Alex
Nordschleife
- Joined
- 6 Mar 2014
- Messages
- 22,172
As some of you may recollect, ever since I purchased my 996, I had the gaskets between the manifolds and cylinder heads slightly weeping. Wasn't an MOT failure but you could hear it. Also the manifold bolts replicated remains of the Titanic.
So I decided on purchase some shiny new stainless steel ones off eBay and with a voucher code I had came to £106 delivered.
I'd read a few posts about 'eBay headers' and Chinese cr4p, lost horses, etc. and thought - what baloney!, for £100, I'll try my luck and put them to the test.
My original write-up is here: http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=97476
But now I've had them on just over 12 months, I thought I'd do a bit of feedback.
Time: 12 months 10 days
Mileage: 9,133
Location: West Pennines - where it rains, rains, rains, rains & rains (+ 2 weeks on the French Riviera & a long weekend in Wales)
I'll not waffle on about the 'no noticeable difference in power, noticeable difference in much more low end torque & better sound', but more on condition.
I've had no issues with them. Even though they were a bit tricky to mate up with the cats and my mechanic suggesting I may get a slight weeping between the joints, I've had no problems whatsoever. The nice shiny stainless surface finish is no more and they are now starting to replicate the looks of the original manifolds. No cracked welds or any serious signs of degradation around any joints. Replacement stainless steel bolts have some light surface rust on but more oxide dust than rust. I'll be keeping an eye on those as they're the main culprit of depression with regards to manifolds.
Verdict - The old ones needed removing anyway (to fix the weeping) so I had to bite the bullet on Labour and the originals didn't look too clever (one of which got a blow hole created in it whilst removing), so for £106 seemed a no brainer compared to something identical in looks and claims for £570: http://www.design911.co.uk/fu/prod1560/Exhaust-Manifold---Header-Equalength-DesignTek-Porsche-996/
If I was to do it again, yes, exact same route. They may not last a 5th of what the £570 ones do, but at the time (and even now) I couldn't justify spending £570 on an item I can get (that looks identical) for £106, especially when the labour content was so high.
Anyway, just a couple of snaps so you can see for yourselves:
New:
and now after 12 months of rain, salt, snow & sun:
So I decided on purchase some shiny new stainless steel ones off eBay and with a voucher code I had came to £106 delivered.
I'd read a few posts about 'eBay headers' and Chinese cr4p, lost horses, etc. and thought - what baloney!, for £100, I'll try my luck and put them to the test.
My original write-up is here: http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=97476
But now I've had them on just over 12 months, I thought I'd do a bit of feedback.
Time: 12 months 10 days
Mileage: 9,133
Location: West Pennines - where it rains, rains, rains, rains & rains (+ 2 weeks on the French Riviera & a long weekend in Wales)
I'll not waffle on about the 'no noticeable difference in power, noticeable difference in much more low end torque & better sound', but more on condition.
I've had no issues with them. Even though they were a bit tricky to mate up with the cats and my mechanic suggesting I may get a slight weeping between the joints, I've had no problems whatsoever. The nice shiny stainless surface finish is no more and they are now starting to replicate the looks of the original manifolds. No cracked welds or any serious signs of degradation around any joints. Replacement stainless steel bolts have some light surface rust on but more oxide dust than rust. I'll be keeping an eye on those as they're the main culprit of depression with regards to manifolds.
Verdict - The old ones needed removing anyway (to fix the weeping) so I had to bite the bullet on Labour and the originals didn't look too clever (one of which got a blow hole created in it whilst removing), so for £106 seemed a no brainer compared to something identical in looks and claims for £570: http://www.design911.co.uk/fu/prod1560/Exhaust-Manifold---Header-Equalength-DesignTek-Porsche-996/
If I was to do it again, yes, exact same route. They may not last a 5th of what the £570 ones do, but at the time (and even now) I couldn't justify spending £570 on an item I can get (that looks identical) for £106, especially when the labour content was so high.
Anyway, just a couple of snaps so you can see for yourselves:
New:
and now after 12 months of rain, salt, snow & sun:
opcorn:
