Frankly Don what you speak of is more philosophy than anything... cuase the winning race cars that I have been around/built... have stainless/aluminum/titanium and have utilized vband clamps and all sorts of things that you may think are silly or just "why would you use that" cuase you seem to come from a "american muscle" way of doing things from what I can tell... where as the import way is another philosophy all together...

tends to be more expensive materials for one... and whether or not it's "easy" to work with is relative to your skill set and willingness and ability to learn and become the best...

I think a car that is making 250% of it's factory HP and daily driven... in all kinda conditions... even a 30 hour non stop drive across America in the middle of summer says... hmmn... this stuff is working...

and I use the same style stuff that the winning IMPORT and high HP minis do.. you couldnt pay me to use crap like mild steel...

but that's my philosophy

 

I just got back from the car shop. I found the leak issue. two weeks ago when company X worked on my exhaust they bolted my ball joint togther and installed a flex joint at my test pipe section. It worked for one weekend at Barber and about a week of little street time. when i got it on the lift it was ugly. the two bolts were gone... lucky for me i kept the spring bolts just in case. I have reinstalled them with copper pinch nuts and an extra nut as a lock so i don't lose the spring bolts. I can here a tiny leak in there somewhere but don't have time to deal with it. Leaving for Chicagoland in the early a.m. (work not my car) and going straight from there to VIR next Wed (in my car). I'll let you know if my frankenstein header/exhaust attachment works after this one day halloween event.

Thanks for the info. I am here to share/gain knowledge.

 

I am very happy w/ the OBX header. I have had zero issues over 20,000 miles (2 years) but let me point out that I'm not on the track, just spirited daily driving. I did have it professionally installed and I did re-use the stock Cat. The connection flange using a donut is OLD school designed , yet proven to work effectively over the years. As well if repairs are needed, it should be relatively easy and inexpensive. That is not to say that there are not NEW technologies that work as good or better.

Regardless of the header one decides to use, I think its very important to ensure that your new header/cat "ends" excatly where the old/cat header ended. In our first attempt, we found that the OBX header and grafted Cat
was about 1/2" longer than stock - pushing on the exhaust system and pinching the donut so we re-did it. I think this is a critical match up point and determines the longevity of any flex point. My point is that there should be no load on the flex point if the car is sitting. Of course if you are going the extended header route like Jan's header or Sthal then its a matter of shortening the Catback appropriately.

Specifically, to the OBX header is not over tightening the spring loaded bolts that connect the header to the Cat.

I think the OBX header is a great buy for the enthusiast, making a header a very affordable mod. In all I spent $400 all in - header/install/Cat SS welds.

 

Very good post Bahamabart and I agree.

I have a small issue with exhaust alignment but that was a issue before my OBX Header was installed and has been resolved recently. It was one of the bends in my Miltech being off that didn't let my exhaust hang correctly.