Today my package from the US arrived. It's my subaru header manifold. With the low dollar some things are surprisingly cheap to buy from the states. To put it in perspective, new including shipping from the US this thing is cheaper then a secondhand from the Netherlands (and I'm talking about the same quality) and buying stainless bends and making it myself would have been twice as much.... Weird.
Anyway, I'm very busy at the moment with drawing stuff butt I just had to put this thing together and fit it on my engine to see how it looks. At this moment you might think I'm very happy with this thing and I am..... but. The thing is a piece of crap. Sold as stainless steel, the flanges are ordinary steel. The bends are horribly put together and some welds aren't even finished. If I would have bought this thing to put it on my car just like that I would have send it back without a second thought. But I am not going to put it on my car like that. I'm going to cut it up and re-weld it.
Why you ask? Well, as you can see on the last picture the thing sticks way out (or in this case up, because the engine is upside down) and on a subaru that wouldn't be a problem but on my bug it is. The entire manifold has to be as low as the lowest pipe in the up side down pic. Also I want the pipes to be shorter so I'm going to wrap the pipes the other way around. (I'll make a photoshop soon to give you an idea) And headers like that just don't exist...or at least not for little money. :D So I bought this header just for the bends (like I said, this is cheaper then buying stainless bends and weld it myself) I'll buy a flange for the turbo from stainless (it comes with a downpipe flange that I need) so in the end just the head flanges are steel which I'm not happy with. The rest is ok.
So next up is buying/making a shortened oil pan and buying a tig welder (I'm so good in giving myself excuses to buy machinery) so I can rebuild the headers. I already know it's going to be a drama but.... You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs or some wise remark like that.
Anyway, I'm very busy at the moment with drawing stuff butt I just had to put this thing together and fit it on my engine to see how it looks. At this moment you might think I'm very happy with this thing and I am..... but. The thing is a piece of crap. Sold as stainless steel, the flanges are ordinary steel. The bends are horribly put together and some welds aren't even finished. If I would have bought this thing to put it on my car just like that I would have send it back without a second thought. But I am not going to put it on my car like that. I'm going to cut it up and re-weld it.
Why you ask? Well, as you can see on the last picture the thing sticks way out (or in this case up, because the engine is upside down) and on a subaru that wouldn't be a problem but on my bug it is. The entire manifold has to be as low as the lowest pipe in the up side down pic. Also I want the pipes to be shorter so I'm going to wrap the pipes the other way around. (I'll make a photoshop soon to give you an idea) And headers like that just don't exist...or at least not for little money. :D So I bought this header just for the bends (like I said, this is cheaper then buying stainless bends and weld it myself) I'll buy a flange for the turbo from stainless (it comes with a downpipe flange that I need) so in the end just the head flanges are steel which I'm not happy with. The rest is ok.
So next up is buying/making a shortened oil pan and buying a tig welder (I'm so good in giving myself excuses to buy machinery) so I can rebuild the headers. I already know it's going to be a drama but.... You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs or some wise remark like that.
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