hi.. just curious which it is.. sorry its not the best picture.. but if you look closely you can see lines I made with my finger on the intake.. I am running stock headers.. but to my knowledge they are ok.. now i understand a sign of header failure is seeing fiberglass insulation around the engine bay.. ive never seen a picture of this visual signal on another 355.. but I assume it would be chunkier fiberglass shards.. this is more of a fine dust/film.. but it happens after every drive.. I can wipe it down.. go for a leisurely cruise.. and I will see this dust again after. I do have a challenge grill.. and do recall reading somewhere.. that cars equipped with challenge grills will tend to see more road dust inside the engine compartment etc.. im pretty sure its just road dust.. but just wanted to get feedback anyways. finally warming up here in Montreal.. been out with the 355 several days in a row.. thanks Tony. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Tony, I've read that putting a little oil or grease on the top of the oil filter is a good trick to try and grab some of that leak from the headers and a good way to test it. You should try that.
hi.. thanks.. ya I read that too.. I know what fiberglass is.. but need some type of visual reference in regards to what would blowing out of the headers.. im thinking of shreds or shards of fiberglass.. which would be plane obvious when you see it.. what im seeing is more like dust.. nonetheless after wipe down, its there again after the next drive.. so in other words.. can the fiberglass be a dust like this.. or is it more chunky/shred pieces..
There are two types of insulation used in the header. One that is foam and powdery used for packing into the spaces around the tubes and one that is stringy used to keep the powdery in place. It is white in color and looks like fiberglass. It does not look like brown dust. Your picture is ... very fuzzy, so nothing can be said.
hi.. thanks for the input.. here is a better picture.. those are my finger marks.. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Pretty sure that's road dust. When my header went the insulation looked somewhat like dried paper pulp.
ok thanks. just wanted to be able to discount it as insulation. it seems it would be quite obvious if/when this woud happen. it would be great I someone had a picture with the insulation blowing in.
That looks like road dust...I worried about that when I first drove my car. I did have a header fail recently and it was easy to hear.
You're wasting your time looking at dirt. Take the car to be smoke tested by someone with an evap system tester. It will tell you right away if there's a problem. It's part of my annual service on all cars subject to header failures. If there's a leak, you'll see it. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Header dust is distinct. Mine failed at 17, 000 miles, driver's side. It looks like greyish hair fibers....alllllll over the place. You will know it when you see it. Road dust is microscopic....header dust looks like fibers or TINY hairs. A better description: Go put fiberglass in a blender for 60 seconds. That's what it looks like. I knew right away. Replaced with Nouvalari 4-2-1, which took 30 days to receive, a week to ceramic coat, and 5 more days to install considering scheduling a day to have it done. All things to consider.
Smoke test is the ticket. As ready321now said, the header material is like hairs. Actually more like fiberglass strands. Put a small dob of grease on the engine bay wall, or on the top of the oil filter, and drive for a bit. These hairs will stick to the grease and then you'll know. Did I mention the smoke tester is better?
