355/360 exhaust manifolds stats

If I ask my european 355 buddys who are not chatting here, they tell me:
Less trouble with older 355 (2.7), more cracks at 5.2 manifolds.
Passenger side sooner.
My own 2.7 is still stock. Manifolds seem to last. They will reach the 50.000 km next year. (knock on wood)
For a another 355 (a project 355 5.2 which was purchased with one cracked manifold) I recently ordered as set NAPerformance headers from Kevin.
Hope this is the best solution to fix it and to add some value to it.
Note: five 360 with cracked headers. Can we expect more?

cinque

 

Haven't thought about this thread in a while. Just some thoughts that I comeup with through this board and some of my personal findings. It would appear that every 355 should have it's factory headers changed to an aftermarket version(such as NAPerformance). Diffenently do not use the factory part. On my 355 I removed both of mine and then removed the shielding to inspect the tubes. My headers had about 10,000 miles on them at the time and were the original ones. My RH header tubes had holes in them but, the left side was OK, some of its tubes were slightly deformed but nothing drastic. What I did at the time(because there weren't any aftermarket headers at the time except tubi and they were way to expensive hell, I could have had some custom build a set for less than that) was to buy a new factory RH unit and had both ceramic coated without putting the shielding back on. I thought at the time that the major cause of header failure was maybe to heat being held in because of the shielding(now I think it's that and crap materials). My cars exhaust is an open type factory Challenge system with no cats and no bypass valve. My thoughts were with the ceramic coating that if the tubes or metal moved around at all I would be able to tell because the coating would crack or fall off. ie; without the shielding I can watch my headers over time. after 7000 miles everything is still fine. I will change to an aftermarket part sometime down the road, it is hard to spend the money right now when everthing seems to be OK. Regards, vern

 

Here's a couple of pictures of 355 manifolds that have melted which you all may be interested to see.

This is as you all know a very common problem, the primary pipes on these manifolds run so hot that they eventually melt.

Some people have said that having the heat shielding on is a cause of this and that they run better with out it, this is TOTALLY wrong the manifold pipes routinely run red hot so need to have heat shielding around them to protect the engine bay. You wouldn't want to have red hot pipes exposed in your engine bay.

Trying not to advertise QuickSilver too much but their method of re-building the manifolds with thicker stainless steel of a superior alloy has proved to be very successful, with over 200 re-builds done since the 355 was released with no failures.

 

Shame on Ferrari to continue to sell the same bull**** part!!!!!!!

 

That is why you have them ceramic coated. I have had my sheilds off for 3 yrs and 10k miles and have had no problems and I watch things very closely. So you are not TOTALLY correct

 

Vern, I think his point is not that removing the heat shields can prevent the tubes from failing (it does seem to help), but that you are trading one problem for another....which is you are now letting all that additional heat in the engine compartment. All the wiring, plastic and rubber pieces will take an additional toll from that heat.

 

Hey I have the rebuilds from QV London, which I think contracts out to QS....but come on, two posts, and both promoting QS...you don't work for them do you?

 

That is my point Dave, that the ceramic coating stops that problem the coating acts as an insulator and keeps the heat inside the tubes and then out through the exhaust system. You would especially want to put the coating on the inside of the header tubes. I have watched my car very closely and have not had any problems in 10k. I did insulate my break lines but even with the sheilds I think this should be done and besides the open tubes look cool, hahaha. Regards, Vern

 

Yes i do work for QS, but was not trying to make this thread about us i simply thought you guys might be interested to see what the pipes look like once the manifolds have been taken apart.

You are very right to have your manifolds coated which is an alternative to keeping the original casing and as you said obviously works as you've been running you car for 10K with it like that.

This has been a very interesting thread by the way everyone.

 

We've sold quite a few sets, I'm not at work now so I can't tell you the exact amount but I do know it's over 125. I can tell you that only 1 customer has complained about heat, he said that the heat from the manifold was causing his alternator to go out, I told him to send the manifolds back and a full refund would be given. Never heard back from him but if I ever do I will keep you guys updated.

I hear quite a few people who have no experience with ceramic coating claiming that heatshields are superior, but if that's the case how come you don't see any of my customers on here complaining about heat issues? Surely somebody would have said something by now, I've had a total of 1 person which is less than 1% of the amount of manifolds sold complain about the heat issue and suprisingly he didn't want his refund or he would have sent them back by now.

 

my neighbor is a ferrari mechanic and he said that the manifolds are just s**t and they always go bad! His reason is that the 355 just runs really hot in combination with the very thin-walled manifolds. I've been looking for a 355 for about a year now and everytime I think I've found a car I find out something else from my ferrari mechanic neighbor, like the manifold thing. Is there a good aftermarket solution, because it seems insane to me to keep puting the oem manifolds on?

 

My 355 oem manifolds failed at 16 years old with 36,000 klm.

 

Mine failed at 5 years, 15k miles per service/repair records.

 

Mine failed at 13 years with about 24K miles.

 

Cylinder #2's pipe blew out on mine at 32K and 14 years.

 

I changed mine because of the fear instilled in me by my Fchat brothers, not because they failed.

Mine were still good and sold them to a fellow Fchatter who installed them on his car.

 

LHS failure in July 2012 at 22K miles - car is 15 years old. Had it repaired by JP exhausts in England.
Can anyone say for sure that the OEM manifold has never been improved? Are they still made by ANSA? Except for the small problem of meltin (!) it was a great design......

 

Both headers on my '99 exploded at 22k miles in 2006, so it only took about 7-8 years, and that was with test pipes starting around 5k miles.

 

Now, THIS could be interesting no? We are all chasing expensive solutions and the original design with the desirable heat shield and a 4 into 2 onto layout might have been improved?
Maybe a lot of people have OEM headers that have been replaced in the last 8 to 10 years and they have not failed?
Would be great to know where the OEM's are made now........and if we could find out what tube is used.........

 

Just for the record..

Been running hot rods with headers since 75. Never really had one last past 5 years of daily use. Surprised they last as long as they do. Harder you drive the faster they seem to deteriorate.

As I say this I got a leak heheh

 

They were improved late in production. It is quite well known. They are still junk.

 

What I find interesting is that Ansa is pretty widely known as making some of the worst exhaust products on the market for other cars, how do we figure that these are going to be better?