so been fabbing for a few years on this and that but never had to build a collector but been working on a new manifold for my go fast car and figured why not build my own collector too.





















i know not the prettiest thing around and on here it looks like garbage compared to what all lot of you guys build but i feel satisfied for a first attempt.

still not sure why i get some of that brownish stuff around the weld, maybe not clean enough? im not a newb but i deff have plenty left to learn

 

must say that looks very well ,what degree did you cut that at ?

 

exactly. check out others stuff, its cleaned like if it was going to be used for surgery. De-burr all edges, grind a bevel, Wire wheel the **** out of it, acetone clean, and wipe it until it passes a white glove test. Use a gas lense, no more than 90 amps (i think most use like 80), with anywhere from 14-25cfm of flow. Plus, they all back purge it, which i can see you did not. Make sure your tungsten is clean and sharp, and if you screw up and touch it to the pudle, clean all that black soot off with acetone and white glove test, regrind the tungsten, and do it again.

 

josh do you use a regular collet or gas lense? what size cup? it looks like not enough gas coverage.
otherwise looking good!

 

The angle of your cuts is pretty steep, that may be a little rough to get to fit up if it's going to be tight.

Otherwise, not bad for your first try!

 

um.... one i made up haha. i just kinda lined up the clamp on the saw till it looked like about what i wanted and cut em all the same.

yeah thats about what i figured... i got impatient and just wanted to weld it up hahaha.

when i actually make that manifold i plan to be a lot more thourough and clean so it should look a lot better. I deff should have back purged too which i didn't, i can see now why people do.

regular collet (number 8 or 9 cant remember) and around 18 cfm gas if i remember and a 2% tungsten

yeah... i like the long tight angled collectors for sure but being my first one i wanted to make sure it was wide enough that i could get in there to weld it up and it actually should work pretty good because its short in length so i can sneak it in there tighter.... we will see when i make the rest of the manifold

 

I like your collector! Need to get you a gas lens buddy. I personally can not make stainless welds look worth a poo without one, but with one, none of my welds are overheated and grayish. I can easily say my gas lenses are worth their weight in gold. First time you use one, you will never go back to a standard cup ever again unless your doing aluminum.

On another note, Curious why some weld inside collectors, and some don't. I'm not sure I believe its 100% needed as I have seen a bunch of manis come through the door with out any welds inside and have watched them last for years. Without porting, seems like one that isn't welded would flow better than one that is. I'd be interested to hear anyones theory on this.

Thanks for your time,
DK

 

what's the best angle for 4-1 collector?

 

would that angle maybe affect spool up on a turbo ?

 

yeah bro def spend 20 bucks on a gas lense/cup

 

It's give and take. Theoretical best is as shallow an angle as possible and a nice long, smooth transition into the collector. However, it's hard to weld and a long collector isn't always going to fit. That being said, when you're angles are too steep, if you're doing a really tight manifold (like a mini-ram) it can be hard to get the angles to work out right because you're spreading the runners out a lot.

Mine were around 13* or so, and that seems to be around "standard" angle.

 

off topic but do ram horn manifolds crete more lag ?than others

 

Compared to what?

Log, yes.

Topmount, no.

Lag has to do with a lot of different things, but longer runners usually create longer spool up times.

 

get ya know but better top end power with the longer runners

 

i actually had a gas lense in my box of consumables but they send me one for a larger torch head.... i went ahead and ordered another 80 bucks worth of consumables and another gas lense so i will be read to go to town after the holidays