When did your early 355 need valve guides and headers

Guides and valves can be had cheaper, not to mention better quality than OEM.

 

I heard that too. Some guy in a mud hut in Indiana makes them.

 

That looks like the left-hand header. Is the right-hand bad too? Do you run with the 4 cats. installed normally?

 

Not sure if they were both bad but since one of them was bad we're replacing both. I still run the four cats but have Hyperflo's instead of factory cats.

I'm concerned with what I'm hearing on the QV's and have heard of cracking problems with the Fabspeed's. Outside of Tubi headers, are there any other viable options?

 

I think Stebro also make headers for the 355 but you'll find plenty of stories about them too (not 355 headers specifically but.....)

For me, unshielded QV re-builds would be a nice option. You could see, via photos, exactly what you were getting before you made the "swap" and would always be able to monitor their condition once installed. Of course you still would have to go the ceramic coating route and install some good heat shields here and there.

 

'96, 24,000 miles, with Challenge grill, No problems and does not burn oil.

 

Mud hut? There is no mud in this frozen tundra. Igloo maybe.....supposed to get maybe up to 12 inches of snow this weekend....

 

BTW- I'm getting a list together for your partner in crime.....looks like it's gonna be a long list too.

 

Hey Monte, consider Fabspeed headers, ceramic coated. Price is fair, looks great, and with the coating keeps heat in pretty well...

 

It's what I went with. So far so good.

 

I inspected a 95 355 recently and ...

Compression was 120-140 ish across all 8 cylinders. I was expecting 190-210psi
Leakdown was 2% on 1 cylinder, and 40%-60% on the other 7. 5-10% was my hope.

my conclusion is:

1. the car has been driven with bad valve guides for a while, which has resulted in pretty severe leak down problems.
2. A valve job is now absolutely required, but ...
3. Very likely that some of the valves will have to be replaced because they have been damaged by walking around so much
4. Some of the valve seats will need replacement as well
5. Some of the cylinder/line/piston sets will need replacement.

Is that too conservative a conclusion, or a may be just valveguides alone will do ?

40 valve guides, 8 valves, 8 valves seats, 1 or 2 cylinder sets ... , gaskets = $5,000 in parts?