Good morning Stef. Many thanks for the informative post. I really appreciate it. I am in a similar position as your self and I am about to change headers as well, and my prime concern it to keep the engine bay as cool as possible, as well as getting a high quality product that will also release extra bhp. My question is, do you think that the wraps have reduced the engine temperature? Ie, when you get the car in the garage, you can feel the amount of heat coming out of the engine, do you think this has now also been reduced? I know this might sound silly, but for me, first the fuel tank is right next to the headers, so we need to make sure we minimise risks, and also a cooler engine bay = to more bhp as cooler air goes through the induction system. I look forward to your comments. Many thanks. Harry Ps also another quick question, do your headers have the air vacum rail?
Stef, My car is 07 F430 stick euro spec, same as yours I guess. fitted with the Fabspeed Sport CAT, the car did sound better, and smoother. however, lots of white powder, see my engine bay and the CAT glow Red HOT. Initially, I thought was the dust from outside. but now I released it may be the crack header. so If I change to capristo and you suggest I should change back my OEM CAT, and it will have better sound and performance. waiting for your video clip on the sound. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks Harry, The headers of F430 don't use an air rail (the Scud does).there is no air pump on the F430 for cold starts. Regarding the heat shields manufactered by Capristo (I assisted to the entire process from prime materials to the final product), they reduce considerably the engine bay heat. With a heat gun, I mesured a difference of more than 275C in the headers area. I could touch the heat shields with my hands after very intense dyno tests revving at 8500 rpm! So yes,they will help a lot reducing the heat.The ideal would be to wrap the stock cats as well as the exhaust pipes. For those interested, Capristo can make any shape of heat shields. i.e. they make small heat shields to protect the exhaust valves. They contain a silicone membrane which doesn't stand high temps. That's why these valves are failing after some time (peak operating temp of the membrane is 250C during 20secs). Stef
Hi Pat, I will try to answer you but with IPhone its quite a pain . No doubt, your cats will worsten your stock headers...as they have a very restricted flow with such a small size. I'm afraid you put your engine under some serious condition. the dust you see is the fiber glass insulation material blown out by leaks in the headers. This is only the tip of the iceberg...because this material can also get into the engine with the created vacuum of the leaks! And fiber glass is hard enough to scratch the cylinder liners. Go for Capristo headers+stock cats+Capristo exhaust brackets. You'll get the best exhaust flow with no major heat points in the header pipes.Each pipe has a specific shape and length following the order of ignition. Sound is one thing but a healthy better performing engine is well more satisfying isn't it? If you want to check your headers you have to remove the underfloor panel. Only there you will be able to see the signs of failing headers. I will post pics how it looks like once back home.
Richard, the precats are definitely there, deep inside the manifold and not at the end of the headers as said before... Will post pictures
You are ruin my buissines. Have a set of Fabspeed cats for sale. New. Well, can´t sell them now, so I will give them away to anyone who wants to have them. Maybee you can make test pipes of them. Pm me if you are interested. The good thing is that I took the right decision and changed to Capristo. Headers, cats, muffler, brackets and all insulations. Expensive - yes, but I will keep this car for some time. //Anders
Excellent, i must put the the OEM cat back, and how about the carpristo bracket. I thought the OEM bracket is fine after recall., can younshow me a pic of the bracket. Thanks again Stef.
Actually, the MK2 brackets are made stronger than the MK1 brackets. They have less chances to crack. But that's the main problem. If the brackets are stronger and will resist, the headers won't. From the headers to the muffler, the exhaust line can't just expand as it is so strongly fixed on the gearbox. You won't see that on any other car... Capristo simply refuses to install their headers if you don't install their brackets. And it make sense because they don't want to be blamed with broken headers caused by the OEM brackets. The Capristo brackets are a very nice piece of engineering and they spend a hell of time to conceive them. They allow the exhaust pipes to expand up to 2 cm without putting any pressure on the headers and cats. The following pictures show the installed exhaust brackets. As you can see, the entire exhaust is suspended on springs and move freely. They can also move backwards using a clever system of bolds. These Capristo exhaust brackets replace all the stock brackets including the central bowed bracket and left/right brackets. It's at the same time a good little weight saving as all the stock brackets weight about 5kg including all the bolds. With their brackets, nothing is fixed anymore on the gearbox which makes the exhaust line independant of the engine. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Now, let's have a look to my MK1 headers. As I suspected, they were not doing very well. No leak noise yet but lot's of dust blowing around. As you can see, the failing headers can be seen only from under the engine. They had both a major heat point which burnt through the pipes. Scary...especially after what I've read with those who had a major engine failure caused by the blown pipes. As I wrote before, Antonio Capristo demonstrated me also how this insulation fiber glass can be sucked in the engine which with the time can damage the cylinder liners. Don't think that MK2 headers can make you feel save. They will eventually have the same issues as the MK1 headers. I will just take more time but with the stock exhaust brackets, they will eventually fail. As soon I'll have a bit time, I will dismantle entirely the stock headers to discover how bad the situation was inside Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
We discovered also a major exhaust leak on the forth cylinder of the left bank. This header got lose due to the backwards pressure caused by stock brackets. Another evidence of too much tension on the exhaust line. The exhaust gasket was in good condition so the origin was not a broken gasket. On the photos, you can see the black traces of the leaking exhaust. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The first picture shows the traces of leaking exhausts on the header side. The second picture shows how it should be. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Now here you can see the precats inside the headers which seem to be in perfect condition...well not really. They are deep inside the headers well before the exit. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The reason why I said that the precats were not really in good condition can be seen here. The previous pictures show the precats on the header exit side and they look fine. But here is a picture of the precats where the exhaust gases get in (pictures token from inside the lamba sensor hole). The left precat (first picture) is not in very good condition compared to the right precat (second picture)... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
LOL, Anders, dynos are for tomorrow. Going to sleep after having speeded at 250km/h on the German motorways during many hours God, these Capristo headers are just crazy...frustrated many guys on the motorway including a GTR and Porsche GT3 who couldn't believe their eyes when they saw me flying away from 120 km/h to 250 km/h at light speed hahaha. And the sound, mama mia !!! At full load, it's really loud and you can feel the exhaust gases really bursting out very efficiently. Caio caio.
Ok folks, I give you a couple of the Dynos I will comment more tomorrow. The first one, is with the stock headers. As you can see, my engine is doing very well with a rocking 497 HP and 502Nm !!! I didn't make the task easy for Antonio Capristo as the starting level is already very high. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Now this Dyno is very interesting . Green : my F430 stock headers (original) Red : Scud with stock headers (original) Blue : my F430 with Capristo headers Compare the torque lines of my F430 stock to the Scud...and then my F430 with Capristo headers with the Scud...interesting isnt it? The Scud's torque exceeds the F430 stock only at 6500 rpm...and just a bit. While the F430 with Capristo headers exceeds the Scud over the entire range Still many dynos to come (we've spend hours on the Dynostar) Image Unavailable, Please Login
PS: my car has now 48.000 km (circa 30.000 miles). When we say "drive your cars", we mean it They can get only better just like wine if you take good care of them.
Antonio showed me several Scud Dynos, we have been through all of them, studying them and they all confirm that the Scud has only a bit extra HP/Torque above 6500rpm up to 8500rpm. Ferrari just moved the HP/Torque just higher. The Scud has less weight than the F430, so the lost HP/Torque in the lower range has less consequences...That's how Ferrari makes power Morality: remove 100kg of your F430, with the much higher HP/Torque of the F430 engine, you'll leave behind easily any Scud And if in addition you add the Capristo headers on your F430, well then ...
