Alpine Performance Headers

[sunbeam74]

Andrew,

Yes, the primary concern is the water jacket of the intake hitting the header tube.

I would suggest test fitting the header prior to coating it. For these reasons:

1) You may have to remove a slight amount of material from the edge of the header flange to clear the intake manifold's flange.

2) Since the header doesn't have ears like the early headers you will want to make up stepped washers to help retain the exhaust header and intake header with even pressure. At least in my instance the thickness of the intake flange and the thickness of the exhaust flange were not the same. I had to use a stepped washer to correct this. (BTW, you could weld ears on like the early headers but that seems like a lot of trouble)

3) It sounds like you might have to remove the water jacket based on other people input. (I suppose you could "dent" in the header tubes to clear the water jacket but that can't be good if it is a considerable amount - test fitting would be the only way of confirming the interference)


Steve

 

[Andrew]

Andrew,

Yes, the primary concern is the water jacket of the intake hitting the header tube.

I would suggest test fitting the header prior to coating it. For these reasons:

1) You may have to remove a slight amount of material from the edge of the header flange to clear the intake manifold's flange.

2) Since the header doesn't have ears like the early headers you will want to make up stepped washers to help retain the exhaust header and intake header with even pressure. At least in my instance the thickness of the intake flange and the thickness of the exhaust flange were not the same. I had to use a stepped washer to correct this. (BTW, you could weld ears on like the early headers but that seems like a lot of trouble)

3) It sounds like you might have to remove the water jacket based on other people input. (I suppose you could "dent" in the header tubes to clear the water jacket but that can't be good if it is a considerable amount - test fitting would be the only way of confirming the interference)

Steve

Thanks Steve,
I am back on track:

I understand the stepped washer and that is fine. I will take a look at the assembly with the header and also take some photos. Do you have a photo of your header on your car?

With the new header being ceramic coated is there a need for the water cooled intake manifold. I ask this as it sounds like the new header is a great deal closer to the intake manifold than that of the old headers.

I wonder how much better the car would run with a ceramic coated header and the water cooled manifold?

Regards,
Andrew

 

[alpine1963]

Before I install these headers I am tryng to get a good grip on the many comments so far that have been posted. I wish I knew how to move this topic with all of the comments to the right forum but I'm stuck here with the rest of us in the for sale section. It appears that the headers will need to be trimmed down some at the top corners and the manifold also shaved down. Here is another picture of the two of them together. Are we talking about the left side where the header bumps the manifold? This is a round corner of the manifold and looks like the area we are talking about shaving down.

Bill, Could your guy alter the next set of headers so that they fit this manifold? I would rather wait on a correct header than to shave a section of the manifold.


Cheers,

 

[AlpineIan]

Hi Todd,

This thread started as a note from Bill that he would have more headers available, this is why you see it under the sales title.
I have moved the thread to the modified section, yet there is also a link under sales section just in case someone is looking to purchase a header. I hope this move will help people get the answers that they need on this topic.

Regards,
Andrew

 

[alpine1963]

After a lot of consideration I have decided to sell the headers I bought from Bill due to the alterations needed for my car. These headers are built with awesome quality and I am very dissapointed that I am not going to have them on my car. I want to sell them for what I paid for them. $375.00. They are ready to ship ASAP if you want a nice header for your car. Please read the post in the forum about these headers before you buy this one to make sure it will fit your car.

Cheers,

 

[Andrew]

After a lot of consideration I have decided to sell the headers I bought from Bill due to the alterations needed for my car. These headers are built with awesome quality and I am very dissapointed that I am not going to have them on my car. I want to sell them for what I paid for them. $375.00. They are ready to ship ASAP if you want a nice header for your car. Please read the post in the forum about these headers before you buy this one to make sure it will fit your car.
Cheers,

Hi Todd,

don't be too quick to sell as I hope to do a little work on the header this week. I will take photos, measure and be sure to share the information to other SI-SIII owners. I will help in any way possible to make things work as it would be sad to pay this kind of cash and not be able to make things work.

Please give me a PM and your personal email if you can hang on for another week or so.

I snapped a rib in my right side so I am a little slow doing things right now but I will do what I can in the next 7 days.

Regards,
Andrew Masse

 

[thequick]

This is slightly off topic but...

I noticed a lot of people are not using the water jacket on the intake manifold. Has anyone ever tried to cut off the whole jacket? I've got an intake manifold with stripped water inlets and I am considering cleaning up the manifold by cutting or grinding off the water jacket to see how it looks.

 

[alpine_64]

This is slightly off topice but...

I noticed alot of people are not using the water jacket on the intake manifold. Has anyone ever tried to cut off the whole jacket? I've got an intake maniflod with stripped water inlets and I am considering cleaning up the manifold by cutting or grinding off the water jacket to sse how it looks.

mike there was a manifold that had the jacket removed and cleaned up on ebay.. there were also a few race cars that had this done on the zenith setup. I think steve silverstein might have some pics of the ebay one at least IIRC

 

[sunbeam74]

Post #16 has a photo of the Sports Car Forum Zenith Manifold. It was a pretty common change on the race cars to cut the water jacket off.

Steve

 

[sammaw@bellsout]

Todd has his header up for sale now, but in reading all the posts. I'm not sure what it fits without mods. Does anyone know if it fits a 1592 with a standard watercooled single solex style intake manifold without making any grinds or cuts?

Thanks

Sam

 

[RootesRacer]

I think the consensus it doesnt fit twin zenith or the solex intake (since both have the same manifold heating detail).

I think based on Bills most recent statement, it is known only to fit the SV strom intake.

 

[alpine_64]

I think the consensus it doesnt fit twin zenith or the solex intake (since both have the same manifold heating detail).

I think based on Bills most recent statement, it is known only to fit the SV strom intake.

it should also clear the DCOE twin and single intakes as they lift upwards from the head face and have no heating.

 

[sammaw@bellsout]

thanks for clearing that up for me

Sam

 

[RootesRacer]

it should also clear the DCOE twin and single intakes as they lift upwards from the head face and have no heating.

I wouldnt assume that, I had to machine some material off the manifolds (TWM twin DCOE intake) where the carbs mount to get them to clear both the SV cast exhaust as well as an early intake header.

Unless the fabricator had all these intake combos on hand during design and fab, all bets are off.

 

[alpine_64]

jarrid,

Do you have a set of bills headers? was the interference at the manfold mouting faces or on the actual runners? i dont think removing material from the mounting faces is a big issue.. but if its on the runners.. or header tubes need to be modded.. then thats a different story.

 

[RootesRacer]

jarrid,

Do you have a set of bills headers? was the interference at the manfold mouting faces or on the actual runners? i dont think removing material from the mounting faces is a big issue.. but if its on the runners.. or header tubes need to be modded.. then thats a different story.

No I dont have a set of Bills headers.

The interferance was between the carb mounting face and runners of the SV cast exhaust, and similar areas on the tubes of an SII header. It wasnt a big deal so I ground wedges off the mounting flanges where the studs go through.
In fact I had to shorten the 2 inside mounting studs as they touched the exhaust as well.

 

[Armand4]

I can unequivocally state that Bill's header will not clear the standard Solex 2-barrel manifold. I had to grind off part of the water jacket to make it work. It was absolutely worth it, however. The header is nicely made and looks good, and since I won't be driving my Alpine in extreme cold I'm not too worried about carburetor icing or stalling without the heated manifold. For several months I ran Bill's header with a standard stainless system from Sunbeam Specialties; this was nice, but a little bit boring. Last week I was at my friend's muffler shop, and he just happened to have a length of 2" stainless tubing lying around-- now I have the header, the stock (1-3/4) center section and resonator, and a straight pipe to replace the rear muffler, and my Alpine howls and snarls like the wild beast I always knew she was. All my Alfa-driving friends are terrified!

 

[Andrew]

Header

I can post a doc that I made up showing the changes made to the header in order to fit the Zenith dual intake system.

Just tell me if you need it or I could post it as a feature article.

Regards,
Andrew