Sanderson Shorties: Anyone Do Their Own Exhaust?

[colnago]

All,

I'm looking at putting Sanderson Shorty headers on the old girl, and was wondering about doing the exhaust myself. Probably 2-1/2" to a single 2-in-1-out muffler, then 3" out the back. I have the extra saddle tank, so I can't go straight back on the driver side.

Has anyone done this themselves, or have you had a shop do it? If I have a shop do it, I probably can't get mandrel-bent tubes. I was looking at Summit Racing, and building my own "kit," but wasn't sure about all I would need. Maybe I order the pieces, and take it all to a shop for assembly?

Any advise?

Joseph

[Ranchero50]

Do it yourself, it's sort of fun and feels good when you end up with a different sound. I buy 409 stainless mandrel bends and 4' straight pipes, then just wire weld it with mild steel.

If you have an hour, start on page 4 of my XKR experience. This is 2.25" pipe on a blown 420 hp 4.2l V8. Took a lot of work to get it to sound how I wanted it including some engineering to eliminate unwanted drone.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xk-x ... 422/page4/

[colnago]

You have a Jaguar, too? That's not fair! Share the wealth!

Joseph

[colnago]

It looks like you just buy J-pipe and cut/weld it for whatever you need. I was planning to buy 90-degree and 45-degree bends, and a lot of straight pipe, but it looks like you can get everything from where you cut the J-pipe. Interesting idea.

Oh, do I need anything special in a welder? Oxyaceteline? Wire? Other?I

Joseph

[Eric46]

Joseph,

While I didn't build the exhaust system, I am running a similar set up. FPA headers, 3" from collectors into a y-pipe, single 3" inlet/dual 2.5" outlet Magnaflow (located on the passenger side), dual exhaust that exits in front of the back tire. Nice sound, no drone, not painful to the ear at highway speeds.

Eric

[Ranchero50]

Joseph, I just run regular .023" or .030" steel wire with Argon / Co2 mix gax. It welds much nicer than stainless wire and for the duty the exhaust will outlast the driver.

Per the layout, you saw how I did the X pipe right? Same basic principle. Visualize the angle, mark the bend where it needs cut square and then cut it on the table. The time spent on the prep work and fitment makes the welding easy. I use an old Porter Cable band saw with a 14-18 variable tooth pitch blade held in a vise and a newer Ryobi belt sander with 80 grit paper to square the ends. Once welded I don't bother to grind the joints.

Make sure you buy a couple ball socket fittings so you can take the exhaust apart to work on it later and it'll help fab it up. Hit the junk yards for OEM style late model rubber hangers and brackets if you can find some.

I think was less than $500 in materials on the Jag and that included the cats. I would do a similar setup on your truck. Small pipe, with an X and a pair of small resonators so it has a mellow almost glass pack sound. The x will double the pulse volume through the packs so they'll warble and won't bark.

[DuckRyder]

I would think that it wouldn’t be that hard to find someone to build this sort of thing in CA with a mandrel bender, in fact with the increased interest in these trucks, if you’re close to any exhaust manufacturers it might be worth trying to talk them into doing a pattern for our trucks.

Also if you cruise the performance forums you might find a smaller shop that that does this sort of work.

All of that said, if you know how to weld or are willing to teach yourself then building your own is clearly the more satisfying route.

The Hooker system I have on my truck runs both pipes down the same side into 2 “turbo” mufflers stood on end. If it was slightly larger pipe and had a H or X crossover it would have been perfect. I plan to try to duplicate it in 2.5” pipe when I fabricate a new one.

[cstoyer]

Joseph,

While I didn't build the exhaust system, I am running a similar set up. FPA headers, 3" from collectors into a y-pipe, single 3" inlet/dual 2.5" outlet Magnaflow (located on the passenger side), dual exhaust that exits in front of the back tire. Nice sound, no drone, not painful to the ear at highway speeds.

Eric

Eric

Have a picture or two to share on those as the FPA Headers as they look just like Stan's Headers. I would like to see if your FPA header is tucked up close to the third cross member at the transmission to bell housing area or lower. The area on the drivers side were the front drive shaft goes down tot he axle. I know Stan's offers two versions and was wondering how yours fit.

Here is Stan's Header for their Web Page

244Y.jpg

Here is an FPA Header

fe4x4.JPG

Thanks,
CStoyer

[colnago]

All of that said, if you know how to weld or are willing to teach yourself then building your own is clearly the more satisfying route.

I don't know how to weld, but this might be the perfect opportunity to learn. If I screw up, it's never going to be seen, since it's under the truck. Now I just have to carve out a chunk of time when the old girl can be out of commission for a few days, since she's my daily driver.

On the angles, my biggest concern is clearing the steering box, and getting the driver exhaust over to the passenger side. Definitely do-able, it just means a lot of crawling to fab it all up. I still think the J-pipes are a great idea. Using them, I should be able to get anything I need.

Joseph

[Ranchero50]

The money you save doing it yourself will pay for the welder.

[Eric46]

CStoyer....sent you a PM

Eric

[colnago]

The money you save doing it yourself will pay for the welder.

But will it pay for a mini-starter, too? I keep telling myself that it's cheaper than payments on a new truck, but one of these days, Mama is going to figure it out ...

Joseph

[Ranchero50]

Weld some heat shields to your new headers and you won't need a new starter. Win, Win.

[ximy]

I did mine myself. not very pretty but it works and no leaks.

I have that dual tank in the way so I ran both pipes out the passenger side behind the rear wheel.

EXHAUST09.jpg

EXHAUST08.jpg

[colnago]

I did mine myself. not very pretty but it works and no leaks.

I have that dual tank in the way so I ran both pipes out the passenger side behind the rear wheel.

It looks like you clamped the pipes to the muffler, rather than weld. Is that right? I've been thinking of using a single muffler as well, but am afraid that I wouldn't have any room to weld two pipes into/out of a single muffler. I assume that you gooped it up with an exhaust sealer, and then clamped it together? Did you do the same on the intake side as well? Thanks for posting the pics!

Joseph