MG Midget Madness (i.e. It was either this or kill it with fire)

[Pete_89T2]

Originally Posted by GySgtFrank

The one local place, that I would trust with something like that, won't do that kind of work on aluminum radiators. They must have gotten burned on it at one time or another for them to be that gun shy of it. I don't have the means to weld aluminum myself. I really need to do something about that lack one of these days.

Maybe ship it off to Brian T.?

[GySgtFrank]

Originally Posted by Pete_89T2

Maybe ship it off to Brian T.?

That might be an idea, but Brianna's busy as hell these days. He hasn't got time to work on his own cars let alone anyone else's.

[JL1RX7]

Send it Cheebs?

[Pete_89T2]

Originally Posted by JL1RX7

Send it Cheebs?

That's a good idea, Cheebs has plenty of time, but not sure if he does AL?

[GySgtFrank]

I'll talk to him when I'm up there. but I think that modifying a double pass radiator and pressure testing is beyond the tools he has available. It would have some of the prettiest welds ever seen on a radiator though.

[chibikougan]

Originally Posted by Pete_89T2

That's a good idea, Cheebs has plenty of time, but not sure if he does AL?

Yeah I don't have any GTAW available at all at the moment.

[GySgtFrank]

front radiator opening fully trimmed with the frame rails trimmed back to allow access for an over size radiator.


radiator opening by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


... and the back side.


radiator opening (back) by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


This is the maximum opening that I could manage.

[GySgtFrank]

upper 2 piece exhaust manifold/header finished and painted.

upper exhaust manifold (finished) by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


installed:


upper exhaust manifold (installed) by Kevin Frank, on Flickr

[WE3RX7]

That turned out pretty darn good didn't it??

[GySgtFrank]

Originally Posted by WE3RX7

That turned out pretty darn good didn't it??

I was pretty pleased with it. Not anywhere near as pretty as Racing Beat's header, but they don't make one for a Midget swap.

[GySgtFrank]

Finished the mid pipe section and got paint on it. I will probably need to make up some heat shields for the pipes. They have to run pretty close to the floor pan as there is very little ground clearance on these and nowhere to tuck the pipe up and out of the way. I still have about 1/2" of clearance, but didn't dare tuck it up any higher due to the rotary's high exhaust temperatures.


mid pipe 1 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


The end of this will connect to an X pipe section that passes underneath the transmission. It will bolt to the exhaust on either side of the tunnel opening. This will give me a section that I can drop out to remove the transmission, without having to take out the entire exhaust system each time. The downside to this approach is that there are more gasketed joints (and possible leak points) in the system. Once out of the X pipe section, I plan to 90 the dual pipes toward the rear of the car (putting in another flange just before it turns up to go over the axle) and all the way over the axle before I run it into a 3" collector at the back of the axle tunnel. At that point it will go to a 3" Racing Beat pre-silencer, make a 90 into a 3" RB muffler, then make another 90 out the back on the passenger side. The reason for this is more so space considerations than for the long primary. Space is so tight over the axle that the 2" pipe is going to be a tight squeeze, anything bigger would be sure to hit on suspension compression. That's the plan anyway.


mid pipe 2 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


and a shot of where it connects to the upper section of the header/manifold.


mid pipe 3 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


Probably not going to get a lot done for a couple more weeks as I have to make a trip up to Montana.

[WE3RX7]

What paint are you using on them? I assume its all MIG'd...

[GySgtFrank]

VHT 1500 - 2000 degree header paint and yes it's all Mig'ed. I'm not baller enough for TIG. I'm not the world's greatest welder, but my welds don't break and they don't leak. Usually anyhow.

[WE3RX7]

The VHT stuff is decent - used on the RX3 headers but in black. DId you "bake" the aint at all?

The first time I fired my headers up they smoked for a while burning in the paint..after a while it was all good and still black so I'll be curious to see how the silver looks.

Welds look fine too!

[GySgtFrank]

No, I didn't bother to bake it. Once it gets fired up it'll get "baked" on. I used the same paint on a previous header I had sand blasted, then painted. Worked well. Not as tough as Ceramic coatings in that it will chip more easily if you drop stuff on it, but a lot cheaper and easier to touch up when you have to. Mainly I just want to keep them from rusting.

If anyone is looking for a show quality build, then my builds aren't it. They will have to look elsewhere for that kind of eye candy. I just want the damn thing to work, and work well. The information I present is for others to see what my solutions were to the build so they can plan accordingly if they choose to try something similar.

A picture of the other header, it didn't discolor and held up under use, admittedly not a lot of miles, but it didn't burn off with the four cylinder. How well that holds true for a rotary we'll have to see.

header2.jpg