Damaged Flange on Mickey Thompson Super Scavengers

There's no magic to them just staggered pipes inside of a formed collector, very easy fab job, never done a set but I haven't ran anything I can't do with a welder and steel,...yet anyway

 

I don't think that's the direction to go for myself, I see zero value in something they can't sell already. I was a metal fab guy for my parents shop for 11 years in my former life, and believe I can develop a header that's hand made that would have all the same features especially that incredible sound we all love, for between $600-800 a set, and why T/A hasn't done it is beyond me, why they went with shorty's and Hookers is a shame really, because nothing and I mean nothing sounds better than a BBB with a set of 30 inch long collectors thru a vintage set of MT's........

 

Yes, the collector is the key piece, I was wondering how a guy can produce them, or have them made and where, and ofcourse the cost???

 

Gotcha, well $300 ain't bad. I just looked up some pictures of the guts and ya know I just bought a TIG welder finally . . . I wonder how hard it would really be. Would you weld together the collector out of 4 pieces to make a box or try and bend something? I've heard that the collector has to be thin gauge sheet to make the right sound . . .

 

I just found these while doing a bit of research, looks nice but kinda pricey. At least someone is trying!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Scav...ger+Header&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313

 

There ya go! the hard part done. I watched and listened to the vid and they sound pretty damn good IMHO.

 

And they have the 4 bolt flange like the originals.

 

They do sound good! I'm wondering though if a guy like me could fab something out of sheet metal that, while it may not look as pretty, would be easily welded together and produce similar results without costing $500.

It looks like the thinnest gauge of square tubing that you can easily get in 4" x 4" is 14 gauge (.083") wall. If you grab a few feet of that and some flat sheet, one may be able to make a simple steel box with homemade 4 hole flange on one end, and maybe weld a common exhaust reducer and 3" vband onto the collector side . . .

Here is a very crude drawing with my terrible handwriting:



What do you think?

 

Yes you are on the exact path I would use, I have a set of new Hooker Super Comps I'm going to do this to and see if I can get the sound right.

 

Somebody needs to do this to a set of Stage 2 headers.

 

I will be doing a set of Stage 2's for my X very soon, hope to have the headers here in about 3 weeks and I'll do a thread on the conversion

 

You'll have to wait on me, I'm not even in the Country right now....lol

 

Remember to keep the tubes the same length...

 

What would be a good way to measure the tubes if converting from a TA or Hooker or other header? Measure with a piece of string on the outside of each tube after cutting the collector off? I guess it depends on the type of header but aren't some made with the same length tubes all terminating at the same point? If so wouldn't you have to make the tubes unequal lengths to get the staggered ends inside the super scav collector (and thus the sound)?

Tell me if I'm overthinking this!

Also can someone confirm that relative gauge of metal used on the original Micky Thompson collectors? I'm wondering if 14 gauge is still to thick or not.

Please keep us posted on how it goes and sounds!!

 

That was always my understanding as well

 

Patwhac makes an interesting point. Not sure of the answer though. Don't think you would want to make them unequal. The sound is from the box resonating from the exhaust pulses so as long as they end inside the box it should work.

 

It is designed to put a scavenge effect on the gas from the next shortest tube,..that's the theory anyway

 

I think the only way to really figure out what works for that sound is to build a set. Ideally someone would build two sets, one with unequal length tubes and one with equal length tubes and then compare them both on a dyno and with sound recordings through the same exhaust . . . but who has time for that?!

I think for our purposes (on the Street/Strip section) if someone can simply weld a box collector to a set of off the shelf headers, they will end up with non-staggered primary ends but hopefully retain the killer sound that we are after. (Are we basically just making a crude chambered muffler really far up the exhaust system?)

However if non-staggered primaries (equal length tubes) don't get the "right" sound, then personally I would rather have headers that don't make as much power but sound awesome. Meaning mangling a set of off the shelf headers to have unequal length, yet staggered tubes. If I was going for max power then I would just use off the shelf headers. I feel it's similar to people who say that they've heard Flowmaster 40s don't flow that well but they run them anyway because they sound awesome!

I should probably go do research on how much primary tube length consistency matters . . .

Sorry if I'm opening the ole can 'o worms.