welding question, how do you do this? Options

[VaccaRabite]

My header is a slip fit 4 to 1 collector. It leaks, and is frusterating. If I weld up the slip fit joints, it won't leak any more. I have tried a few fixes to get the collector to stop leaking, and they lasted a few hundred miles before I was pop pop poping down the road whenever I lifted off the throttle.

So, I want to weld it all together.

the 4to1 looks like this:
(IMG:http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2732/4112380544_c6889a3755_o.gif)

numbers 1 - 3 will be an easy weld. But how the heck to I weld the inside quarter of #4. Whats the trick? (1, 2, 3, and 4 are all header pipes going into the collector if that was not clear in my little diagram).

The only way I can see it working would be to weld 1-3 and have 4 always being a slip fit. Or sectioning the pipe for #4 and weling the inner quarter from the inside, then welding the pipe back together (yuck!)

Zach

[plymouth37]

When I built headers for renegade I would weld 1-3 together on both sides then weld on the outside of 4. I would then reach as far into the inner seam of 4 as I could and weld it. Finish off by welding in a filler piece in the middle, and slipping the collector over the whole mess. Heat the collector up and hammer it to fit the contours of the tubes and weld around the seam. Never had a header fail with this method.