355 headers

I would like to get some feedback on header fail. What are the common symptoms? Is it an audible ticking sound? Now that I have hy-flow cats it's a little louder. I'm just thinking ahead. And exactly where on the header does it fail? Is it visible? Or hidden by the heat shield? And about when do they fail? I have 21K on her. Just trying to be on the safe side. Thanks in advance.

1999 F355 Spider.

 

Apparently, if you put a little smear of motor oil on top of your oil filter, the fiberglass insulation that blows around will stick to it and let you know.

 

I have seen the fibers collect on any oil leak in the engine bay (there has to be one somewhere...)

The oil filter is a great spot to be able to see - I'm doing it now so we shall see.

I am going to get headers one way or the other.

 

Hi Mike, if I were you I would change them before they go bad. Should have done that to mine! I think it was hard to hear the ticking on my car because it's so dang loud. Good luck.

 

So I assume there's insulating material inside the heat shield. That's a neat trick. I'll smear away. I am still wondering were the common failure is exacly? Any particular side more prone to fail? So many questions...

 

When mine went I had noticed a considerable amount of heat buildup in the engine bay.
The exhaust note changed over just a few days to more of a burble and there was less
pressure at the exhaust tips.

 

When you say "motor oil on TOP of the oil filter" - you mean externally correct?

 

Yes, just smear some oil on the outside of the filter, it'll trap the fibers of insulation that come off the inside of the heatshields for the headers.

 

I love it. Kicking it Old School!

 

...I don't know if I'd rely on the oil trick 100% though

 

If it is leaking, you will likely find whitish fiberish insulation material around the header at areas where the air exits the heat shield. That would be near the exhaust ports of the heads and toward the back of the heatshields. The exhaust note will also change from howling sound to burbling sound.

 

I'll keep my eyes & ears open.

 

Cover the exhaust outlets a bit you will know if there is a leak right away, heat proof gloves and have someone listen, thats old school LOL

 

This is what the insulating material looks like. The white powdery stuff is the insulation, the long stringy stuff is used as wrapper.
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Agreed but, you will see the fibers before you will hear an exhaust leak. I started doing this after the first header failure I found back in 96 and it has proven quite reliable. Only downside is it did not identify a cracked air injection tube but those were far easier to hear on start up.

 

Dave, what do you think about using Seafoam to do a smoke check on the exhaust manifolds? On a 5.2 car, the Seafoam could be injected just behind the MAF so that it is dispersed to both cylinder banks. I've seen a few Youtube videos from turbo car owners using it to track down exhaust leaks in their manifolds and it appears to work fairly well.

I had the JP rebuilt units (purchased from Daniel) installed during my 30K last year and have been using the oil smeared on the filter, but wanted to explore other detection methods too.

 

The problem Greg is if I say 'sure, that should work', someone will go out and pump a full can in, hydro lock the engine or destroy the Cats. No, I think there are too many risks to expensive components.

Find a local shop with an Emissions Systems Smoke machine, plug 3 tail pipes and plumb it in the 4th. With in a minute you will know where the leaks are.

 

Just doing a 360 in the shop. When the undertray was pulled for the oil change I found several clumps of fiber blown out.
Most times you can see traces of fibrous dust, but the leak test is much more positive and an earlier sign.

 

Thanks for the quick reply Dave. My local Midas shop has a smoke testing machine but they were reluctant to try it on my car (liability worries.) I guess this brings new meaning to the phrase "blowing smoke up my *ss."

 

Here is the header dissection I performed on my fathers car. I did not suspect they were failing since they only had a couple thousand miles on them (dealer replaced with new units shortly before he bought the car).

I decided to go the ceramic coating route, and when I opened up the heat shields I knew it was the correct decision:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=138620384&postcount=2

I was very careful to remove the covers without disturbing the material inside. You can see how the wrap material has settled leaving many areas of the headers uncovered which I can only assume will cause hot spots and failure points.

Here is the after photo, coated by Swain Technologies:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=138655371&postcount=17

I did put a heat wrap around the starter and made my own heat guards for the front motor mounts.

 

How is the heat in the engine compartment now with the ceramic coated OEM headers (minus OEM header heat shields) compared to OEM header with heat shields intact?

 

My father put very few miles on the car before I had the engine out and the headers off. So unfortunately I do not have a good before reference. I do believe the heat coming off the headers now are a bit higher than before, but nothing to be concerned with.
His car does have the challenge grill. He has put about 8k miles on the car since the engine was put back in with the new header coating.

I regularly inspect the hoses, rubber, anything I can get my hands on from above, and so far I do not suspect anything dying from excessive heat.

I suggested since day one, once he parks the car, to pop the bonnet and let the heat out. Granted this is not practical when taking the car out to dinner, if you ever see a black 355GTS in Elkhart Lake stop on the street and immediately pop the hood, that's my dad.

It's in my pure amateur opinion the #1 reason for the "clam-shell" header container is to retain as much heat as possible for emission reasons, not under hood temps. Otherwise you would see similar containers on the F50 and Enzo.