Guys, anyone try these ebay headers?

$134 shipped with the T304 stainless steel (known to be the stronger of the group)


Just wondering if there will be any improvement in power and no power loss from the design. Looks just like the ones from fabspeed for less then a 1/10 of the cost $1,695...



Stock headers and more concerned about any power loss from new headers. Fabspeed claims that their design (same as cheaper ebay headers) create more power but just want to hear what others have experienced with this header design. Definitely different from the factory headers below.

 

If I were you, I'll spend a little more, check out this link, http://www.vertexauto.com/ShowItem/208244%20Porsche%20996%20Headers%20Schnell%20Perfo rmance%20Basic.aspx but try to stay away from Ebay headers.

Cheers and good luck!

 

cool thanks! can anyone confirm they have tried this flow design and had good experiences with additional power or any loss of power?

 

You get what you pay for...

The stock 996 headers are actually pretty good.

 

Chinese replica headers (what those eBay headers almost certainly are) might be fine or might be total junk, a bit of a crap shoot. Just because they list a particular stainless material doesn't mean that they are actually made from it. Maybe yes, maybe no. QA can be an issue, weld quality, exactness of dimensions, etc.

If you need new headers anyway, I'd probably give them a try for that price, but inspect them well before installing them. If your stock headers are fine and you are just looking for a performance bump, I'm not sure it would be worth the trouble. I'm skeptical you'd see any notable power increase out of either the Fabspeed or eBay knock-offs without replacing the entire header/cat/muffler. As mentioned, the OEM headers seem to be a pretty good design. Don't think you'll see any power loss either though.

Then again, $134 is cheap! And building headers once designed isn't exactly rocket science... I vote you buy them and give us a report!

 

I did the $300 shipped exhaust from eBay on my Cayman S and couldn't be happier. Whomever spends $2-3k on metal pipes is a madman.

 

Get the Schnell Performance Basic Headers I did it myself and I couldn't be any happier https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...r-brand-p.html

 

Somebody in this forum posted tests with eBay's headers and it showed less power than with oem.

 

So that means the fabspeed are also a loss of power too? They have the identical design. Just cosmetically better looking welds by fabspeed

 

Not sure. They may not have been the same ones.

 

I'm not gonna post about gains as that is sort of a moot point as there has only been one confirmed member that has actually tested eBay headers on the dyno and has shown a loss. This is not to say that other eBay headers will perform the same. There has been numerous posts about people reporting power or no change back and forth with no hard data except the butt dyno. So I feel discussing this is sort of a futile effort withou actually getting it strapped to the dyno for starters.

What I do want to discuss is to someone's post that the eBay headers are the same as Fabspeeds and other higher brands.

I have held and/or installed over 5 different 996 specific headers and had a chance to make some close observations.

Although on the surface the eBay headers seem identical, they are far from. Here are some observations:
- Welds can be poor and especially around the header flange area, the welds can actually impede flow on the eBay versions. This doesn't mean one can't simply take a die grinder and clean them up assuming there is enough header flanger material to work from. However unless you are into header designs or an engineer, most people will most likely just install these thinking they would be plug and play.
- Fitment, this can be a crap shoot but in my experience, there are always some issue with fitment. Once again, doesn't mean they won't fit but don't expect it to fit like a glove and prepare to possibly double up on some gaskets to prevent exhaust leaks.
- Materials, sure everyone uses SS and headers for Honda's for example for the same amount of SS materials can be found as low as $40 or so. However I have noticed that most of the cheap headers are made with thinner walled material. Once again this doesn't necessarily affect performance or fitment but it also isn't an apples to apples comparison to some of the higher end brands.
- Tubing size and Primaries, Generally people think bigger is always better. That is the case if you go Supercharge or have a highly tuned engine. So even if the welds and fitment are good, the diamter of the tubes might not be well optimized for a mild setup.
- Tubing pieces, If you take a close look, the majority of the eBay headers will have a 2 piece construction on one of the banks of header. Some also have a stepped multi-piece design attaching the header flange to the rest of the tubing. This is done to save cost because it is easier to manufacture. Will it hurt performance noticeably? Once again, that can be debateable based on several factors.
- True Merge Collectors, for any experienced header designer, they know a good collector can make or break a headers ultimate performance. It has been proven on several header designs that a true merge collector will always outperform a slip-on collector which is what you find on most of the eBay headers. Some would say this part is the most expensive part of the header during manufacturing. Just look up Burns Stainless and see how much one of their merge collectors runs.
- Bolt holes and tolerances, this is generally the area I found that has always needed some fine tuning or adjustment and not just with 996 headers but on a global scale for many other products.

The cheap things on eBay most of the time come with a price that will bother some and be ok for others. I've found that for any items. Generally these are b-stock or defective items that the original buyers turned down and have to get sold somehow. Nothing wrong with it as long as buyers expectations are held back to a certain degree.

For example, I bought a high end looking shower faucet set. This set would've ran me close to $500 at regular stores around here. I got it for $100. What I got with it is added installation time and having to rig up a homemade mounting system. Also having the faucet not come out as far once I add in the cement board and tiles. This however was something that I was perfectly fine with but might've not been fine for the original company that contracted the manufacturer to make these and hence turned down a huge batch of these things to be sold to chumps like me.

ok there goes my book