i just wanted to let people know i have a crack on one of my welds where the one of the runners meets the collector. i don't know if it was from it being so cold up here and the header getting so hot, aggressive driving or maybe just a bad weld. but either way just letting people know they might want to take a look at the header if they own one. i'm going to reweld it sometime this week. best of luck and hopefully i'm the only one this happens to

 

wow thats no bueno
how did you find out it cracked

 

i was letting the car warm up when a customer asked to take a look at the header. i poped the hood and noticed a little bit of exhaust gas was leaking out. and then the next day it started sounding like a can of ____ed off bees under my hood when i started the car up in the morning

 

Give them a call... maybe they'll help you out... All A/M headers are prone to cracking...

 

You need to put a section of flex pipe into your exhaust, the closer to the header the better. That should stop the cracking. Your engine twists from engine torque, but your exhaust doesn't. That's alot of stress put on the primaries at the header flange. Flex pipe will allow the header to move with the engine, releaving all of the stress off of the welds.
All the best header designs have a section of flex pipe built in around the collector, its a shame that none of the headers offered for our car do.

 

Best thing since sliced bread. This is just an example....different sizes available.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-5-x...22291080QQrdZ1

 

Would an engine dampner prevent this from happening?

 

will the flex pipe still help even if i put it on after the S pipe?

 

a damper would probably help quite a bit from what ive been seeing

 

i'm not buying a damper but i preordered my zpi motormounts last week

 

^ You'll be good to go... Mounts are even better....

But, watch out for vibration to your body...

 

yeah, i'm not too worried about the vibrations, i don't get to drive my car enough that it makes much of a difference. when i have it out it's because i want to have fun in it

 

It wouldn't eliminate it, it would just delay the inevitable. Dampeners don't completely elimate the torquing, especially since they wear out. Eventually it would still crack. How long before it cracks? That's anyone's guess. Only a few months or several years, hard to tell, but I would imagine getting a small length of flex pipe would be cheaper than getting an engine damperer AND a header repair bill. It should be fairly cheap to get a flex joint installed where the S-pipe meets the mid pipe. That would probably be close enough to the header, and you wouldn't have to hack up a nice header or stainless s-pipe. Also there would be lower labor charges, as that would be easier to do. Idealy though you would want to put the flex joint between the header and s-pipe, but the S-pipe would have to be hacked up.

 

with experience from my rsx and the DC race header that has a flex pipe. the best solution to preven tcracking is motor mounts or damper. even with a flex pipe, its still vulnerable to cracking. engine movement is limited with motor mounts/damper.

also, having a damper benefits shifting and eliminates wheel hop also. the only bad thing is interior vibs.

 

the zpi mounts are ready for pre-order already? i was planning on it but i was never told where to pre-order or anything....then again ive been on vacation this past week and didnt have access to internet so that didnt help

 

yup, they are expecting to ship mid feb, they said maybe sooner but mid feb to be safe

 

where did u pre-order them from? and do u know whether or not these are gonna be a DIY type thing or not?

 

i called zpi and ordered them over the phone. and it can be a diy if you have a general idea of what you're doing

 

haha well considering ive never changed out motor mounts i dont really have much of a "general idea" so i guess id be taking this somewhere to get done...unless someone makes a write up to go by, then ill do it that way.

 

call up sean at power rev racing. he is in miami, great guy and knows his ____. he has a jdm h22 swapped into an older civic hatch. 954-326-0497 http://www.powerrevracing.com/ when my friend was going to school in orlando he did the mounts for his SI.