Turbo exhaust fabrication

Now that the radiator and transmission are in place I can finally get started on what I think will be the most challenging part of the project - fabrication of the exhaust system for the turbocharger. There's not very much room for all the piping so things will have to be fitted just right.

My first step will be building a couple of exhaust manifolds. The stock 6.5L manifolds won't fit. I looked at the Humvee headers and thougth I could use them but nope, not a chance. So here I go making my own manifolds. First I had Metal Products Company ( my neighbors) laser cut some flange plates to bolt the manifold to the head.

Laser cut steel flanges. I had Metal Products make 20 of them so I would
have plenty to ruin while I figured out how to build the manifold.

I wanted to just make one long plate with the appropriate holes in it for the exhaust ports and bolt holes. Unfortunately, unlike other motors I've seen the exhaust side of the 6.5 head is not one machined flat surface. Instead, there is a separate machined surface around each exhaust port with raised raw casting in between. That means making separate flange plates for each port.

I found some 1-1/4" stainless steel weld up schedule 10 pipe elbows. These are just the right size to make the bends coming out of the port flanges. In the hydraulic press I mashed one end of the elbow into a rectangle shape to fit into the exhaust flange. Here it is tack welded in place.

One passenger side exhaust elbow

Once I had the size and shape figured out I made a tool to 'square' the ends of the elbows using the hydraulic press. 

The new manifold has to be very compact. Once all the elbows were formed, fitted and welded I made a fixture to cut them all off at the same angle in preparation for welding to a 'log'.

 

Four drivers side exhaust elbows