hey. i was wondering whyy so many sem to say their headers crack and break apart. i am interested in buying a set, and i would like to know the circumstances these headers(turbo manifolds) are being used in. many on here seem to think that the header should hold the weight of the turbo, i have always thought that the weight should not be solely supported by the header. can anyone clarify this? i am not defending the purchase of ssauto goods and understand they have a bad rap for poor quality, but i think their is some miss information on here and people doing a turbo build may not be aware of this important step. i know my turbos weigh alot, and i wouldnt want my heads to be the only thing holding my turbos up.

 

I have read another post form someone that supposedly purchased a set and they said that only the pipes are stainless, the flanges are mild steel so I don't know if that would be a problem or not.

 

I cant tell you if they would be a problem or not because I have never used them, I made my own. I do know that they are probably welded in taiwain or china by little kids on an assembly line, thats what I have heard. My advice, buy american made. The only thing I can tell you is if you decide to buy them, it wont hurt to have them tig welded and reinforced around the flanges just as insurance. I used thick tubing block huggers and reinforced the hell out of them. Three months of hard street abuse and still fine.

Just reinforce them just in case.








Ohh, and the heads are the only thing that support the turbos and headers. I have never seen anyone really make a braket to attach to intake.
Very important, Just make sure you use a flex pipe on the down pipe to allow movement and weld a bracket supporting the weight of the Y- pipe. This is how I built mine and a friend built his and his is 2 years old with no cracks or leaks.
Hope that helps.

 

That's actually a good thing, stainless expands at about 2x the rate that mild steel does, so that keeps the flanges from moving around much and staying sealed.

A lot of the better headers do that.

Judging from the failures that I've seen with their stuff, I'd guess that most of the problem is either whatever grade of stainless they actually use or that they aren't properly sheilded/backgassed when they're welded.

 

Yeah, the primary tubing is usually too thin to use in turbo applications, and they seem to fail at the hard spots right near the welds. Add the weight of the turbo itself and the extreme heat, not to mention the twisting imparted on them from the downpipe when the engine rocks, and they just aren't up to the task.

I seen a picture of an SSAC manifold that the turbione flange broke off of while driving, and the turbo fell off! It was hanging there by the oil lines and compressor side plumbing.