Has anyone tried the 430 Challenge headers on the F430 F1? Contemplating aftermarket headers as well, but concerned re. Overall sound levels with valves open. Currently have OEM sports exhaust on a 2006 coupe.
Yes, I've got them with the rest of the system stock. They have no pre-cats in them. I would say volume is up 10-15% No drone with valves in play. Any aftermarket header would have a similar volume increase. Got the cat code CEL straight away. O2 extenders fixed it, years ago.
Almost. Only difference is Scud headers have air rails to clean up the cold start emissions to compensate for the lack of pre-cats.
thanks. So similar volumes to capristo et al? Any idea if the manufacturing and materials is equivalent to mk1 or mk2 ?
Thanks. I've read recently that the heat generated by the air injection after startup can contribute to Scuderia manifold flange warping. Is removal of that air injection an option to avoid the warping?
Yes similar volumes. No idea on manufacturing and materials. Mine have been on for a few years now without issue, but without the lower exhaust brackets.
I have read that too and I would say yes. My challenge headers have not warped. The extra O2 is like an afterburner, just like a cat, to heat things up and burn off any unburnt fuel, so take it away and things will cool down somewhat. But it will add the CEL which is no big deal to sort.
Yes, when I had my car remapped (tuned) I asked for the secondary cat o2 sensors and the secondary air pump configuration to be removed from ECU code. This prevents the warning lights. I'm in England and used DMS, but in the states a company like Mase Engineering can likely help.
hi i have fitted these to my f430 with no pre cats, the sound is deeper on startup and much more exotic on full throttle, all should have bee made this way, rest of the exhaust is standard, extra bhp due to no pre cats around 500 bhp and looks totally standard
How many miles do you have on the Challenge manifolds since you put them on, and do you have the stock exhaust brackets or something else?
Yep i'd say the challenge manifolds are a good 20% louder... pitch is like stock but deeper and louder - love them ! The other advantage is no messing around with ceramic coatings or capristo style bags on top of them.
Thanks all for responses. Last q.... any issues on reliability? are these equivalent to the MK1 or the MK2 OEM headers?
Not sure if challenge came out during mk1 or mk2 era. But they are identical except the housing for the pre-cat is empty.
I've got Challenge headers on my car, too. They were professionally fitted, so I don't know which brackets were used, but nothing was mentioned about them, so I presume they are standard. The sound isn't too loud (I'm unusual in that I prefer my cars not to be loud), they look good, as in they look genuine, with heat shields, etc; and the only issue was the engine light, which yielded codes P420 and P430, left- and right-hand cat banks, which was corrected by fitting spacers on the lambda sensors.
Hey Guys, Phil here from Fabspeed. The one issue with the challenge headers is that with the heat shields they can still crack and although you are not going to get the pre-cat material back into the engine you will still get a cel for the leak. It is not as prevalent as the coupe or spider it can still happen. The only way to make sure that doesn't happen is to go aftermarket. The factory heat shields were a good idea if they didn't cook the headers but they do. We do have the headers in stock and ready to go. I do suggest the blankets though.
thks so can you explain why OEM Challenge headers with heat shields are more likely to crack than Fabspeed headers with blankets, and can you quote some examples of cracked Challenge headers please ?
The Ferrari heat shields being welded onto the headers actually act as an oven and do not release heat the way they were intended. The challenge are better than the spider and coup because there is no pre-cat in the header so they do not get as hot. They do still very very hot especially when run very hard when this happens the heat has nowhere to go. When you pair the hot and cold cycles with the vibration on the Ferrari eventually they crack. Through our research, development, and engineering we noticed that not welding the heat shield directly to the header helps the heat escape better into the blankets which dissipates the heat instead of holding it in.
I pulled the heat shields off my original header to find the crack, which I found. I could have weld repaired but I fitted challenge headers instead. I can tell you the heat shields are in no way welded to the headers. The 2 halves of the heat shield are spot welded together and clamp snugly on the heat insulation material.
