I did a little searching on the internet for any possibilities to save time but nothing is available. Time to build from scratch. I knew that many companies had weld up type kits available but the catch was finding someone that had flange plates to fit a D3 style head. A couple of companies make plates to fit the older C3 style square shaped ports but the D3 ports are round and raised about .300” over a C3.

After a little more research I discovered the good people at Hedman Hedders offer a flange kit for Yates style heads (didn’t specify C3 or D3) with stubs factory welded into position. A quick call to Hedman confirmed that the flange plate ports were round and they used a 2 in. diameter stub (part #11430). Now I was getting somewhere!

I had decided to build a 2 1/8” primary tube header and the 2 in. stubs fit perfectly inside the 2 1/8” pipes. I also sourced what Hedman calls the “box of bends” which includes 10 pieces of 180° “J” bends, four pieces of 120° bends, and four pieces of 90-degree bends. All 2 1/8” diameter.

Ah, custom headers! Does this look fun to you?! Next month!

I also secured a pair of slip on collectors (#14049) and a mounting tab kit (#15200). So, now I had all the components need to make custom headers and it was time to quit whining and get to work. The complete header fabbing process will be covered next month. Suffice it to say, there is not any project I won’t tackle and this is a big one! See ya’ next time!

Remember, there is always hope.

And, when in doubt… DO A WHEELIE!