427 sidepipe installation on a Kirkham
 

I need some past experience help. I got the header tubes bolted on with no problem. The driver side tubes matches up in body opening perfectly and allows the sidepipe to have enough clearance on all 4 sides. My question is on the passenger side the tubes turn out parallel to the ground and the header tubes are longer than the driver side which does not allow them to cleanly fit in the body opening. How do you get the sidepipe in the opening and slip over the header tubes. I though about lifting the motor up about 2-3 inches to get enough clearance to fit the sidepipe in? My exhaust is from Cobra Restorers.

Thanks,
Robbie

Something doesn't sound right here...have you figured it out yet that the header tubes are numbered opposite? Using the stamped #'s on the flanges, #1-4 go on driver's side and #5-8 go on passenger's side.

The reason I ask is that the driver's side has the longer header tubes that go all the way down near the opening. The passenger side goes out parallel, but this is not a problem because the bend is in the sidepipe side to compensate. Should not have to move engine at all...

Joe

Joe this sounds interesting and thanks for the tip since I am fixing to try and get my engine in the Krkham. Rob that runs our other store has done a couple of sets on the Kirkhams and seems to have it down. My headers and side pipes came from Kirkham with the car. I wonder why they marked the tubes wrong?
Have you gotten your car going yet and taken for a test drive? Let me know how it goes.
Robbie good luck with header and side pipe installation. Keith

Keith...I don't know why they're numbered like that. It is done by the fabricator, not the Kirkhams. It seems to be a long time quirk, as somebody had to tell me when I first started messing with them. My car fired up just fine, have driven it twice, and now am working on the alignment! :)

Hotrod,

I have the long tubes on the driver's side, butwhen i installed the tubes on the passenger side i could not get the sidepipe to fit in and slide over the header tubes. I was wondering how do you get the sidepipe in. It looks like i will need to take the header tubes off and slide the sidepipe over the headers tubes then bolt them onto the block.

Robbie

You should have the headers on very loose so you can wiggle the side pipe into the 4 headers. You almost need 3 or 4 hands to get it to work. After you have the headers in the side pipe then you tighten up the headers to make a tight fit.

Rnunn,

Well...

I tried both ways...

I read some posts on this issue where some were concerned that if you don't fit the tubes with them bolted on tight to the head, you might struggle with leaks at the head (because you will be making brackets, etc, w/o the flanges perfectly square to the head). So during my initial fitment, I bolted the tubes on to the head tight, and then had to become quite clever in getting the side pipe to slip on: I broke a paint stick in half and put one b/w two tubes horizontally, then the other between two tubes vertically. Then, because the tips of the tubes weren't perfectly aligned with each other, I used a ratchet tie down around the 4 tubes and tightened it so they formed a tight square pattern with the sticks in between. So if you're looking at the pipes from the hole in your fender, you'd see the tips of 4 tubes separated by the thickness of a paint stick, paint sticks forming a cross, nice and square - then the side pipe slipped on pretty easily with the forced alignment. Once I was sure the side pipes were on far enough, then I welded my tabs and made my rear bracket with the pipes parallel to the car, etc. Did I mention this was about the hardest part of my whole build? Seriously! Use some WD-40, too.

After disassembly and ceramic coating, then I slipped the tubes on the side pipe loose before bolting to the head. I figured since my tabs and stuff were all force fit previously with the tubes square to the head, they'd go back to the same spot. Which they pretty much did. I also wire brushed the inside tips of the side pipes to get rid of a little ceramic coating as well as sprayed some WD-40 on the tube to ease the slip. And I don't think they leak but haven't driven it enough yet to be sure...:)

Disclaimer - there are probably better ways of doing this job...I thought it sucked! Especially since I left the inner fenders in place - wouldn't want to make it too easy! :)

But, assuming the holes in your car are big enough, you should be able to attach the pipes either way - with or without the tubes already bolted to the head.

I honestly don't like the design at all. If I had it to do over again, I'd attach them like SPF does their Coupe pipes, (not using these tabs). The tabs merely hold them in place. The SPF Coupe style of doing it actually pulls them together tight as well as holding them in place - and they are slip fit...anyone have a pic?

A couple of things on the Cobra Restorers pipes. One, the Restorer headers need to be trimmed. We did this by installing the headers and sliding the the side pipes on. We would check the fit and remove the headers. We would trim a little at a time to make sure we didn't cut too much off, so this approach must be repeated several times (I think we did it 3 or 4 times) It tedious, but it works and to me it was worth the $600 as the Restorer pipes are less than $900 and the Kirkham suppilers wanted $1500. I understand the headers from the Kirkham suppliers come ready to use.

For the brackets, we used some heavy springs to connect the pipes and headers. This way the tabs don't need to be lined up perfectly. I spaced them about 2 in apart. I have no problems with leaks at the header/sidepipe interface. I had to go to the split lock header bolts to stop the bolts from backing off the exhaust port though.

I use the loose headers and slide on approach to get the headers on. That is hard enough. I can't even imagine trying to get them on any other way.

Exhaust issues are always a big problem, even for the originals. 289 or 427 is a bit..! The main thing is that the rear mount isn't being forced back or forward when the primaries are loose. If this is the case ,you might have a leak or a crack appear when you tighten the primaries due to the tension from the sidepipe. This is for a 427 style, 289 style is to make sure the Rubber/Neoprene isolators are fresh. We all know to well about "old parts".
Have Fun, Thats what it's about!