Bending titanium headers

[Ivan]

Bought a gsxr1000 k1 header for my 750 knowing it had to be modified a little. Just curious do I have to bend it cold or after being heated?? 

Don't want to break it

The modification first is to make them fit on my 750 engine so bending the pipes farther from each other.

 

[Romski]

i made a jig and pulled them to fit. Got a dodgy shoulder. Used heat once in place.

[Ivan]

Thank you verry much for replying and suggestion!  

 

 

[dupersunc]

Bend them cold. Done 3 or 4 sets now.  Always done them by hand.

Can be a biugger to fit first time.

[Ivan]

Thnx also for your reply!

 

I used example given and killing time used biggest flame I have till it was empty 

[Dezza]

Would there be room to squeeze in a small scissor jack between the pipes in order to force two apart? How do these pipes need bending in order to get them on an oil cooled head? E.g. do they all need to be spaced or does the gap between 1-2 and 3-4 need increasing? Or do the gaps between 1 and 2  and 3 and 4 need spacing, whilst the gap between each pair remains the same?

[Joseph]

I put mine on the floor, put my foot on the tube on the floor, and pulled on the first one closest to me, and basically they splayed out pretty evenly

Took a bit of force to do but no heat involved

Edited February 27, 2021 by Joseph

[Duckndive]

I fitted a set to this years ago...no heat just used some wooden wedges to spread 1 & 2 and the same on 3 & 4 and i used 2 suzuki gaskets in each port as the thou headers are a smaller bore and prone to blowing 

 

 

[eddiegsx]

45 minutes ago, Duckndive said:

I fitted a set to this years ago...no heat just used some wooden wedges to spread 1 & 2 and the same on 3 & 4 and i used 2 suzuki gaskets in each port as the thou headers are a smaller bore and prone to blowing 

 

 

All this precision engineering's blowing my mind.

Is the smaller bore a disadvantage?

[clivegto]

39 minutes ago, eddiegsx said:

All this precision engineering's blowing my mind.

Is the smaller bore a disadvantage?

                                           Possibly but I picked a set of K2 headers up for £25 + they weight nearly nothing. 

[eddiegsx]

45 minutes ago, clivegto said:

                                           Possibly but I picked a set of K2 headers up for £25 + they weight nearly nothing. 

So what you're saying is who gives a shit if you loose a few horses as long as I loose it without spending too much!!.

Even I'll have to work that one out.

[bluedog59]

The weight saving probably balances out losses.

[Wagola]

8 minutes ago, eddiegsx said:

So what you're saying is who gives a shit if you loose a few horses as long as I loose it without spending too much!!.

Even I'll have to work that one out.

And if it improves power to weight ratio ??

[clivegto]

Never seen any dyno figures of before and afterwards with them so who knows. 

[dupersunc]

Well a stock healthy gsxr1000 will blow 150bhp through those headers. It has to bea fairly trick oil boiler to find the limit of the gsxr1000 system. 

[eddiegsx]

I haven't a clue whether or not there's a difference to power output, my observation was tongue in cheek TBH, only when Clive mentioned the smaller bore of the TI pipes that made me wonder if there's a drop in horses that some of us pay huge money to release.

I have a set of k1 headers and was toying with the idea myself, even with my limited engineering skills I could make them fit after reading some of the novel methods used to bend them into submission.

[Joseph]

I think the general theory is that smaller tubes will increase the torque low down at the detriment of the top HP ?

Edited February 27, 2021 by Joseph

[eddiegsx]

32 minutes ago, Joseph said:

I think the general theory is that smaller tubes will increase the torque low down at the detriment of the top HP ?

Seems to make sense to me Joseph, my days of high speeds are behind me now[cops and speed cameras... } and a lighter bike suddenly has more appeal!

more low down grunt is never a bad thing either

[clivegto]

 

20 hours ago, dupersunc said:

Well a stock healthy gsxr1000 will blow 150bhp through those headers. It has to bea fairly trick oil boiler to find the limit of the gsxr1000 system. 

That's a good point but aparantly fitting later K5 1000 to the early models is a good upgrade or after market items.but this yoshimura K2 1000 system would need a little bit more modification to fit a oil boiler. 

Edited February 28, 2021 by clivegto

[Ivan]

For me the header no succes, hanging way to low under much pressure and with single gasket against front framerail. I have no big heater so not able to bend it any further. Have to be another exhaust.

 

 

[Ivan]

My little dissapointing header adventure is solved with underneath, no titanium but in good condition and verry happy with 

[Merijn]

On 3/1/2021 at 1:21 AM, Ivan said:

For me the header no succes, hanging way to low under much pressure and with single gasket against front framerail. I have no big heater so not able to bend it any further. Have to be another exhaust.

That's to bad, did neither fit on a powerscreen with front framerails.. 

 

On 2/27/2021 at 8:44 PM, clivegto said:

Never seen any dyno figures of before and afterwards with them so who knows. 

I can use a dyno of a friend now and then, might give it a go comparing...

[Romski]

Oh bugger, missed the 750 reference. Don’t forget the 750 lump is shorter than a 1100 lump so 1000 downpipes will unfortunately hang lower.