88 951S

I had the same thing. A company in Ohio does rebuild on the headers quite reasonably when I had it done. I sent in mine and they sent in rebuilt version in return. Still working well after a few years of driving.

Ronin-951

+1 on the take off and weld. No good will come from ignoring it, only bad and VERY bad.

rlm328

Sounds like a good excuse for new headers, can we say perfomance upgrade.

LFA951

Why?

Ronin-951

A number of reasons. Start with can't see, can't reach, can't position, can't preheat, depending on type of material and proximity to heat sinks, [ie block], warpage of surrounding parts, fire in the engine bay, heat reflection on surrounding delicate items. Then theres introduction of stray voltage spikes to the ground system ect,ect. It can be done if the crack is in just the right spot and you know exactlly what youre doing and are willing to accept the risks. For an hour of time and two broken studs probably, I'd remove the header and do it right once.

LFA951

Good points, will the header come off without removing anything else? I don't have the heater lines in the way...

Tom M'Guinn

Yes. Remove 6 bolts at the collector flanges, the 8 nuts on the exhaust studs, and as many exhaust studs as you need to wiggle the headers out.

Might need to undo the clamp for the power steering reservoir, but you can leave the hoses attached.

LFA951

Exellent, I'll have my guy get on it tomorrow morning when I drop it off, thanks for the advice!!

hp18racer

Just finished changing headers on my car last night. Took me about 5 hours. Heater core hard line had to come out. Fuel rail had to be disconnected. I had to drop the crossover (mine is a lindsey split two piece) too. It's a real puzzle how to get them out, an extra half inch ANYWHERE would make it really easy.

LFA951

Headers came off and my tech said it was cracked in between 2 and 3 and this is common in our cars, he is welding it together and going to put some shield wrap on them!