Question for 355 owners that have had to replace headers

RH side (oil tank side) replaced at 71K miles 5 months ago after it started spitting a little. Left hand side is still in great shape.

 

If those are indeed original headers it can say the engine, exhaust and cats are running good and not creating too much heat . As far as I know mine are still original manifolds and it runs perfectly. Make sure to do a proper PPI to validate the car......

 

checked mine at 40k and found passenger side to be gone (although had no symptoms like noise / fiberglass blowing)

 

Just at about 30k. There is no question about it at $7000 $10000 for replacement. I paid $9000 about 2 years ago. just at about 30,000 miles.

 

Mine were gone on both sides at 28K. It made an obvious difference in the sound of the car.

All it took was an afternoon in the mountains.

I had the stock convertors and they looked great but they are restrictive. If I had it to do over again I would immediately ditch the stock convertors for hyperflows and X-ost. The decrease in backpressure and mechanical stress offered by these parts can only help the stock headers.

ken

 

Um, seriously, who cares? Get a PPI, if it checks out then buy it and drive it like you stole it, if it breaks fix it, then drive it again.

By the way, had a track day today, right side header is now leaking, guess what ill do about that?

 

+1!!

Errrrrrrrrr fix it??

It may be just the gasket leaking mate?? You might be lucky.

Or can see that it is the header leaking under the heatshield?

 

Not sure yet brother, i can hear it leaking when cold, once it heats up it stops. I will be taking a look the week after next, got a week off so i will rip into it and see whats happening. But your first guess was correct, Fix it! You my friend win a 2pounder Mcd's burger!

 

About 23k miles, Fabspeeds being put in as we speak... Looking forward to having the car be a little more reliable now, and sounding a little better, too?

Orrie

 

Unless they are burnt thru, not sure you could tell if they are good or ready to go bad during a PPI. They are shielded and the only way to see inside is to remove them and cut off the shielding. It is one of those things that is fine until they burn a hole thru and then a problem exists. Fine one day, bad the next, you never know. The aftermarket ones are much better and not that expensive compared to other parts, but I know what you mean when buying a car and having things go wrong a few weeks into ownership...

 

I understand the frustration if something goes wrong shortly after buying a car (search my user name and "F1 neutral" the thread you find will explain why I understand this feeling well) But at the end of the day, if you concern yourself with things that might go wrong you are missing the great experience that is ownership of these cars. With all mechanical things some times problems can occur, IF they do, fix it and move on, I am not trying to be rude by saying this, but the internet has a way of blowing these things out of proportion.

What might be a good option for you is to budget the cost of replacement headers into the price of any prospective car that has not had the headers replaced. This way you can have them done even if they don't need it and can go on your way and enjoy the car for what it is.

 

Spot on. You NEVER know when they are going to go bad.

 

Sweet! Be sure to let us know how you get along brother.

 

Factory exhaust manifolds appear to first go between 17k and 25k miles. Passenger side usually goes first. It is a crap shoot, there are always exceptions to this general rule.

 

Well, I am on my second set of headers. First set went out at about 10k miles. The bad cats had alot to do with those going bad (plugged up and breaking apart into my mufflers, car sounded like a 91 civic!), and they were the older design with problems. The second set are the newer design and have no problems and heat is WAY down after high flow cats.

I dont thinks its uncommon to see these older headers go bad with lower miles on the car. Per the dealer they said ALOT of these go bad from people starting up the car, lettting it get warm and turning it off when the cars were newer.

So the best soultion is DRIVE the DAMN thing and get rid of the OEM cats asap!

just my 2 cents...

 

The difference between the old version and later version exhaust manifolds was only with the air injection rails (or so I am told) the header tube material and thickness remained the same.

 

Of course, why would Ferrari improve upon such a great design......... sarcasm at it's best...

 

Well, the later ones were supposed to be a slight improvement, but not for header tube life, it was to fix the air injection rails that were cracking (I believe at the welds).

 

I agree with you slight improvement on the rails, other than that they didnt change a whole lot. I had Dave Helms show me them both and the older ones were more at a L and the newer ones had better welds and at a different angle if I remember.

Either way they still are a ticking time bomb, not if they go bad when with the OEM headers. But this is not a huge reason not to buy a 355. Most 355 have these issues such as valves, headers, cat sensors, cats, water pumps, etc taken car of at the 1st or 2nd 30k service.

I would NEVER touch any 355 that had not had these issues check out or replaced, or be like myself and have a 12.5k repair bill 1 week after your new toy shows up at your door.

 

Alll these 'expenses' are well worth it.... the 355 is 'that much fun' !!! The only way it would not be worth it is if they needed a new engine every thousand miles...

 

They are only a ticking timebomb if you keep the cats on.

 

+355

This is "the best car in the world.............period"

Look after it and it will look after you