Installing headers on a 4x4 Suburban

[Da Burb]

Hi All,
I'm new here...but thought I'd show what I'm currently doing.
It's pretty much impossible to buy parts for the 98-2000 Suburbans in this country now...unless you want to start giving up body parts.
I decided...after getting 'the treatment' from Ballan Holden in Werribee....that I'd NEVER allow anyone else to work on my Burb again.
(Should have known I was in for some 'issues' when I walked into the service counter and said "Hi, I'd like to book my Suburban in for a service"...and the 'service manager' said "A Suburban...I want to have a look at that...I've never seen one before").

Anyway....since that day..I've been doing all my own work (and enjoying it) and buy most of my parts from Ebay in the US.
My latest effort is re-configuring a set of Camaro headers to fit.
Here's a few details...

These started life as a set of late model 98+ I guess..Camaro headers. I bought them (Ebay $50 just down the road from me) for the head flanges and collectors.
Thankfully....they turned out to be a pretty close fit.















Wow! The Burb's undercariage is really filthy....oh well...that's ANOTHER job to be done.
Managed to piece together that header.

Tacked together for a test fit.







All good!





Welded up.











These are the only 'leftovers' from the original pipe 're-worked'.



O2 and EGT bungs ready to be welded into the collectors.




_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[Da Burb]

Two 3" stainless 90deg bends, some 3" stainless tube and a piece of 4" stainless tube.

Here's what I did:
Cut a slice of 4" and put it in the vice and squash it into an oval shape.





Adjust the 4" oval to fit neatly between the two bends.





Mark the oval on both bends and cut to suit.







Clamp and tack.



Something I didn't get a chance to take pic's of was...next I cut the ends of the bends off and spun them 180deg
to try and get a better angle to bring the pipes out straight/parrallel.
An extra couple of bends would have made this easier....but I didn't want to cut up any more as I'll
need them for the rest of the exhaust.

I then cut some straight pieces at an angle to pull the 4 ends around straight and tacked it together.





Finished product after a clean up with 'pickling paste'.






_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[Da Burb]

So...I had to re-route the primary which was hitting the oil filter
Here's some pic's of where the primary was...and where it's being relocated to.
The red circled area is where the filter was hitting.









New location.











Needed to cut all the primaries out and re-position them so as not to hit the oil filter, brake lines, front drive shaft, frame rails...etc..
Had to add 4" in order to give the other primaries room to get past the frame rails.



Slotted and bent the remaining primary in order to get the collector to move sideways to clear the front driveshaft.
Now the header flange bolts to the heads and the collector clears everything.




_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[Da Burb]

I welded the flange to the bench and marked where the collector sits.
I then cut the final primary and repositioned it on a different 'outlet'. I also changed the shape slightly to give me more room to fit the other primaries through the gap between the frame rail and the other obstacles such as oil filter brake lines and front drive shaft.



I then test fitted it and made the next primary.



Then the next



And finally the last one



I then tested it in position one last time.
All looks good. Plenty of clearance for everything.
There's more room between the headers, oil filter and front drive shaft than it looks in these pic's.
It was too difficult to get the angle to show.









Finished....







Bolted them in last night.
Now to start on the 3" stainless twin system.
_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[tudorchev]

Some nice work there DaBurb. Keep the pics coming dude

[Da Burb]

Thanks.

OK..last night I got both headers bolted up and fired her up...with just the extractors....in our underground carpark. Lol!
MAN...that was loud!



Drivers side..



Passenger side..




_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[Da Burb]

Here's a couple of pic's of the fittings I'll be using to join the dual 3" stainless exhaust together.







And a 'headers only' idle video. Be warned...it's around 15mb.
Oh...and turn your speakers up to FULL for an idea of how loud it actually was in the undergound carpark. Lol!


_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[Da Burb]

Here's what I got done last night.

Made up a couple of flanges to bolt to the header collectors. Now I can start making the rest of the exhaust.
Aim is to get upto and including the X pipe in tonight....after screwing a couple of elbows onto the adaptors and making a run down our 'strip' (side street next to the factory).











Here's the planned design.


_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[Da Burb]

More progress.
Last night I bolted the collector adaptors on and started with the pipes to the 'X' pipe.











I also pulled the rest of the OEM exhaust out from under the Burb.
MONSTER muffler!!!



THEN.....I screwed a 90deg elbow on each collector and went for a 'drive'.



No WOT....it's just too loud. There are some residences in the area I work...and they'd have the cops there in a heartbeat. If caught...they'd confiscate the Burb.


_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[tudorchev]

Still some nice work there Burb... but why the screw on fittings?????

[Da Burb]

The screw on fittings for easy removal and maintenance...and because they were free.
We're rebuilding our plant and all of the stainless was going in the bin. I scored around 100m of 3" stainless tube..with all the screw together fittings.
I was going to make flanges...but figured these would actually seal better...and be alot easier to install. PLUS...I've never seen it done before...so something different.
_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[tudorchev]

That's fair enough, but when a exhaust is installed properly it shouldn't need any maintenance

[Da Burb]

True.
Thing is....I have installed a 4L80E trans(only one in the world as far as I know), marine intake and Whipple super charger and the Burb is a 4x4.
Sometimes things may need to be removed to get to other things.
I also like the idea of being able to swap mufflers and cats easily.
_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[Da Burb]

Finished off up to the 'X' pipe last night. Just need to weld in the O2, WBO2 and EGT bungs tonight.
Then I'll install the finished sections.










_________________
Best wishes

Howard

[Da Burb]

Cut the holes for the O2 and EGT bungs



and welded them in





Fitted the crossover. Had to drop the trans crossmember to get it in there (could have installed another screwed coupling but didn't want to...trans crossmember took 10mins to move and re-install).







May need to extend the straight section from the headers to give a little mkore clearance around the t/fer case. Currently about 1/2" (pic's don't show it well).
Tonight I'll pull it out and extend it away from the transfer case another 1". I have room to do it. I had to 'guess' the length due to not removing the crossmember to measure it.





That's better!



Some more progress...Mufflers!





With hanger stud.



Hanging too low first time round. Ended up having to spin the mufflers 180deg (so as to enter in the center and exit at the top) cut all the fittings off and weld them back on the opposite ends.



Better...



Turn downs are temporary....until tonight when I make the tailpipes. Still not sure whether to bring them out the same side, together or run one out behnd each back wheel.
Sounds nice with the mufflers on there. Throttle response seems very crisp.
_________________
Best wishes

Howard