1977 K20 Getting an Exhaust Upgrade!

[ehjorten]

The exhaust on my 1977 K20 is in piss-poor condition. Loud...leaking...constant fight with ball and socket bolts loosening!  I was going to look for a nice set of headers for this truck that just had 3-bolt flanges, but I wasn't finding what I wanted.  So...I bought a set of Hedman 62230 Stainless headers and cut off the ball collector!!!

This weekend I welded on the collector extensions and v-band flanges.  The welds were a little shaky as I didn't have any real fixturing to hold the headers.  I just used whatever I could find to prop them up in different orientations as I worked around the tubes.  I used a homemade back-purge line, tinfoil, and masking tape to purge the backside of the welds and they came-out pretty good.  I am using my Everlast PowerTIG 210 EXT to weld these.

[Shifty]

Any pictures! 

[ehjorten]

Picture should be in the post, unless there is something wrong with the sharing.

[Shifty]

I'll look at home instead of my work computer. 

[Irish_Alley]

for some reason i dont see it on my pc or phone

[ehjorten]

Maybe Google moved it?  Idk, album is shared.  I see it because I'm logged into my Google photos, LOL

[Shifty]

I can see it now!  Looks good! 

[Irish_Alley]

i can see it now too

[75gmck25]

I really like the looks of those headers.  Much better than the ceramic coated or painted.

Do you know why the ball and socket connections were such a problem?   I'm looking at headers for my K25 and hadn't run across that complaint before. 

I have been looking at Hedman Elite, but the ones you bought seem to have the same 16 gauge tubes and 3/8" flanges.

Bruce

[ehjorten]

The design of the aftermarket ball and socket uses 3 bolts and has the bolts in tension with big air-gaps between the flanges.  The bolts get hot, stretch, and relax.  At first it was fine, but then 1 month later the bolts loosened and they started leaking.  I put new bolts in and double-nutted them.  Again, about 1 month later they loosened and started leaking.  I then put new bolts in, tack-welded the nuts.  1 month later they loosened and started leaking.  I was careful to not put too much tension in the bolts and I used grade 8 bolts and nuts every time.  Eventually the flange pulled the socket more and more over the ball and the flange on the ball pulled through the ball, so that you could not tighten the bolts enough to keep them from leaking.

The new Hedman headers that I got had a much heavier thickness of flange, but still the ball and socket material is the same thickness tubing.  In most factory Ball and Socket, they are usually 2 bolt flanges, the bolts are shoulder bolts that are designed to have the right amount of shoulder on them so that it is a solid joint that doesn't have the tendency to loosen, and usually they incorporate springs that put the right amount of tension in the joint.

I have heard others that haven't had a problem with them, but for my experience, I am going V-Band flange any time I can!