Pics of my cracked headers

Well, after owning this car for several years I finally came to the conclusion that I was not going to have time to complete the actual repair until sometime in 2019. I finally made the decision to send the car to Fast Cars in Redondo Beach for repair.

The car is receiving it's engine out service along with replacing the valve guides with sintered steel valve guides, #7 cylinder liner, replacement valves for that cylinder, new hyperflow CATS, and rebuilt headers as well as new tires, CV boots, etc., etc., etc., LOL!

Fast Cars shipped my headers back to me so that I could remove the shields and send out for a rebuild. The pictures show the number 2 cylinder pipe with a quarter size hole in it. All of the other pipes are severely distorted with very little insulation left on the header. The other header while not having cracked yet is showing signs of failure.

The CATS were failing on my car which appeared to create the problem. Really looking forward to driving my car!

 

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What the ****?!?

 

Wow it looks like they got very VERY hot at some point and time.

 

Wow!

How many miles on this car?

 

Thats not cracked its f-ing melted.

 

Yeah that is WAY beyond cracked.
And you are going to rebuild or replace them ?

 

not sure why the shock..? that's what all stock 355 headers look like when you open them..

even if they haven't cracked.. the primary tubing is always bent/distorted melted looking etc..

 

A header only a mother could love!

 

I'll quote someone from a few years ago... "You mean it's actually okay to drive these cars?"

 

Subtle. Very subtle.

hahahahaha

 

So that's why they have ugly shields....errr ...heat sheilds on the OEM ones them. ..

 

Uhh, those aren't just cracked.

 

Maybe that's the way they are made to start with.

 

indeed, and completely unacceptable that they put such a poor quality critical component on to the car.

 

When I opened up my shields, my headers were pristine. So not all look like that. (but will do so eventually??)
I still have the bends as I could not throw them away as they were still ok...

 

They are pretty bad. I sent them to GP headers for a rebuild using 321 stainless. He is reinstalling the shields. That is the primary reason I went with GP rather than Fabspeed, the Fabspeed headers look nice but I wanted the shields reinstalled. I also like the idea of having the headers built with 321 stainless.

 

Why did they melt like that? Catalytic converter issue? Frequent pulls to redline with sustained high RPMs for the sound?

You know why air-cooled Porsches had two-valve heads for the longest time? They experimented with four-valve heads, and couldn't keep the head temperatures cool enough with the air cooling. I bet some of that is to blame with Ferrari's five-valve heads screaming at over 8K RPM. Not enough aluminum in the head to dissipate heat with all those steel valves and seats taking up the combustion chamber's space. That's my theory, anyway.

 

Scott, it sounds like Zack is willing to reinstall the OEM shields again. That is good news if you want to keep the OEM look with a significant upgrade in stainless and also maintain the 4-2-1 design. He did a great job on my F355 headers. I will probably have him build a set for my Pantera in the not to distant future.

 

Jim, does GP wrap the header in insulation before replacing the shields?

 

No just poor material selection for the exhaust manifolds by Ansa, the oem supplier. The cat failures is another thing completely. The ceramic cores where never secured properly by Ansa. So they cores start to move and crumble, and even roll around inside and disintegrate. Some say the reason for this is the engine pulses...but if the cores were simply secured really well, then no problem. With the 1999 model year, Ferrari/Ansa supplied catalysts with metallic cores...those seem to last properly, no issues. What is most disturbing, is the majority of "goodwill" replacement catalysts by Ferrari offered to owners in the late 1990s to mid 2000s, were still using left over crappy ceramic catalysts (and exhaust manifolds)...they knew they were junk, but they had tons of them left, and by replacing them, kicked the can down the road a few more years until long beyond having to help any customers with them again.

 

Just make sure they wrap them or install some sort of batting material under the shields, or they will likely cause rattles and buzzes otherwise.

 

Hi John, when Zack was working for Chris, they did put insulation on before the clam shells. As others have stated, I was concerned with the potential for rattling. I am not sure what Zack is doing now. Dave had stated that he wasn't doing the clamshells awhile back, but with this thread, he seems to be doing them again. I think dealing with the shields might have been a pain in the butt for him, just guessing though, as the primary tubes are a little bigger than stock.