Just gotta vent....I spent large $$$ to buy what is supposed to be one of the best headers on the market. Got off work early today so I could get the headers and cat'd x-pipe installed for a planned run down the coast tomorrow. I spent about 4 hours on the install, also putting in a fresh set of NGKs and a new set of Taylor wires, tweaked the tune via HP Tuners and was rewarded with an ugly exhaust leak on the driver's side when I fired the car. It didn't take long to find the problem. You can guess who makes the headers and you can also guess along with me about whatever happened to quality control! Now the car is up on jackstands for the next week or more awaiting a replacement set of headers from the vendor. ARGH!!!!

 

Looks like your straight edge is bowed out. Just kidding! Sorry it didn't work out and your plans are nixed for a week. Believe me, I know better than anyone when things don't go the way they're suppose to. Hope the new one comes faster than it suppose to.

 

Who's headers? Good lesson learned here is to check the flanges for poor machining before installation. Hopefully your information will help others.

 

KOOKS SET .... SEEN THAT BEFORE...

 

For the money those cost that is simply unacceptable. My Corvette was up on jack stands for three weeks sorting out a problem so I know how frustrating that is. They should compensate you for your time.

San

 

What makes you say Kook's. We have installed allot of Kooks and have yet to have a leak and especially something wrong with flange.
They look like they are a coated set, has the flange been ground right there? Where did you purchase them from and why do you have to wait a week?

 

Personally, I would slap another gasket in there (2 total on that side) and call it a day.

 

There are at least three top line headers. So as long as you don't name names, then people will assume that it's all three. When you said best, I assumed they were LG's, but I really can't tell by looking at the photos. The poster may be delusional and think that Kooks or ARH's are the best.

 

Sorry to hear about your problem, my buddy had the same problem with a set he purchased for his "V". Luckily, we did a QC check first, and just sent them back.
Hopefully they will make it right with another set.

 

Please share the logic in not naming names? I named names about my American Racing header issues. Its not lik you get banned for a factual experience. This is counter productive.

 

that sucks hopefully they fix it and then some for your troubles.

 

says kooks headers on his profile....I love my ARH set up

 

The point of my "rant" last night was more to hammer the buy "Made in America" label more than anything else. Yes these are "Made in America" headers that go out the door for 2x the price of the overseas knockoffs. Yes this company has been in business for many years and I'm sure they have turned out a zillion sets of top notch product. If they have any expectation that those of us who are willing to buy their product because of superior American workmanship and quality then they need to belly up to the bar and produce that superior product every single time. Quality escapes in this business are not acceptable.

The delay....these are JetHot coated headers and what is typical of any vendor is when an order is placed they get drop shipped from the manufacturer to the coater and then direct to the consumer from the coater. Rarely is any significant (if any at all) inventory setting on the shelves. This is the case with my headers. I talked with the vendor late Friday afternoon but the best he can do is get a set of headers in the flow Monday. This means two days to get to the coater, ? days at the coater and then another 3-5 days with FEDEX....realistically I'm probably looking at 10 days. The vendor is giving me his best effort but it still "sucks to be me".

Bad on me that I didn't cross-check the manufacturer's workmanship before installing these. I simply didn't think I needed to! You can bet the next set will get the full "QC" check!

No need for me to name names beyond "Made in America"

 

If this was 1975 and these were $59.00 Hedman headers that is exactly what I would have done. This is a $1,700 header/mid pipe combo...not willing to shadetree it.

...come to think of it I believe that is what I did in 1975....on my Weber carb'd, cam'd Ford Pinto! If I recall correctly the chosen vendor at the time was JC Whitney! That car could whup just about any Chevy Vega on the road at the time...4 cylinder that is!

 

Perhaps it was dropped in shipping or at the coater. I would think that the assembly process would be in close tolerance fixtures and it would not have fit in the fixture if it was bent like that. Just a thought.

 

I'd like to agree but both a visual inspection and my micrometer tell me otherwise. I've had two other sets of highly experienced hobbyist eyes on these headers and they draw the same conclusion. The flange thickness in that area is quite a bit less than the rest of the flange. It appears to be a manufacturing flaw.

Something I haven't previously mentioned and thought I could probably work around is the compression joint on the other header is mildly deformed as if it were dropped on its head. That I could possibly attribute to shipping.

 

Re: The headers, no friggen way that should have not been caught by QC. You would think that that part of the header would have the most "eyes" on it.

Good luck with the next set, I hope they get turned around quickly and perfectly for you.

 

I just bought a set of Kooks headers and noticed the flange wasn't perfectly straight but it was pretty close. Nothing like what yours is. Mine seem to have fit and sealed fine thank goodness and I'm happy with them. I even used the Kooks supplied gaskets since they are using Percy's gaskets now.

That said, and the reason for my post, is that I've been told with Kooks' recent move they have had to hire a lot of new fabricators. They still have some of the original crew but I've been told that they are having to train new guys and have gotten behind on getting stock out the door. I had to wait almost 4 weeks for my catted x-pipe to ship due to this problem.

Overall I'm fairly satisfied with my set but I'm not quite confident that what I got is worth the $1600 I paid including Jet Hot coating. I bought my Kooks because I like to think you get what you pay for. So I'm going to assume that if I had bought a cheap set of headers that they would have been total junk. That'll make me feel good about the purchase.

 

Your thoughts are pretty much in line with mine. As a side note and due to the fact I really wanted to drive this car today, I got up very early this morning and stacked the pair of "included" gaskets in there and I'm running with no leak at the moment. That doesn't negate my position that these headers are not up to the quality they should be and I won't let the manufacturer off the hook to deliver a quality product but for this weekend, I'm rolling!

 

For the price of those things, there is no excuse for that..