VW Heat Riser Fabrication on Baja & Buggy Exhausts

This is a complete guide to designing and creating a heat riser system on your aftermarket VW Exhaust. Most Baja and Buggy Exhausts do not have heat riser set ups, and the ones that do are made WRONG!
This video explains how the original VW Heat Riser Exhaust system works, and how to make one for your aftermarket exhaust.
The EMPI Exhaust used in the video is model EMPI 3460
Also check out my related video on cleaning Heat Risers here:
• Clearing VW Heat Riser...
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[@markmorris2336]

Great job I had my old dune buggy ice up all the time didn't know they had to be in town different locations I took for granted a new exhaust had them in the right spot but great job fabricating

[@MaineMachinist]

Thank you for the comment. For a long time I also just ran the “factory” heat riser holes on the aftermarket mufflers - and I had the same problem with icing. This really did help my issue and the heat risers are warm/hot to the touch now like they should be. They never really warmed up before

[@MaineMachinist]

I’ve been running this exhaust ever since the video was made without any issues

[@petegoepfert8642]

Genius idea! Thank you for sharing.

[@DEFJEEP]

Could you use a flexible piece of stainless pipe so as not to have to make all the bends on the left pipe? I found a 5/8" exhaust pipe that looks like a corogated electrical conduit. I was thinking of connecting the 1/2" heat tube to the flex pipe at both ends-it will fit right inside it, tightly.. Would the flex pipe carry the flow on the left side for about a foot well enough as compared to the rigid pipe? I would only use the rigid pipe at the flange connection and on the other end where it is welded to the collector pipe. The flex portion would be in the middle. I'm trying to get the left flow as close to the collector as possible and away from the head, if this is best. Thanks for the video.

[@MaineMachinist]

Sounds like a decent plan! If you end up doing it, please let us know how it worked. I thought it would be easier to stick with common materials instead of trying to join stainless to the mild steel

[@hyunwhyte1338]

For someone who doesn’t have the ability to start cutting and welding / fabricating.. I have the same exhaust you showed, that does have the heat riser flangs but they are in identical locations.. the holes are must different in diameter, one being very small and the other much larger.. would that have a similar affect for allowing the heat to flow?

[@MaineMachinist]

Hey thanks for the comment! The off road exhausts with the heat riser hookups, like the one I show at 5:15, are better than nothing, but they don't really work as intended. They use the different size holes to try to keep the exhaust from fighting itself with equal pressure coming from both sides, but they really don't cause the draw to happen like the factory VW muffler. If there's nothing you can do to fix it yourself, its better than nothing, but you won't get optimum heat to the risers.

[@vintage76vipergreenBeetle]

👍

[@cubey]

Oh joy. The 64 baja I got lacks heat risers. The manifold is chopped up for the heat pipes too, so I'd have to replace that. Looks like some idiot also cut off the heat riser connectors from exhaust too and welded in patches on both sides. At least they're not expensive used, but it's just another expensive due to a dumb past owner.

[@MaineMachinist]

Frustrating to chase problems from previous owners, for sure!

[@cubey]

@@MaineMachinist And there's no shortage on this one. Bought myself way more of a project than expected or wanted, but I'm stuck with it now.

[@MaineMachinist]

@@cubey that tends to happen... sadly these cars were very cheap for a long time, and a lot of people just held them together with duct tape and body filler. Even the ones made into buggies or sandals were often thrown together as cheap projects. Good luck! I have a fair amount of videos on aircooled stuff, and more coming out all the time.

[@cubey]

@@MaineMachinist Someone at one time did deck it out, it has nice custom rear rims, empi brackets for adding extra shocks in the rear (has stock shock plus air) and front beam reinforcement brackets. But I'm guessing it was an owner after that who was crap at repair who started screwing things up. And it could be the car ran too hot in the SW summers, so the heat riser delete was to address that.

[@vintage76vipergreenBeetle]

Did this set up work? Did you do a part 2 video?

[@MaineMachinist]

It works great! I have it on my off road buggy right now. I haven’t done a second video on it, but I can if there’s something you’d like to see about the setup