argon. I picked up a handy little gadget that fits in one end of the tube and some special aluminum tape to seal off the other end. Punch a tiny hole in the tape, turn on the gas and watch the magic. Doing it like this results in a nice clean weld with no sugaring and uses minimal filler rod.