PRECISION PIPEWORK

We live in an era of instant gratification. If you want something, you can have it now, and that certainly also applies to car parts. The power of the internet, coupled with cheap offshore labour, has resulted in an aftermarket saturated with cheap and nasty parts. For some car builders, the words “bolts straight in, with no modification required” are enough to turn their knees to jelly. Of course, not all aftermarket parts are junk. If you’re a smart shopper, it’s possible to experience no dramas with any off-theshelf parts, but what if you are dealing with a custom application, or have a very precise set of criteria that needs to be met? Custom fabrication is the answer, but where this is concerned, you want a job where quality is assured. With this in mind, we turned to Mike Sinclair and the team at Sinco for a closer look at just what goes into a set of custom-fabricated headers. Mike Ellis’ XA Falcon coupe has been built to compete in the Central Muscle Cars series — although it hasn’t been raced for a few seasons — and is powered by a worked Cleveland V8 producing substantial horsepower. However, with the intrusive strut towers taking up valuable engine bay room, the exhaust set-up quickly became a major restriction in Mike’s quest for more power. The Sinco team was given a brief to create a pair of equal-length four-into-one stepped headers that would clear the factory strut towers and steering box, while also providing sufficient breathing room for the starter motor and spark plug boots.

With such specific requirements and very marginal space in which to fit everything, the team uses these locally designed and 3D-printed plastic header blocks. These can save a lot of time in the design stage. The next step is to bolt the ‘starter blocks’ behind the header flanges, to which the 3D-printed segments are attached. Although they are not a new product, the blocks, printed in one-inch straight or bent segments, allow myriad different tube placement options to be explored before the most suitable route for each pipe is decided upon. You can see the black starting block held in place behind the header flange, to which the red segments are affixed. “All this being said, sometimes you just can’t get the exact length you have been asked to do,” Mike mentions. “There is a fine line between the exact length and fabricating the header to be user friendly, and not melting vital parts of the engine bay. Being able to take the header off without pulling the engine [out], or pulling half the engine bay apart, is always a priority for us.”

With that side’s header pipes completed, they can be bolted in place and the collector tab positioning can be marked for easy installation and access of the headers. “When using stainless, we like to use springs to attach the collectors,” Mike explains. “This is because the stainless has a high thermal expansion rate and allowance needs to be made for it to move as it gets hot, to help reduce cracking.”