LS1LT1

True, true.





Not always, but very often that is the case, yes.

C7/Z06 Man

As requested, a close up of the collector.

C7/Z06 Man

I bet Mirage wished they had sent a better set if they had them. That center plate between the 4 tubes is on an angle.

If they see this thread, they should refund my purchase price $450 with the $50 shipping for all the trouble/work I have put into them up to this point. I will hold my breath now!

TSLAVette

Wow. they can't make headers and they sure can't drive worth a damn ...

FloydSummerOf68

These are DEFINITELY not the same as the EBAY headers that I use and always talk so highly about for $300 bucks. Not even close.

I'm really sorry to see this, and Mirage is definitely not something that should be bought. That should never happen.

OBX looks like the best bang for the buck header on the market now since the one's I'm running no longer exist as far as I can tell.

VET4LES

Your an outstanding welder. Your welds look fantastic. I'm sure you will be able to handle any obstacle that comes up.

C7/Z06 Man

Thanks for the compliment! In another life I used to train & test (ASME) nuclear welders, etc.

ls3gotcha

ditto

0Jeff @ TPE

OBX started out the same way. Being that they were sooo cheap, members kept buying them, and continued to make tweaks. There were 1 or 2 members that either worked for them, or worked out some sort of arrangement with them, because they pitched OBX in virtually every post they made. It wasnt until the 3rd and 4th revisions came out that they started to install cleaner and cheaper for the member.

Personally, I would rather pay a premium. I would even overpay, before I sent my money to a company that does nothing but continue to send money overseas; which directly relates to the demise of our American economy. Some people call it paying unnecessary corvette tax. I call it keeping it American.

1Corvette

I have three things to say.
1) This thread is proof that a 12 year old in a sweat shop can't weld.
2) What is your labor worth? $100 an hour? If so, the price is going up fast on these headers.
3) You spent a lot of your hard earned money on an expensive sports car. Why would you buy a cheap set of offshore headers?

You can buy a good set of American made headers, run them for two or three years, take them off when you sell the car and get 60-80% of your money back and not have all the hassles to go along with it. Like another poster with Kooks, I am on my third set of ARH with no problems at all. Put them on, retorque the next day after a heat cycle and forget about them until you take them off. Good luck

thatonedude1

Very nice welding skill and I think what you have done will prevent stress cracking and leaks. The possible issue I see from the pictures is that it looks like the inside welds create an obstruction that may obstruct flow, unless it's "hidden" behind the gasket. I think you could get away with grinding (porting) the inside weld nearly down to the original flush surface. More than anything, gasses do not like steps or disturbances in the flow path. Worst case, your only out a few hundred bucks. Good luck with them.

thatonedude1

Follow up. The collector looks awful. The tube edges sticking into the collector will really inhibit flow. Sloppy construction and crappy welds. These headers are likely to experience cracking issues, and probably do not perform very well. Agree with posters....... better to pay for a better designed and well crafted set. Still admire your repair work.

C7/Z06 Man

I ported the flange out and smoothed it down to the "original flange surface" which got rid of the internal welds and made for a smooth transition on that one "finished" header. The reason I placed that 1 & 13/16" gasket (that came with the headers) on the exhaust flange of the finished header was to demonstrate that the exhaust holes in that flange were now as large or larger than 1 & 13/16 of an inch.

Thanks for the suggestions, but this is not my first "rodeo" with blending/porting.

Edit: If you blow up (pic#6) the one "finished" header pic without the gasket on it and look it over closely it appears to still have more material that could be removed but those are actually low areas/spots and/or undercutting for the most part. Those outside repair welds in pic#5 extend beyond the inside undercut areas.

AR Headers

Grandsport, As owner of American Racing Headers I can't thank you enough for sharing your experience with forum members. It's unfortunate but most are too full of themselves to admit their purchase was a complete waste of money, and in your case, time spent making repairs. The single biggest problem is these companies rarely provide any path for customer service when these defects exist. And they do most often exist. You buy them, you own them.

Thankfully most Corvette owners won't settle for anything but quality US made performance parts. In a world where your choices are so limited, it baffles me why anyone would invest their money on Chinese perfomance parts when they really don't have to.

If you ever decide to ditch those headers please give me a call and I'll get you set up with an ARH system. I assure you they will meet or exceed your expectations. Good luck.

Nick

C7/Z06 Man

Your welcome, but as you say I'm just sharing my experience and I still have not done the installation yet.

LS1LT1

I'm curious to see how the fitment when X-pipe meets the collectors goes and also what kind of clearance you'll get at the trans (hopefully it won't clang a little bit against the trans or the center tunnel too badly).
Please let us now, be it good or bad.

C7/Z06 Man

If I have anything to do with it there will be no clanging allowed in the end, because that may set off the knock sensor from what I understand. I will dig this thread up for a final short or long report.

FloydSummerOf68

You definitely don't want any contact anywhere in your setup. Like you said, it'll make your knock sensors go nuts.

LS1LT1

True.
From what I've seen/heard, if they do in fact make some contact the only way to correct it is to heat up and bend/spread the rear part of the Y-pipe/connection pipes (without crimping them of course)...too little and it could hit the trans, too much and it could hit the tunnel/frame rails. But I think it can be done.

C7/Z06 Man

The place I usually buy from did not have 309 in stock so:

1) I went to this large, local, public, welding supplier for the "first time" to buy some ER309L who also runs a training program for various levels of welding; and also runs a "public testing facility" to test anyone willing to pay the fee. The typical test being the state roads test which is a stick (SMAW) plate test (AWS code). I was "shocked" but pleasantly surprised, been at least 12 years or so since I seen this old trainee of mine who left the company there working as an instructor.

He told me that in his estimation they test over a 1000 so called welders a year and only 5 to 10 really know what they are doing. Gee what percent would that be.

Moral of Story= You just can't buy a "real" welder.

2) Got wire and left (after a thorough tour of the facility by X-student)

Oh, and seeing him there (with a job) made me feel all warm-ee.