Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[David Kirkham]

Here is a shot of the inside of the collector. Notice the nice pyramid cone where all the 4 tubes come and blend together perfectly. I have seen many a manufacturer simply put in a HUGE GLOB of weld to fill in this space to seal up the collector! But, it is NOT the worst thing I have seen (see below for that wonderful description).

[David Kirkham]

Here is the shot I really like. You would not BELIEVE the TRASH I have seen in exhaust systems over the years. My favorite of all time is an exhaust system (manufacturer un-named) where the manufacturer welded a flange on a 2 inch exhaust pipe to bolt to the 4 in 1 collector. When the 2 inch pipe was bolted to the 4 inch collector, it lined up DIRECTLY IN CENTER of a 4 in 1 collector The poor 2 inch tube (too small already) got MAYBE 1/2 of the exhaust it was supposed to. The back pressure on that engine must have been higher than the shop guys after a burrito run to Taco Bell.

The sad thing is some people simply don't know what they are buying. They buy on price alone...and they usually get what they pay for.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a shot of the inside of the collector. Notice it is completely sanded to remove any burrs or boogers for really nice flow.

Can you imagine anyone lining up a 2 inch collector in the MIDDLE of this Remember, EACH of those tubes in the 4 into 1 collector are 2 inches in diameter! There is simply NO exhaust coming out of the middle of the collector. I can't believe anyone could even sell that with a straight face.

You would not believe the things we have seen.

[David Kirkham]

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see the head tubes after polish on the head fixture. They will turn a really beautiful bluish color on start up. The collector and exhaust will then turn a really stunning golden color farther down the tube.

The head tube kick to the left (in the picture) to get around the foot box.

[David Kirkham]

Here is the master tube bender, tool maker, and all around cool dude...Sandwich. Don't ever tell him he can't do something! Here he is testing out our really nasty 2D 2 inch bend tooling. The radius is really, really tight. It is the only radius that will work for our head tubes.

[David Kirkham]

Ok, just for giggles...or weeping...I figured I'd post this one. We had a customer, who actually posts on this site send his car back to us because whoever put it together really did an unacceptable job. This is one (of unfortunately MANY) thing we found utterly appalling.

The customer wanted the seat to go a little further back so he took his car to a shop to take out the seat tracks and bolt his seat directly to the floor. Well, I guess he didn't have a bolt long enough...so he welded a little piece of bolt on to the end of the existing bolt to lengthen it!

I don't even have to mention the flimsy steel strap he used to bolt the seat down with. Now you know why he sent it all the way back to us. The engine install was equally horrific.

I guess all I am saying is BEWARE!