Are Ebay Headers Any Good?
- Thread starter mattao313
- Start date
They suck.
I was in the same spot as you 6 months ago, and I went ahead and ordered the $100 ebay headers. I mocked them up to the head and found that the flange was not even close to straight, visibly bent and I took pictures that I can share if needed. I didn't tighten them further out of fear that it would strip the threads or worse on the heads.
I sent them back and got refunded but I lost the money for return shipping. So in the end it was a waste of my time and spent a few bucks to ship them back. Instead bought the Ford racing headers off LMR for a little over $200 and they are WELL built.
flstang65
10 Year Member
Bought a set of cheap Ebay headers for my Cougar years ago when the rep about them hadn't really gotten around yet and I didn't know any better. SSAutochrome I believe was the company. I'm sure they're looooong out of business now, or at the very least selling under a different name. Absolute junk....Didn't line up, piss poor welds, lousy chrome job....even had silver paint around the welds where they didn't reach them with the chrome plating. I got lucky and sold them locally at only a small loss. Never again.
People are always swapping out their quality shorties for longtubes. Go to your next Mustang swap meet with a $50 bill and I guarantee you'll be able to walk away with a good set of used BBK headers.
Kurt
Kurt
gearheadboy
15 Year Member
Ok I'll play. I bought a nice looking stainless set of shorties on Ebay last year. Thick flanges, nice welds, good gaskets, good hardware. Bolted right up on the drivers side. Passenger side bolted right up to the head but would not seal at the H-pipe. I tried everything. One side, then the other. Persuasion, etc, etc. I emailed the seller. They will fit. I finally tool them off and laid the passenger header beside the old worn out leaking header I was replacing. The flange was welded on the new header WAY angled wrong. I was able to get a refund after I left bad feedback and sent them back. DON'T DO IT. I did. I learned. So after that with the idea of CHEAP still in my dumb thick skull I bought chrome BBK shorties that fit like a dream. The car has not seen the road all but for a few test runs and a year later they are so ugly that they scared my dog. When I finally find the urge to buy again they will be GOOD COATED headers.
Wrap em. It'll make the look a lot better, reduce underhood temps a little and actually might help you squeak out a couple of horsepower to boot. What have you got to lose?
gearheadboy
15 Year Member
I thought that EXACTLY. However I figured if I did I would just be playing into the whole stupid choices game. Maybe I should just follow it though to completion and wrap them. Maybe then the story will have come full circle.
Well....I'm looking at it this way. You didn't spend a lot of money on them, you hate the look of them and by the sounds of it plan on replacing them sometime in the future.....what have you got to lose?
I've used this wrap in the past on snowmobile exhaust systems and it looks and works great. Keep under hood head down, and warmed up the pipes sooner for a noticeable improvement in performance.
http://www.designengineering.com/ca...wrap-kits/titanium-exhaust-wrap-lr-technology
From a performance standpoint, wrapping your pipes probably works better than ceramic coating. I've had several ceramic coated exhaust systems in the past and have never really noticed a drastic temperature drop with them using an infra red heat gun. One thing the ceramic does have going for it though, is that it holds it's lustre for years.....but that's a lot of money to spend on pretty headers you'll hardly see.
If it makes you feel any better, I'll be wrapping my ceramic coated BBK long tubes this summer with that same wrap. If nothing else, it should help keep my starter alive.
David Pepiton
Active Member
I have a set I bought only for display in my garage as wall art they look great but upon close inspection they are complete junk and will never seal properly. I ended up with a set of bbk unequal length headers since hp wise there was little difference from equal length considering the pain in the back side equal lengths are to work around.
I learned a long time ago not to mod a car with Ebay parts.
By that I mean no-name Ebay parts, not brand name stuff sold by a vendor on Ebay
By that I mean no-name Ebay parts, not brand name stuff sold by a vendor on Ebay
