Ferrari Cali headers

hello everyone,
My headers cracked recently (2011) with 30,500 after driving 8,500 miles during 2021! Few long road trips.
Has anyone tackled this job? I recently bought a pair of new headers.
- looks like you have to the lift the engine (support with a jack) / tie ropes
- remove the entire lower frame below the engine
- while you are in there - (replace motor mounts & transmission mounts)

1 shop quoted me $3,000 in labor (San Diego), another shop quote me $1,000. I was going to try to tackle this myself. difficulty level? I own my own tools (2 jacks, 4 jackstands) - looks like just nuts and bolt and a torque wrench.

thoughts?
thx
David

 

I haven’t tackled the headers but I replaced all three mounts myself, and it was pretty tight underneath with only floor jacks and jack stands. It would be much, much easier with a lift, even a portable one that lifted the car by 18 inches or so. You definitely need to support the engine while doing the mounts, and removing the cross frame brace requires shifting the jacks and supports around to get them out of the way when you’re finished undoing all the mounting bolts. Best of luck if you decide to go for it, and please document the procedure.

 

Thanks Bill - given my time constraints (in tahoe every weekend for the winter and busy work week) - I decided to outsource to an indy shop in SD. They quoted me $1000 for headers + motor mounts. Sounds like a fair deal. I don't own the right circular jack stands yet, and I do have 2 floor jacks but I knew this job would be a PITA when i saw that I had to remove the front sub frame from the engine. I sourced my parts from Eurospares for 1/3 the costs from the stealership. I will be doing all future maintenance as soon as I buy Quickjack! stay tuned.

 

Wow, $1,000 bucks for headers and mounts sounds like a great deal. I think Quickjack is a must have if you’re going to do anything underneath. Btw, where are you sourcing the headers from, someplace like Scuderia for factory stuff or aftermarket?

 

One shop that shall not be named quoted me $3,000 down the street, I ended up going with Bobileff Motor company which had great reviews and recommendations from Fchat. I figured the price was worth the trade off of 10-15 hours on my back with the wrong support and f-bombs...late night in my cold garage

@Bill Phillips - I got my headers (Top Speed Pro-1) from ebay. @Normal Guy Supercar sells them as well. $729 for a set. I got the factory gaskets (2 for headers, 2 for flange) from Eurospares.co.uk for $60 for everything including shipping from UK! The headers are "factory replicas" for 1/4 the price - factory was $1750 PER SIDE from Scuderiaparts.com; has the stock fitting for air injection pipes for smog and is 100% guaranteed to pass in CA.

I also bought 3 motor mounts (2 motor, 1 Tranny) - for $450 total - since its readily accessible from Eurospares

 

Sounds good, glad it’s all working out for you.

 

The Topspeed Pro-1 headers sold on ebay do NOT FIT Ferrari California. They are 1" too long at the collection tube.
They also do not contain the 4 channels from the secondary air injection ports to each cylinder (like the factory headers).
Thanks to the guys at Bobileff motor company who are now going to FIX my factory header. The failure occurred on the weld for the flange that meets the catalytic converter. It ripped apart like a tin can lid. Should be as good as new.

Also noted was a LOT of carbon deposit. They are going to clean the headers opening up all the air ports which were clogged with carbon.
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Hate to say it, but it’s not all that surprising to hear about products not being what they’re advertised to be. It’s great to have somebody who can do quality work though and take care of it for you. Funny you should mention the carbon build up - mine runs well and doesn’t skip a beat right up to redline rpm, but the tail pipes have a lot of carbon build up. I heard from a very knowledgeable forum member a while back when I posted about spark plug fouling that this engine is always bad about that. Since then I’m going to run both of these through a tank of gas every year. I might also have the heads, valves and headers disassembled and cleaned in the not too distant future. I know that the second item won’t clean the back side of the valves because of the engine design, I just use it for extra combustion chamber cleaning. That’s why I’m considering taking the heads off for a thorough valve cleaning.

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Got car back today - seems to run "faster" and smoother. Both headers were cracked at the collection point on both sides and 1 flange was also repaired - they re-welded multiple cracks and weak points on both stock headers (factory). Out the door the job was $2650 including installation of motor mounts and transmission mount. More than I expected but much cheaper than installing NEW factory headers. Very satisfied! They said I should get another 25-30k miles out of this repair.
cheers

 

Outstanding, thanks for the update.

 

2.5y update: after driving only 19,000 miles since my post (repair) above, the headers CRACKED AGAIN! - this time just the right side at the collection points. I'm quite livid that these headers keep breaking every 2y. Ferrari told me they only warranty "new" headers for 2 years. #FML
I told the dealership, so basically you are saying i'll have to replace my "headers" every 2y for as long as I own my car? what a joke... there are no after market options either!!!

 

I replaced the cracked headers on my California with the Topspeed. The only issue I had was the holes between the air injection channel and the exhaust pipes was missing. The machinist at my dad’s work had no issues drilling the small holes.

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These are the holes that need drilled
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oh wow - well my guy told me the "topspeed" headers were 1" too long - he showed me pics? he said they wouldn't fit - also to your point they didn't have the right holes for CA smog. Either way i'm going to try to "refurbish" these headers, and if not i'll buy a set from scuderiaparts.

thx!

 

Top speed headers are hit and miss. Apparently the f430 ones fit alright, but the 360 ones are atrocious. Each flange was way off and none of the holes lined up. I easily spent more time reworking them than they did making them.

I had them sent from the company to Jet Hot to be coated. When they showed up at my house with unbelievably bad fitment, I called the company and he said I could ship them back for a different pair, but was on my own with the coating which was $700.

A lot of people have issues with them, to the point that there is no way the owner isn't aware of the problems. When called out on them he pulls the victim card. It's a shame.

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I already dealt with that BS! ~ if I need a new pair, Scuderiaparts had a good price!

 

Hi how’d ya with this item ? As I’ve got cracked headers too 2011 Cali … fit all good ? How’s noise etc ? Rich

 

No! dont buy any after market from anyone - none of them fit right. I ended up getting them "repaired" welded by Bobileff in 2022. They lasted about 2y, they CRACKED again last summer and this time "Ferrari of San Diego" re-welded them again for $2500. This time I got a 2-year warranty (no warranty from bobileff). These damn things always break at the collection tubes.

It really pisses me off but I've come to the conclusion that if you daily drive this car (like me) that I have to budget $4000 for header repairs every 2.5 years as long as I own this car =( I thought Ferrari fixed this **** after the 360 and 430 disaster headers. Apparently not.... good thing though if these crack you dont risk enginge damage (pre cat getting sucked back in) due to the front engine design vs mid-engine on the prior cars

 

also ~ when they removed them BOTH sides were clogged with carbon. the 458 and this car have a CARBON problem - they had to clean out all the inner tubes of the headers for the secondary air pipes ~ this is critical for SMOG otherwise you will fail. I got the "Carbon" cleaning done both times as well when the header cracks were repaired (no extra $)