What size and material do you guys use for head flange mounting heatsink to keep your flanges as flat as possible?

Matt

 

i use 3/8". some use 3/8" and some use 1/2". the warping is inevitable though no matter what u do or use. a good industrial belt sander with some ***** is ur best friend.


mike

 

Mike, Do you choose aluminum or steel for yours?

I was going to get 1" thick aluminum to use but if thats really overkill I wont bother.

 

i use a 1" thick steel plate to bolt my stuff to and shim the flanges before i welded them also to help counter the warping.


mike

 

we use the chassis jig, huge heatsink

 

If you can afford it, and block of steel 6" sq. then, just drill and tap the bolt pattern for the flange. You can also attach it to a pipe and it can be used in an engine stand. Do 4 different patterns too!

 

For all of my manifolds I try and make the connection of each runner as tight as possible and use low amp settings and move as fast as I can....so that the heat you are inducing is as little as posible.

Another thing that I have tryed is after I weld the entire manifold.....I'll leave in the jig and put it inside a baker's furnace at 500 deg for about an hour to detension the manifold.

But I think that if you use a jig with a big steel plate that had a flat surface and weld it with low amps.....it OK

Something like this



Note that the steel plate is 15 mm thick and was flatened before!

 

I use a 3"x3" square aluminum and keep the flange bolted down until its cool.

Stefan

 

To revive this thread:

I ended up with a 6"x 5/8" length of aluminum. It works pretty well.

I will have to load up some pics shortly.




if i were to reccomend it to anyone, aluminum is great, but steel you can weld your jigs to easier.

 

i've experienced 1" aluminum bending as much as .06" across a head flange. i use a 1.5" thick piece of cold rolled steel.

 

I've seen someone on here use box tubing with hose fittings welded onto the ends and pumped cold water through it while they made their manifolds. Seemed like a pretty simple idea

 

why not use a old head?

thats what i do,

SUNNY, is that a 20vt manifold?

 

@racepak......No it's an sr20det (Nissan Sunny / Pulsar GTIR)

And I can sustain what Mike said.......no matter what I'll do...there's still some warping due to the welds on the runners themselves (I mean, that there's some contraction / expanding during the welding process)

 

I literally use a heatsink

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67031861@N08/7213467086/http://www.flickr.com/photos/67031861@N08/7213467086/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/67031861@N08/, on Flickr

 

Urine Machine,

Do you use this heatsink to bolt a flange to so it doesnt warp as well?

 

i just went online and found an already fu(ked up head that was still intact on the exhaust side and used that, then just put it in the bottom of the shelf until i ever need it again. also has a good top surface too, so i use it for welding on my valve cover

 

I clamp the heatsink and flange down on my welding table.

For welding long head flanges (BMW stuff is long in line 6) I made a fixture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67031861@N08/8418022176/http://www.flickr.com/photos/67031861@N08/8418022176/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/67031861@N08/, on Flickr

 

A local guy uses a big chunk of scrap copper, its around 1-1.5" thick, can't remember overall size. But it will suck the heat out of anything with the quickness...

 

cooper would be ideal but some thing that thick would be real expensive

 

I know this is old..

Apologies for posting in it-
Has anyone tried to use an I beam piece? I see them at my local metal yard in 24" sections often and I would think its big enough not to warp

has anyone tried it?

 

This is what I use. 30" ibeam

 

I now use a piece of solid 2" thick steel. it works much better than the aluminum.

the 2" steel block can surprisingly get extremely hot after welding the runners onto a manifold.

1.6L Miata EFR Manifold by HellaFab Fabrication, on Flickr

ive since lightened the jig and weld off of it.

 

I use the PRL purge block and the StreetorStripConcept turbo flange purge block.

 

Blake you coming along, nice to see you getting your thing done. looking good.

 

thank you!