Has anyone purchased these or know of anyone who has?i know the long debate on headers but the price makes them appealing while doing the cats and mufflers.just wondering if they are any better than stock?

 

Short answer is no. Basically shiny and purdy = 10hp deficit.

 

You get what you pay for.

The stock 996 headers are actually quite good.

 

Wouldn't...Going "cheap" will only cause future problems, IMO.

 

The header design is critical for the 996 engine performance. The stock headers are matched exactly to the engine, and the intake and throttle body in order to achieve "dynamic supercharging". Dynamic supercharging utilizes resonace between the throttle valve and the header to provide a higher air/fuel filling of the cylinder. The result is a maximum volumetic efficiency of 102%, i.e. the cylinders are filled with more air/fuel mixture when operating at peak efficiency (4500 rpm) than what is possible in atmospheric pressure.

Hence, I agree with Alpine003, you will almost certainly loose power with such headers.

 

Great summary bjarne996!!!!!

 

there is a member (oz951) who had actually dyno'ed his car with one of those ebay headers and he did lose power.

 

Which headers are you talking about?

 

There's too many things to consider...until these factors have been considered/evaluated, I don't think anyone can make proven conclusion.
piping...factory diameter is 42.5mm....I see many aftermarket around 44.5. Some a mm or 2 larger or smaller. Factory x51 package is 48mm. I have not seen any company use piping bigger than 48mm's. Not that bigger piping is going to make more power.
Amount of welds...length of each pipe. Factory isn't equal length pipes. I'm not sure if any aftermarket headers are indeed equal length.
ports on each end...how well/smooth the transitions are
merge collector design...
etc etc...there's too many different factors and just going by the pictures on ebay, there seems to be a few different designs. I don't think anyone is going to evaluate all of these so...conclusion is who knows?

 

that's one thing I'd like to understand: why did Porsche not go for equal lenght pipes on the X51 headers?

Here's the dyno I was mentioning earlier, the guy's website is down so not a lot of details though

 

I have them and I installed a plenum at the same time. Not sure which made the difference or it was a combination but I definitely noticed a difference after installing the two.

My former mechanic said they had an install problem because the holes didn't line up. I contacted the header company and they had never had that problem before and I tried to get my mechanic on the phone.

The issue was I got hit for three extra hours of install labor and the only way to get someone to fix a problem with their product is to make them pay for the mistake. The manufacturer and I called the shop and instead of explaining what the problem was with the headers, I was given a rash of garbage from the mechanic that I bring in aftermarket parts that never fit and they have been so good to me taking my work in the past. (Plenum, headers, short throw shifter, iPE 200 cell cats, iPE Valvetronic mufflers).

I will never know the truth, but I can say the header manufacturer was willing to talk on the phone and would have exchanged them if notified there was a problem with the install. I will also say my mechanic turned it on me when I brought the issue up. My gut suspects that my mechanic, who also for the second time forgot they gave me an estimate, padded the bill.

I saw the difference between the stock and these headers, lots of additional flow volume and they are well made.

 

Do you remember what seller it was? There are so many out there .i was thinking they would work best with a full exhaust change but not noticeabl on there own.

 

Mine are great! No complains.
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...brand-p-2.html
Schnell Performance Headers Now I just want to get rid off the oval tips and replace them for 996 Dual-tips on black.

 

These are he exact headers I bought:

eBay headers

If you are interested in them, I recommend contacting them. Tell them you heard a mechanic claimed they did not install directly with the holes needing to be redrilled and the pipes bent to fit and you want to know how they will handle it if you experience a similar problem. I don't know if there really was a problem with the install or not, but I bet they will take care on you.

If I had to do it all over again, I would buy their headers again. When I first heard of the problem, my mechanic's shop laughed and said "that's what I get for buying cheap back door piece of s$it Chinese made garbage". I wasn't laughing. I saw them beforehand and they were well made and definitely larger pipes. Later the mechanic said all the stuff I brought in was garbage, look at my signature line, all of the other is well regarded and established top shelf stuff. So if they say that about everything else listed, how can I give credibility to what they said about the headers?

The install shop offered to refund me their overcharge. I had negotiated down the invoice by $100 when I paid and they said they would send me the other $200. I refused the money, because if it truly was a design problem and they did have that much more labor, they deserved to be paid. I wouldn't take the money because that wasn't the principle of the issue.

 

What does this exactly mean?