leaky header tubes

I had to build my own headers for my bb chev by piecing together mandrel bent tubing in sections. I tigged it and THOUGHT all the seams were totally sealed.
I was wrong.

One area where all 4 tubes came together real close is the problem area. Now I have that hissing noise that sounds like crap.

The reason the area is a problem is because it just isn't accessible with a welder, so re-welding it won't solve the problem.

Anybody have any solutions?
How about chroming (I don't mean decorative chroming), would that fill tiny holes?

I'd be happy if I just got rid of the hissing noise.

How about running a little brazing rod over the pinholes. It'll flow real nice into the areas that you could'nt get the tig in. That'll shut em up.

It's just that I really can't pinpoint them, I can only tell when it is running and coming out, otherwise they look fine.

I guess I could just glob the whole area, but I don't want it to look like junk.

Make sure it''s not leaking from the header flange instead, the "donut".

the only i know to fix it, if that is where the leak is. :CRY:

that isn't the spot. I cut my collector real short when I was welding that up and I filled it real good, then re-welded the rest of the collector up.

It is leaking from a spot halfway between the flange and the collector. I can feel it if I put my hand next to the area.
But it is a jumble of all 4 tubes.

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Originally posted by tcodi
that isn't the spot. I cut my collector real short when I was welding that up and I filled it real good, then re-welded the rest of the collector up.

It is leaking from a spot halfway between the flange and the collector. I can feel it if I put my hand next to the area.
But it is a jumble of all 4 tubes.

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how far is it from the end of the pipes, where they all are weild togother?

Maybe a photo with a mark showing where you think the problem is would help the idea flow.

try having a buddy trickle a little transmission fluid down the carburetor with the engine running while ya watch for the leak,It'll send up smoke signals...

This pic is obviously from before I completed them, but the leaky part is just below the lowest part of these pipes, right around that original spring shackle, that's when they all got very close and jumbled because I wanted to keep them as far away from the tire as possible.
The leak is blowing out on the frame side.

I am building my own now, and here is something i found.

I believe it was braze, Heres another.

you want to weld a round the collector and up the the primaries tubes were they go in to the collector i go up the sides of the tube about 3/4 and if the tubing fit up was good you can reflow the weld with a tig or torch. i weld one tube at a time with a tig and clean each weld with a wire wheel. and look at each weld most of the time i use very little filler rod some of the steel has a lot of junk in the steel sometimes i will use 347 SS filler rod or FR70s-6 steel filler . a good fit up i will fuse it with no filller rod . i like 0.060 or smaller filler rod the very last thing i do is the collector some times you can pull out the TUNGSTEN out a bit more turn the gas up if you need to get some were tigth. i use a small cup on the tig torch on headers. i hope this helps some one .i have built many set of headers:whacked:

I'll try to find a picture of the finished headers. The leak isn't anywhere near the collector though.
Just an inaccessible area.

I was thinking maybe that fiberglass header wrap would muffle the noise a little.

Quote:

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Originally posted by tcodi
I'll try to find a picture of the finished headers. The leak isn't anywhere near the collector though.
Just an inaccessible area.

I was thinking maybe that fiberglass header wrap would muffle the noise a little.

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You can't be ridding around in your hot rod with an exhaust leak. If you want to find it use trans. fluid like HWORRELL said and you can find it. if its coming out where the pipes are close together and there is no other weld there, then its more than likely at the collectors. It will blow all the way back from the collectors until the pipes separate. Been there done that.

I'm positive it isn't the collectors.
There are welds all over these pipes, I pieced them together out of about 30 small sections of tubing.
Right at that point halfway down is where all 4 come close and coincidentally there are also 4 welds all within an inch or two.

Quote:

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Originally posted by tcodi
I'm positive it isn't the collectors.
There are welds all over these pipes, I pieced them together out of about 30 small sections of tubing.
Right at that point halfway down is where all 4 come close and coincidentally there are also 4 welds all within an inch or two.

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thats not good then. I don't know of anyway to stop it if you can't get to it. use the trans. fluid and see if you can find the leak and then maybe you can come up with something. :CRY:

Melting some brazing rod onto it sounds like about the best solution so far.

The headder wrap is a good idea, but not to muffle the sound. It won't muffle, and the leak will probably blow a hole in the wrap eventually. However, after you make them good-n ugly melting brass all over them, cover them in thermotec wrap, and paint them in your preferred color of hi temp ( aluminum looks great ) and they will be beautiful again, you'll get the performance advantage of keeping the heat trapped, and you won't burn yourself working near the hot headers in the future.

one more thing: in my experience, I have found that whichever method results in the most labor, is the right choice when working with headers.

Putting header wrap on it would be like putting a band-aid on a severed hand...it's still going to leak.

I'm betting that it is coming from one of your connections where you welded them together piece by piece.

cut the tube off were you can weld it back on. you will need to cut off the collector take the tube out find the hole. weld it and weld it all back up.I have fixed bent headers this way many times when they hit the track :whacked: