Another eBay header...anyone play guinea pig?

Scanning for a deal on an UP the other day and came across these.

http://p8.hostingprod.com/@faiwong228.com/ZAHDwrx02.JPG

 

I think is came to about $150 shipped to lower 48. Knock off of Gruppe-S, et al.

 

So fess up, any one buy these?

I dunno if its just me but that just gives me the heebeejeebee's so many parts to it that i feel it would definitely leak somewhere under high amounts of pressure and heat.

I have these headers on my 2006 outback xt for almost a year now and about 15,000 miles. I got them of ebay for $130 shipped. I was supposed to be sent another style of header, but this is what I got. (!@#$% ebay...) I believe they are patterned off of the GP-Moto header. http://gpmototech.com/legacy-exhaust.htm

 

 

After checking them out (they looked like fairly good quality stainless steel with good strong welds) I spent about 2 hours cleaning up the internal welds and gasket matching the head and turbo flanges. The O2 sensor bung was also welded too deep in the up-pipe and needed some grinding down. I then had them baked and high temp ceramic coated with a flat black "turbo" coating. The outfit that coated them said they looked decent and the metal took the coating just fine. With this design it was easy for them to coat the pipes inside and out. This was the first header that they have seen of this design.

 

I have had headers with slip-joints on non-turbo cars before. As we know the turbo creates higher back pressure in the header before the turbo. This becomes very clear with this header without anything in the slip joint to plug the inevitable exhaust leaks. This was the leakiest header with slip-joints that I had heard – just got worse with more engine load. It really sounded awful and I am sure it was killing the spool. I did not want to jump on it because it sounded so bad.

 

After an hour of running this header, I pulled it apart (you can leave the up-pipe portion on) and placed high temp fiberglass packing in the slip joints. I used long spun strands of fiberglass taken from bigger fiberglass rope used to seal fireplace doors. I had used this method on other slip-joint headers in the past and it always worked well. This sealed them up to the point that I don't believe there is any exhaust leak, as I can’t hear or feel any. My hot rodding buddies don't think there are any leaks either. It is the wife’s car and believe me, she would complain if the engine made any “non-normal” noises on a regular basis.

 

I have had to mess around with the headers twice since install. Both times were after I noticed a small exhaust leak starting to develop. You can easily hear and identify were the exhaust leak is coming from. Each time the leak had developed on the longer cross pipes coming from the driver's side to the passenger side. Exhaust leaks are bound to develop with this design and any fix short of fully welding the joints as the pipes heat cycle many times. It is amazing how much the pipes contract and expand. This expansion cycle can be seen with these pipes at the slip joint locations. The header is designed to allow for this cycle with the stainless straps that bind the pieces together.

 

Other details: This header weighs roughly 13 lbs, including the up-pipe portion. The stock header weighs roughly 27 lbs and the stock up-pipe is an additional 9 lbs. You end up removing about 23 lbs from the car.

 

The primary pipe size of the header coming off of the head is 1.5 inches outer – 1.38 inches inner diameter. The head exhaust port is 1.5 inches. So the interior primary pipe size is smaller than the head exhaust port. Even with enlarging and tapering the header flange, I doubt the transition is very good coming out of the head as there is too much play at the exhaust stud holes to line up the ports properly.

 

The 2 into 1 pipe size is 1.68 exterior diameter - can't get to the inner diameter to measure it. The last up-pipe section is 2 inches exterior and 1.89 inches interior diameter at the turbo.

 

You loose the boxer sound with these headers. I like the change in sound from stock. The engine sounds smoother without the boxer rumble.

 

I also had to cut a small section out of the plastic underbelly pan. The pan would not fit without the modification.

 

Even though I don’t mind having to play around with these every once and a while, if I had to do over - I would have saved my money and bought a Perrin. I think the Perrin design is freer flowing and you don’t have to modify the lower cover as I understand.

 

I have been meaning to do a review on these – so there you have it.

65comet - great write up. good tips on sealing the joints. the pipe measurements are a bonus as no one would know what they were getting there until they showed up.

I just installed a set of these and they were a total biotch to install. Nothing lined up quite right, but, after fighting with the thing, I did get it installed. I did have the UP slip joints welded and will probably have the rest of the slip joint welded with the header in the car. I haven't had a chance to start the car as I'm having other issues getting an Invidia DP installed. After the experience I had, I would have to say that as a former aircraft mechanic, this is not a job for a novice or even an intermediate mechanic. This one is best left to the pros.