DirtDog
New member
So I've had my OBX headers on for about 6k miles now. Or 3 months. So far here's my list of problems. Pics and more details at the bottom.
1) included gaskets for mounting to the heads...sucked. rear one started leaking about 500 miles in. Bout new AC delco gaskets....no more leak there.
2) next big issue...the cross over fitment cleared my ls2 TB and ls1 IM fine but lacked clearing the metal coolant lines. Pics of the 10 hours of fun that caused me.
3) the band clamps included sucked balls. I have new good ones just haven't installed yet cause turbo lol. I have to retighten the ones included about once a month...and I do mean tighten the $hit out of them.
4) flex piece on cross over....cheapest wavy craps they could find. Also have a replacement for that....but again....my turbo manifolds are being made.
5) downpipe....is so close to some of the brake/PS lines that I'm worried it's going to eventually cause damage to them. If I wasn't about to pull the engine to drop the new engine in I'd do something about it.
6) collector on both front and back headers suck. I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually crack. Welds are poor quality, and over all not as good as DT headers, which are good but could also use a tad of redesigning.
Installing the headers wasn't bad at all. Took me 5 hours and I was going super slow and smoke brakes a lot lol. Only thing I couldn't figure out the transmission dip stick so I cut the bracket that the bolt goes through for the dipstick....O well it went in.
Besides having to remove headers again to replace gaskets and such it wasn't bad.
One more negative I just remembered. WTF were they thing when they designed the front header to where it joins the cross over. I mean damn. The bolts included were so long I had to put 5 thick washers in so I could actually tighten them down. When tightening the bolt would hit the header pipe so you couldn't tighten it down and had a big exhaust leak.
O and yet another....no o2 sensor extension was included. I had to cut the wire harness and solder in an extension to hook the o2 sensor back up. O well no biggie.
Now I guess I'll include some pics.
Here's the coolant disaster....would not wish the work I had to do on anyone lol.
You can barely tell...but that hole when system was pressurized would spray a constant stream of coolant out.
Here the end of the screen driver u can see where it was hitting the band clamp. Tried rotating the clamp....still would of been touching it.
This pic shows no more factory coolant lines over the top of the engine.
I ended up making my own custom ran lines.
Yes I know...I have extra hose clamps on there. I was to lazy to remove them.
Front header with no coolant lines running over it.
And the big way over weight bracket that held the metal coolant lines in place. Really cleaned up the engine bay removing it.
Here u can see the cross over and front header.
Here's what I did at the bottom of the down pipe and my wideband o2 sensor
Some uninstalled pics.
Anyone hungry.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
1) included gaskets for mounting to the heads...sucked. rear one started leaking about 500 miles in. Bout new AC delco gaskets....no more leak there.
2) next big issue...the cross over fitment cleared my ls2 TB and ls1 IM fine but lacked clearing the metal coolant lines. Pics of the 10 hours of fun that caused me.
3) the band clamps included sucked balls. I have new good ones just haven't installed yet cause turbo lol. I have to retighten the ones included about once a month...and I do mean tighten the $hit out of them.
4) flex piece on cross over....cheapest wavy craps they could find. Also have a replacement for that....but again....my turbo manifolds are being made.
5) downpipe....is so close to some of the brake/PS lines that I'm worried it's going to eventually cause damage to them. If I wasn't about to pull the engine to drop the new engine in I'd do something about it.
6) collector on both front and back headers suck. I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually crack. Welds are poor quality, and over all not as good as DT headers, which are good but could also use a tad of redesigning.
Installing the headers wasn't bad at all. Took me 5 hours and I was going super slow and smoke brakes a lot lol. Only thing I couldn't figure out the transmission dip stick so I cut the bracket that the bolt goes through for the dipstick....O well it went in.
Besides having to remove headers again to replace gaskets and such it wasn't bad.
One more negative I just remembered. WTF were they thing when they designed the front header to where it joins the cross over. I mean damn. The bolts included were so long I had to put 5 thick washers in so I could actually tighten them down. When tightening the bolt would hit the header pipe so you couldn't tighten it down and had a big exhaust leak.
O and yet another....no o2 sensor extension was included. I had to cut the wire harness and solder in an extension to hook the o2 sensor back up. O well no biggie.
Now I guess I'll include some pics.
Here's the coolant disaster....would not wish the work I had to do on anyone lol.
You can barely tell...but that hole when system was pressurized would spray a constant stream of coolant out.
Here the end of the screen driver u can see where it was hitting the band clamp. Tried rotating the clamp....still would of been touching it.
This pic shows no more factory coolant lines over the top of the engine.
I ended up making my own custom ran lines.
Yes I know...I have extra hose clamps on there. I was to lazy to remove them.
Front header with no coolant lines running over it.
And the big way over weight bracket that held the metal coolant lines in place. Really cleaned up the engine bay removing it.
Here u can see the cross over and front header.
Here's what I did at the bottom of the down pipe and my wideband o2 sensor
Some uninstalled pics.
Anyone hungry.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
