hey guys, im not a new member.. my old name was eclypzex (bros acc) and i've posted some of my other exhaust work.. but recently ive been getting ready to fab up a manifold for my s2k but ive been stumped on one part.

HOW DO YOU GET TO THE INSIDE OF THE LAST RUNNER FROM THE COLLECTOR TO RUNNER JOINT?

if you have all three runners welded to the collector how do you get to the inside of that pipe? id imagine youd be blocked by the other 3 runners. hmm.. plz lmk

edit: heres a pic from a thread i posted wayy back in the day (i hope wade doesnt mind me stealing this for reference.. if u do lmk and i'lltake it down) from this thread. https://honda-tech.com/forums/showth...light=eclypzex

once ive tacked the runners together, break them off the headflange and inlet flange, weld them all up, how would i get ot the inside of the front left runner? it seems almost impossible. how doyou do it? WADE welded them without breaking off each runner.. :mind****:

 

Where?

 

ok, see the runner-to-collector joints facing the camera? 90-180 degrees from that. wade welded that whole manifold in tact. when it got time to welding the collector to the manifold, i'd imagine youd get stuck on the last runner since you ucant get all the way around since youre blocked by the other three runners.

 

It's best if you circle it in red with windows paint or something. It's hard to tell what you mean.

 

really? ok, since i dont have the time to sign up for an image hosting site.. imagine this: see where the X is pointing at to those circles? thats where im talking about. also on some manifolds where the collector is super tight.. how do they get in between the joint when the collector is like this OO how do you get to the space between the O's? sorry for the wack *** explanation.

O O
. X
O O

 

That's the fun part of making manifolds. You have to first decide when all 4 are tacked on which would be the easiest to get to, then weld that one last. Then get creative with your tungsten and pull it out as far as needed to get into the tight spots. A little tip, if it is super tight I will even remove the cup or even remove the lense and use a standard collet setup because it's smaller... But what about gas coverage...? I use my back purge line as my main gas feed. I attach it however I can to the manifold so it is supplying enough gas to the area... Works great!

 

Argon is heavier than air so you can set your post flow timer at around 8 secs and then just blip the pedal to activate it and let it pool in the collector. That will, like john said, let you stick the tungsten out pretty far. I've pulled it out about 1.5inch before and i was fine. Also another trick I learned from another member here is to heat the tungsten with a torch so that you can bend it and let you get into those tighter areas.

 

john knows. i've done the same thing. there are also some extende collets that work well. i've even bent the tungsten go get around tight corners.

 

Only problem I find with bending tungsten is that's it's very hard to resharpen it after the shank is bent. And if you have some super tight spot and a bent tungsten, chances are you will need to resharpen at least once lol.

 

agree, I also have some select "custom bent" tungstens that help get the job done. John pretty much explained it, it's all about planning ahead and knowing where you can get a torch in and at what angles. When it's tacked just play with the torch with the machine off and see where problem areas are if it's a new design you haven't welded.

I even have changed a runner to facilitate finish welding.