355 Owners - What’s Your Valve Guides and Manifolds Story?

Better than most alternatives when all factors considered. When I was in California for many models it was all the law allowed.

 

Yea of course, I have heard about cars and California.
I'm the other side of the pond .
However I envy the US car culture.

 

That's just what Jim McGee said when I brought my car to Pocono Sportscar two years ago...


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Yes, it's a trade-off. Also, Labour costs are way more expensive in Italy than in Taiwan.

 

if excessive heat is the main reason OEM manifolds become distorted and unusable, is this completely remedied by deleting CATs?

 

Capristo never made manifolds huh? Are Tubis the best headers money can buy?

 

in one word: YES.

 

96 Spider
guides replaced at 18,144 miles
installed Tubi manifolds and exhaust
Capristo by pass valve

Sounds and runs great!

 

Is there a way to determine if my car has tubi or oem headers?

Mine has a tubi exhaust so i’m wondering if a previous owner changed the Headers also

 

check the pictures in this thread then check out the car - if cannot identify bring in a shop put it on a lift

 

The stock headers were by Ansa and the heat shielding is smooth. The Tubi heat shielding is a little different- its textured.

 

My new car (2.7), previous owner replaced both OE headers at 18k miles. Both sides showed cracks. He paid $6k for another set of OE headers in 2005. 180293 / 180294. I believe Scuderia Rampante swore by these headers. Not sure why. I wish people would just stick to buying Tubi vs OE. Tubis are cheaper too!


Car now has 30k mi, so about 13k mi on headers. I’ll be pulling mine out as soon as my new Larini headers arrive. I’ll be opening them up to see if they are the same junk as before. I think it’s retarded to spend $6k on headers every 15-20k mi.

 

I know a local Ferrari mechanic who insists that sometime in 1998 Ferrari improved the Ansa headers with thicker-walled tubing, and these later headers have significantly greater longevity. No idea if this is true.

 

Chicken or the egg, chicken and the egg, chicken and eggs........LOL

First element is heat? Is that heat ALWAYS from the CATs? Any other source? Is engine bay heat enough to cause
a problem? Does that heat "travel" from the CATs and affect the headers? Next, does the heat cause the valve guide failure?
Guessing the worst is when chunks of the cracking headers get into the engine?

Is this the correct chain of events? Or is there a different, even random chain of events?

Are there other factors besides heat that cause the header and valve guide failure? If the CATs were never installed
at the factory, would there never be these issues?

 

We’ll know soon

 

My friend bought new headers for his 98 5.2 and they lasted 4000kms before the left side blew out. So who knows. That was with hard driving though so everyone’s mileage may vary. I took my (thought to be original) manifolds off at 50,000 kms and replaced with Tubi.

 

Before I ordered my Tubi headers I ask around with the Indies in NE and all replied the same: Tubi is superior to new Ferrari OE headers. My '95 OE headers lasted for 30k miles. I doubt the Tubis will see an additional 30k as long as I own the car. Frankly, I'm not that impressed with the Tubis. The tubes may be better but the shields are very thin.

 

My 99 F1 had the original headers replaced at about 5 years and 13000 miles by ferrari so unsure if that is true.
The next set lasted 4 years when I changed to tubis they were still good and checked out fine
Tubis have been there since 2008 or so.

 

Shields might be thin, but as long as it is functioning as designed, how much of that matters?

 

Probably not much but I just like the cleaner look of the OE shields and also the ability to sample each cylinder's exhaust separately. Frankly, if it wasn't for the significant cost different between new OE and what I got the Tubi for I would have gone with a new set of new OE.

 

'95 41,600 4th owner, got her at 17K miles. As best I know original valve guides. Original headers too. XOST exhaust & test pipes & challenge grill. Though under it the other day & noticed fiberglass fluff under the left side header.
She's due for a major next Winter so I'm thinking time for headers too if my mechanic agrees it can wait. Dont know which brand I'll go with.

 

Tubi

 

Re the Tubi shields -- any idea what material? Stainless, Iconel? Is there insulation on the backside? It looks like it, and that alone would make them better than factory, which is just a stainless clamshell. Modern heat blanketing combines a layer of insulation with a thin metal shield, usually 4-10 mil. I've used this stuff and it's incredibly effective.

https://www.designengineering.com/floor-tunnel-shield-ii-21-x-48/

 

1) Tubis are insulated.

2) OEM are insulated.

 

I mean, yeah, there's some rags and stuffing in there, but it's on a whole other (less effective) level than modern header heat blanketing like the Tubis have