Acceptable gap on headers and manufacturing standards?

Stainless is very soft, so once bolted it will sit flush.

 

Doesn't a metal gasket go between the header flange and the exhaust port of the cylinder head?

 

I would have the inside welded to fill the gap for sure the quality is very disappointing I think it will leak because the bent is the wrong way

 

Are they "made in China" ?! or in an other 3th world country for cheap.

 

Hey OP,

Sorry to hear you are having some fitment concerns, I took a look into these to verify they were smoke-tested before departure and can confirm they passed without issue.

Regarding the gap on the flange, once the gasket is in place and it is bolted down, you should not have any issues whatsoever. If for any reason more concerns arise, please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] and we will do what we can to assist!

 

You get what you pay for. There is a reason the Fabspeed headers are so cheap when compared to quality brands like Capristo and Tubi. You haven't even tried to bolt them on yet. Wait until you see what the rest of the fitment issues are like.

This is one of the reasons why I will never buy or recommend Fabspeed products

 

I have no experience with Fabspeed products, but regarding headers in general: of course it it would be better if the flanges were 100% flat.

BUT - people vastly under estimate the amount of mechanical clamping force generated by the fasteners.

8mm bolts, when torqued to a fairly low setting, can produce over 1,000 lbs of clamping force. And each branch of the headers has 2 fasteners, so over 2,000 lbs of clamping force. In my experience this is more than enough to close up gaps and get a good seal.

 

That is complete garbage. It would have been so easy for the welder to build them correctly. The flange should have been bolted down flat in a jig, then the tubes welded on and let to cool. Maybe annealed afterward.

I don’t know if the recommendations above will work, I wouldn’t chance it. Nothing should be “pulled into place with the fasteners.”

Return them for a refund, they are not right.

 

Fabspeed made some really good stuff for Porsche back some 20 years ago. Was once a fantastic product. Now? I'm sorry, they are in the junk category. They will not issue you a refund. They take them back and "fix" them. Expect minimum 4 weeks for the "fix". Been through this too many times now.

 

The flanges of such a manifold always have to be pulled into place to a certain extend. It is simply not possible to manufacture a component without any deviations from its nominal geometry.

Thus the obvious question is "which deviations are acceptable?" - so exactly the question that @2ndGen asked.

The answer to that question is typically determined during the design process and documented in the technical drawings via GD&T. It is safe to assume that Ferrari have diligently done this for their exhaust manifold, but I doubt that they will share the tolerance information for the manifold flanges with us anytime soon.

I guess fabspeed should be able to answer this question, if they did perform the most basic engineering tasks. To be honest, I'm somewhat surprised that they did not reply along the lines of "Acceptable gap width is x.xx millimeters. Please let us know if yours exceeds that so we can fix/replace it".

 

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What will happen to the bare collar. After a few months of heat and cold, this metal will simply burn up. And there is already visible corrosion even when the header is not even installed.

 

You've got what you pay for, and one cannot ask for the same level of refinment when not paying a premium that is roughly 5 hours less of labour cost.

Let's be honest, aside from these tolerances, the product looks reasonably well made (for the price). (I would personnaly prefer thinner material , with precise soldering and a less shinny finish.)

Soldering seems to be performed from the "outside" so it's hard to have a smooth junction on the inside. Given the huge blob of solder I doubt this could fail. Some grinding could make it marginally better.

 

If you are not happy with your purchase either have them repaired by the vendor to address your concerns or return them. Other posters have also called into question this vendor's product quality. Do not install them and "hope for the best."

 

Deeper pocket owners tend to be charged more but to be fair limited production numbers do increase costs. Nonetheless, I suspect most is due to "Ferrari tax."