Can anyone recommend the best replacement headers for a 98 355 F1 spyder?
We offer a set of sport headers that are a 100% direct bolt on replacement on all 355 cars. Not only do these headers mitigate the problems associated with OEM headers, they also provide a gain in horsepower and torque along with an increased exhaust tone! Our headers are also covered under our warranty for the entire length of your ownership of the vehicle. Ferrari F355 Sport Headers - Fabspeed Motorsport Let me know if you have any questions or would like me to get a set of these shipped out to you. I have a set in stock and ready to go today! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Gp headers makes the best but there is a wait time. Do you want a better performing header or replace the failure prone stock header? I just installed a set from Ricambi and this is what I recommend. I would never put headers on a 355 that were not well insulated in a shell. The 355 bay gets really hot and I wouldnt want to run an exposed header in there. Some people that have had problems caused by the heat, failed motor mounts CV boots and others. Some companies that sell the open headers sell add ons like ceramic coating and header blankets but plan on spending an extra $1600 dollars. Some aftermarket headers will provide a little more HP but you lose some torque on the bottom end where you do most of your driving and where these cars need the most help. Can you feel the difference using the butt dyno? I dont know. hope this helped
No issues on my stock headers after 40.000 miles, but I run without cats. If they ever fail I will replace them with stock again
Heresey. I replaced mine with new OEM Ferrari /ANSA headers on strong recommendation from more than qualified techs and others outside of fchat. Originals lasted 22k miles. New ones only have 3000 on them and warranty up This year. They look great. Sound great. No cels and price competitive.
No not rebuilds. New OEM from Ferrari and price competitive with all of the mentioned aftermarket brands. If you look it my post history from 2 years ago you'll see the invoice , etc. lot of discussion about whether they were improved from 17 years ago but I was told by Ferrari they were. They look a whole lot better than what I saw of the rebuilds just posted and so far so good.
Weird comment from someone who, 25 minutes later, starts a header thread himself. Couldn't you have been been helpful and offered your experience here?
yeah maybe..i hope Bob is right about OEM being upgraded. Mine lasted 40k. I believe some of the reason is I have a challenge grill, flow through cats and a Tubi. I do agree with him that the stock headers can be great if they last..just a lot of people havent had much luck with them. I run my 355 hard sometimes and when I get home I often leave the rear deck lid open to help dissipate the heat. it gets hot in there. I really feel 355 headers need to be insulated but the very best header for the 355 is GP headers in the clam shell..if they will build them for you and if you can wait your turn. I am starting to lean towards an exposed header with ceramic coating and extra heat shields. I dont think its the best way to address the problem but at this point i'm not seeing any other viable option..I will post more tomorrow after a cpl phone calls...have the feeling i'm going to need a good recipe for crow..from Iphone excuse the writing goofs
isn't removing the cats the best thing you can do for your headers? the cats on the 355 trap a ton of heat in the system
I dont have a scientific answer but from what I see posted OEM seems to last longer with a more free flowing exhaust
I'm curious: if the new OEM are better than the old OEM for the 355, why are newer headers from Ferrari such as the F430 still failing so much. Is the F430 header problem a much different scenario ? Different supplier and materials ? Just wondering why a new header from Ferrari would be trusted with such a poor track record. Why did your techs think you should trust them ?
I wonder why people say that also....i have seen no information from Ferrari saying this is true..Everyone that I have heard from says they believe this because technology and fabrication techniques have advanced. So has building plastic parts that dont melt look how thats going for Ferrari
I don't mind going through this again if newer people weren't here when it was discussed inn the past but I'll see if I'll paste the threads so as not to be to redundant. The issues that are bring seen with 430 headers are not the same that were seen with 355s. ANSA makes our headers and I'm oretty sure they make the newer Ferraris also. To the point on price, Ferrari cut the cost of OEM replacement headers to 2800. That was two years ago so I can't speak for now. Call a Ferrari dealer and check what current pricing is. As far as the tech and others suggesting them over other options, he feels or felt again two years ago that they were giving the best consistency post installation with heat, codes , etc. he feels they are a proven design and without a track record of installations he wouldn't use the one off brand that was talked about then and didn't care for the other popular option that is mentioned a lot around here. He did think Tubi was the best option but since they stopped their lifetime warranty and the cost, no longer. I don't want to create a flame war here so I'm leaving names out. The tech is one that many regard as one of the best and I can't know everything so he is my guru if you will. There is/was debate about whether the new OEM units are made differently than the original OEM ones. I was told by FNA that they have been improved. I don't know the specifics of that change.
For the OP or anyone interested, here are some threads on this topic in which musch of what is being discussed was already hashed out. I misstated above, the new OEM manifolds were $3600 not $2800. The invoice is in the first thread here. Brian was not the tech who advised me to use the OEM but he said the same thing to me that Brian stated in this post: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/142851211-post28.html other threads: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355-sponsored-bradan/434124-cracked-headers-cylinder-wash-how.html http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355-sponsored-bradan/418400-any-used-355-headers-sale.html http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355-sponsored-bradan/424675-355-fabspeed-headers-4.html
It's a combination of material choice and design. 360/F430 headers have pre-cats which tend to hold alot of heat. There's also a first generation set of F430 headers (pre-08), which failed rather quickly and obviously. Ferrari warrantied the header and replaced with a second genaration set of headers (08-09). I am not exactly sure what the difference is, but I am going to assume they either upgraded the quality of the metal or went thicker. Pre-cat still exists. This header hasn't failed nearly as often, but there are quite a bit of reports of failure. Part of the failure is due to exhaust bracket setup, which didn't allow the exhaust system/header to move in harmony during expansion. It is believed this further stressed the headers and lead to cracking. Capristo makes exhaust brackets to help mitigate this problem, but some still experienced a header issue with it installed. The Scuderia header DOES NOT have a pre-cat. It also doesn't have the exhaust movement issue and has a conpletely different exhaust mounting design as if Ferrari acknowledged the problem and fixed it. There are far fewer reports of header failures on the scud than F430 (much fewer cars also), but i have read where owners did report a failure and ended up buying Capristo headers. Capristo headers are T309. Fabspeeds are T304. I have no idea what OEM is. 355 headers do not have pre-cats and don't have the exhaust movement issue, which is a good thing. However, if the new updated 355 Oem header is built anything like the Scud's header, it would be considered an improvement although there are reports of failure. My personal material of choice is 321 stainless Steel. It has proven to be very reliable and preferred across the automotive industry. It's light as well. T309 would be my next choice.
It's also important to note about 95% of Scuderias are less than 20k mi. More than 50% are less than 10k mi. I didnt experience a header issue on my 355 until about the 25k mi point. I think it's still up in the air whether or not Ferraris new header is good enough.
F355 headers are 409 s/s and 1.2mm thick for the older ones. Before I started my header project, I had looked into the new OEM headers. I spoke with one vendor asking for some detailed answers. None were provided. Later on I contacted two Ferrari dealers and got the same response. One of the dealers actually stated that they thought Ferrari switched vendors, which I thought was odd, because the new headers still have Ansa stamped on the shields. In one thread Brian stated these headers were updated, but no mention of when, the gauge or type of s/s used. If they were updated during the production run then I would think they could be still problematic since there were reports of the 360 headers failing. It would be interesting to see what upgrades were actually done.
There were 2 runs of headers for the 355..... the air tubes on the headers were replaced with a different design in the second run (as the early air tubes in the first design were prone to cracking).....with regard to the actual header pipes....never heard that the oem made any mods there.
