4 piece Dixie Exhaust

Got to installing a four piece exhaust system this past week end on the 56. After watching Plumber share his experience installing his, and I thank him for the many great reference photo’s which saved me a lot of time deciding if I had things just right. I thought I might share my install of the Dixie four piece exhaust with everyone.

After cutting ½ inch from the rear header pipe this is how things loosely fit together.

1stFit.JPG (75.97 KiB) Viewed 2744 times

I will need to slot out the tab on the flat pipe about a half a hole to the rear. I've got enough up and down play for it to fit o.k.

Turns out that the front header is a bit to short, but once I weld the piece I cut from the rear header onto the front pipe everything will be ready to be clamped together.

FrontHeader.JPG (88.34 KiB) Viewed 2744 times

Dennis Corso 10-1/2" "Y".
Great pics. thanks. It looks like your header exhaust slots are about 3/8" deep. That's good, my Corso's were 9/16" and too deep, imo. Looks like you have what we now call n.o.s.a (new old stock aftermarket). You should consider cutting two more slots in each header. Reason? So the hub will compress. Why? That there's (4) slots in the muffler, says something.
I have to scroll a look at your "Y" pipe again. Doesn't look like there's as much kick in the end piece. Wait a minute... ..there isn't any kick in the "Y" piece The "Y" has a real hub. And there's no "faux" rivets, so it's definitely not a Dennis Corso piece.
You can "move" that hole in t flat-pipe bracket fairly easily. I did, with an 1/8" spiral burr on a Foredom cable grinder. Took about 10 minutes.
If you want 4-piece rigid Pan exhaust, most definitely get them through your dealer, from Dixie®. IMO, those are the last of the Mohican's. Those pipe are coated with shop patina. You opened a tomb. If those pipes were still manufactured, I would presume V-Twin would be carrying them.
I don't think Dennis Corso will change the shape of their 10-1/2" "Y" pipe, like ever. Wonder why he put the kick in it in the first place ? Wonder if V-Twin's including the '58-64 "Y" with their (29-0173) "rigid frame exhaust" kit was a "warehouse survival measure". The warehouse knew the Corso 10-1/2" had too much kick (from returns experience), so they tried a simple go-around by substituting the '58-64 "Y" instead. The (accommodating) V-Twins returns lady made the "try cutting off the end of the pipe to fit" suggestion resolutely, after she talked to the warehouse. Glad yours fits. So does mine (after a fashion).
Chris Haynes was right. Glad you learned something from my mistakes.
I like to have the 1/32 to 1/16" free-play between the top of the head spigot and the top of each header. You don't want the headers to be force-bound at all.

I don't think anyone will come forward with a positive Corso 10-1/2" "Y" fit, as far as muffler alignment.

Ohio, where did you locate the Dixie system? Mike

The installation was going quite smooth until last night. I welded the extension piece to the front header and it fits fine. Part of this project is to also install a set of footboards on this bike while I had it apart for the exhaust. The frame mounts for the footboards have been ground off this frame at some point, so I’ll need to weld new ones on.

The flat pipe is going to require some extensive massaging now cause the floorboard mounts I need to weld on to the frame are going to interfere with the flat pipe by quite a bit. So even the Dixie exhausts will need to meet my big hammer for some fine tuning.

Mike, I found out about Dixie right here from Chris Haynes while Plumber was doing his. You do need to go thru one of your local indys cause Dixie does not sell to the private sector. They don’t sell a kit. They sell all the pipes individually. Very good prices’s as well. They are 40% less than the V-twin.

The flat pipe is going to require some extensive massaging now cause the floorboard mounts I need to weld on to the frame are going to interfere with the flat pipe by quite a bit.

I had to thin the top of my foot board mount so the flat-pipe would be able to fit. Eventually you want to be able to install the front header into the flatpipe and then the "Y" pipe into the flat pipe. The only obstacle should be the (right) crossover brake lever (which you can hold up with your hand). I lined my exhaust manifold up evenly spaced between the heads, and tightened al the heads bolts snug so the heads wouldn't move, then made sure the the top of the header would pull down from the heads the 1/32 to 1/16". I'm cutting the (4) slots in each header and taking the pipes to be stripped and chromed.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Turns out that the front header is a bit to short, ..- ohio-rider

Since you can buy the pieces separate from Dixie®, someone could buy the front and rear header's from Corso Co. with a phone call, and the flat-pipe and "Y" pipe from Dixie® - putting the entire assembly together from two different manufacturers, if the pipe spigots match hubs securely, then re-chroming should go ok.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Friday p.m. - KIck-Start M/C Parts (616) 245-8991 has the Dixie® 10-1/2" flat-"Y" and the 10-1/2" kicked-Y. Chrome or black. Some frame's use the kick others the flat Y.
I ordered a flat-Y to make a pic comparison.

[quote="ohio-rider"]Turns out that the front header is a bit to short, but once I weld the piece I cut from the rear header onto the front pipe everything will be ready to be clamped together.[quote]


Have a look at these NOS Genuine H-D "S" pipes. No two are the same legnth.

IMG_0620 (Small).JPG (66.64 KiB) Viewed 2540 times

A lot of the exhaust fitting of today is like the upper and lower valve spring covers on knuckles. According to the Wagner, 1930-1941 book, there were canvas laundry carts on wheels full of upper and lower covers. Assemblers pulled cans out of the carts until they found tops that matched.
The fact that you need both kicked and straight 10-1/2" Y pipes to match whatever your frame demands is now a fact of life. At least we have a choice. Kick-Start has gobs of those Dixie-style straight- Y's.

Not only are those "S" pipes in Chris's photo differant lenght but the relief area for the oil pump appear to be in differant locations and of differant depths of relief as well. My "S" pipe most ressembles the one farthest to the right in the photo and I needed to beat in the oil pump relief area on my about 1/4 inch.

Without the floorboard mounts these pipes all threw together nicely. Now with the floorboard mounts I've got at least another 6hrs. and counting extra refitting time. You know how slow that can go. Beat on the pipe a little and refit. Beat on the pipe a little and refit. Its going to be worth the effort though. -Steve

Not only are those "S" pipes in Chris's photo differant lenght but the relief area for the oil pump appear to be in differant locations and of differant depths of relief as well. My "S" pipe most ressembles the one farthest to the right in the photo and I needed to beat in the oil pump relief area on my about 1/4 inch.

All of the "S" pipes have the same depth relief. I found these in the bottom of a bin full of trash at Dixie. That place is a mess beyond description. Burned packages shoveled into huge wire bins. Digging through one of those bins often pays off. But is extremely dirty work. If you ever go there take, Clean rags, lots of water, flashlights, kneepads, gloves and food.

Well... I finished up this Dixie Exhaust project and I like the new look of the exhaust. Heres the last photo before I tighten everything up. I need a new camerea. Just need to finish up the footboards, passengers footrests, and the front safety guard and I'll be ready to hit the road for another year.

Copy of FlexSide.JPG (69.16 KiB) Viewed 2354 times

That all looks real good.
In the beginning, we had some questions about the aftermarket '48-57 exhaust system. We took their products to task and made them work for our specific machines . We found out more than we knew before we started. It had a happy and conclusive ending. Anybody on earth that wants to install rigid frame Pan headers now has choices.
There are no more problems that I can think of, involved with building a 1948-57 rigid frame OHV from scratch, (motors and transmissions - you're on you own), there's several manufacturers that will stand behind their Knuckle & Pan motors, and several more that will make a V-Twin 4-spd. transmission work like it should.
It's a fine day for building new replica 3.5 gallon tanks.