johne

Well, I’m at another difficult point in putting my motor in my car. Some of you may remember that I bought the car without an engine then bought Elondooberhead’s motor after he blew his (first ) headgasket. Well I replaced the head gasket and have the motor ready to go in. I was just waiting for the starter and exhaust headers from Elon. Well it turns out he scrapped his old headers and reused the starter on his new motor. Grrrrr. It’s no big deal though, seeing as he did give me a really good deal on the motor. The only problem now is I can’t decide if I should buy some used Factory headers, or shell out more dough, and get SFR’s sweet looking headers. For $995 they seem to be the best deal around.

I was thinking maybe I could get someone’s used ones, but I’m having a hard time finding someone who wants to let them go for cheap. So now I’m wondering how much additional performance I would see with the SFR headers? My goals for my car are low turbo lag, reliability, and decent power, all at as low a cost as possible (Georgia Tech is like a huge hole in the bottom of my wallet, I’m constantly putting money in but every time I look it’s all gone <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> ).

What do you fellas think I should do? Are the SFR headers worth the extra money, or should I keep looking for some used factory headers?

Sorry for the long winded post, but I just wanted to present all the variables that have been swirling around in my head. Thanks for any help though.

CPTdooberhead

if you're replacing something, may as well modify it, that what i say.
SFR

John, do you stuill have my old headgasket by chance? I want to mount it on my wall of pain with my other 2.

$pit

I have the SFR headers they are nice, there were a couple of fitment issues but Tim fixed em. Never really got to see the performance gains as I had to remove my engine because of a leaking head gasket from a botched garrity rebuild.

rcldesign

I think both solutions are almost equally good.

Used headers: Good luck finding good ones.
Aftermarket headers: Not made out of incanel (sp?) so they're more prone to cracking.

My suggestion is to get some aftermarket headers with a lifetime warrenty. Stainless steel will crack eventually and more frequently than incanel. So, get some SS headers with a lifetime warrenty, and if they crack, send 'em back for a new, free pair.

jimbo1111

Good luck finding a used set of headers that don't have cracks or leaks. I also have a set of sfr headers. they look and work fine. There are some fitment issues as $pit states. As far as performance goes they were install with a whole bunch of mods so i couldn't tell what gains they had if any. over all i think there a good product.

Douglas_T

Good points, it will be tough to find a good set of used headers...But bargins can be had if you look long & hard enough...Good luck & happy motoring!

johne

Firstly, thanks for all the replies.
I have thought it over and right now I've found:
Used 27k miles ~$300
Used ??k miles $150
SFR new $995

So, here's my question does anyone know of a shop(preferably in the Atlanta area) that can check headers for cracks or leaks(how would they do that?). If leaks were found I would then need a shop who could wield them. I would then like to have them Jet Hot coated or Ceramically coated

I seem to recall seeing someplace that would take your old headers, wield up any cracks, and coat them (don't remember what kind), then warranty them against any cracking or chipping of the coating for ~2 years. All this for ~$200. If I can find who that place is I may just go with the $150 and have that service performed.

Elon, yep I've still got the headgasket and it’s all yours, just tell me how you want to get it.

marksportcts

rcldesign is talking about Inconel. I talked to <a href="http://www.burnsstainless.com" target="_blank">Burns Stainless </a> remember that it was really expensive, like 2x of 321 stainless and much harder material.

From their inconel page "625 Inconel, containing approximately 60% Nickel and 22% Chromium, was developed to cope with the extreme heat and strength demands of jet engines.
Molybdenum and Nobium elements also contribute to 625’s strength at temperatures greater than 1800º F, where 321 SS is unsuitable.
Inconel 625 excels in applications such as Rotary engines and extreme duty turbocharger exhausts."

joetz

Can someone help me with some header advice? I just installed some really beautiful ones I got on ebay, but have no idea what the brand is

Anyway, they went in fine with no fitment issues, and the car sounds a little better and there is a small but noticeable bump in power. It's say maybe 10hp

Anyway, here is the problem. I noticed that sometimes there is a bit of hesitation when I nail the throttle at low speeds now and sometimes the idle gets a little jumpy. It's almost as if the ECU is having a hard time understanding what changed on the engine.

I used to own a corvette and did headers and had the ecu retuned to take advantage of the headers. Does the 997 work the same way? Do I need a "tune" on this car as well? Did any of you guys notice some low rev issues after header installs?

Darwantae951

Are you talking about a 997?

JohnKoaWood

7 years AFTER the original thread...