Shelbyville

I got my BBK headers and as everyone has said, the welds are crappy. I have read that some of you have taken a dremel tool to the welds to smoothen them out. I am considering doing this but I don't want to mess them up by weaking the weld or possibly causing a leak. I have a dremel too but whats the best thing to use. A grinding stone would seem to abbrasive. Sand paper maybe? Just not sure how to go about this. Any suggestions would be welcome besides sending them back and buying something better
:-D

Shelbyville

Maybe I am being impatient but.....

Bump.....I know someone on this board has done this.

ZW99GT

ARe you serious? You are worried about the welds on your Exhaust manifolds? Its a freaking pipe that's made to guide exhaust gases away from the engine.

Pretty or not, they work. Throw them on there

tommy_t

Yeah, don't touch the welds.

Shelbyville

Thanks for the input. I did read at least one post where they took a few hours to smoothen out the welds. The concern was a weld splatter breaking off or turbulence caused by blocked flowing of exhaust gases.

OV10stang

I know what you are talking about, my BBK shorties were the same way, the inside diameter of the welds were smaller than the tube diameter, looked like it restricted flow. I bolted them on anyway and gained nothing for power.

Shelbyville

Well, that's encouraging. I got the shorties also. I did not feel like springing for a cat'd x-pipe to match the LT's. Parts alone would be over 1000.00 not to mention I would have to throw away or try to sell my current Steeda cat'd x-pipe. Just not worth it. I am hoping the shorties give me a little more boost than the stock manifolds. I'll ask the mechanic that is installing them what he thinks. The only good feature is they are ceramic coated and tuned for whatever thats worth.

svt_97cobra

You should be able to notice something. IF weld splatter did break off wouldnt it just go out the tailpipes?

Shelbyville

Well, you would hope so. With my luck, they would somehow get sucked back into the engine.

Shawn02GT

exhuast gasses leave the cylinder so fast that the flow is already turbulent, those weld splatters are not going to induce turbulent flow. I just threw my BBKs on and left the welds alone, grinding them down isn't going to do anything unless your making like 2000 hp.