Am I just unlucky, or what? Yesterday on a wet road I spun the wheels slightly, and when they caught the exhaust note instantly changed - for the worse. Get home, lift up the car and <explitive deleted>! The OBX header is cracked at the lower collector!

This might have been caused by the donut-joint being too tight. When Helix installed the header, Eric tightened the nuts so the springs were totally compressed. Perhaps there wasn't enough slippage and the header fatigued from the stress. To be clear, I'm not blaming Helix, but I thought others might want to be aware of the potential for cracking if the donut joint is too tight.

So what would you all do? The header is about 14 months old. Any chance of cashing in on the OBX "lifetime" warrenty? I think I did send in the registration card . Would you get another OBX, and this time put in a flex joint? Reinstall the OEM? Go for the Supersprint (would it have cracked?)? Other thoughts? Thanks in advance ...

 

Take the free OBX (if possable, keep us posted). Just leave a little slack in the springs this time... they're there for a reason.

 

Looks like this;
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ght=obx+header

 

Agree - my springs are about half compressed.

 

I used the stock flex coupling when i modded the header for the stock cat.

 

i dont like OBX :X

 

because ...........................?

 

somewhat off-topic... where can one order the "doughnut" piece used on the SS or OBX header?

 

Took the OBX header off this afternoon, and it came apart in my hands. Attached is a pic. My plan is to see if I can get it re-welded. The original weld was nothing to write home about -- essentially a butt weld. They put a lot of weld metal around this joint, but most of it is not on the joint itself. I think with a decent weld bead all around, it will be as strong as it ever was.

I'll need new springs for the ball joint, too. The originals are permanently compressed. Probably not top-shelf spring steel to begin with.

 

had on an integra i had quite a few obx products, werent quality made, but from what ive seen in this forum OBX has done a better job with the mini

 

I do not know but...
Someone posted awhile ago about a NAPA doughnut that could be massaged to work. I thought you were a strong proponent of SS. why not give them a call.

 

why would someone turn a spring into a solid?

 

The original weld looks like slip fit to me but no weld penetration on the lower piece. You should be able to get that re-welded for good if they use the correct rod and a decent welder does it. Check to see if it shows any magnetic properties, if so it's probably 409 SS the ideal header material and will weld up nicely.

Notice the extra washers I used to act as a heat sink so the springs wouldn't take all the heat.
Don't know where to source the original springs, I would look for some 4 banger valve springs or maybe a couple valve springs from a Briggs and Stratton engine. Any small engine repair shop should have some lying round.

 

norm, you are correct (proponent of SS, and others like them). I did inquire, if I recall correctly, they don't sell components separately.

I had purchased my SS used, with the stock cat, so this piece had already been used. I don't have any noticable leaks, but would still like to have a new one, along with a pair of springs. I'll contact them again to see if they are willing/able to share a source for such products...

 

By the way, how does it look inside at the merge. Nows the time to clean that up if there is any extra material hanging in the flow.

 

Sorry to hear they don't support thier product like that.
I commented on that post and asked whom ever that was to post the part number and where they sourced that donut, it just needed a little scraping to fit right. I think a vendor on here jumped into the thread and said thats how they deal with replacing them. I'll have a look.

 

Some of the these look promising:

https://www.theflangeman.com/cgi-bin...K&keywords=all

 

I like this one, Cadillac parts baby!
FX384 - Hi Temp Graf. Donut w Sleeve -2-15 32" ID Cadillac

BTW, I already have a Cadillac part on my MCS, it seals my design IC diverter to the bonnet.

 

Looks OK. Hard to get a good picture of it, this is the best I could do.

 

Thanks not bad at all, looks good.
Sorry to hear your having this trouble with your OBX and like I said this looks very fixable.
Thinking about one of those Helix engine dampers or some such device. I swear I didn't get this much engine movement before the OBX.
You could give them a try here, info@obxracingsports.com
Their web site say's it won't be up till Dec.06

 

I appreciate the vote of confidence on being able to fix this. BTW, a magnet has no attraction to the metal in the joint area (or anywhere else on the header). I do have one of the Lord-of-the-Flies dampers, but I don't think it does a whole lot of good. Clearly the source of the problem was the over-tightened ball joint, but at the same time the joint on the lower connector was not welded too well. Probably the weak link in the header construction.

 

Thats not all.......

The colector looks as if the weld penetration was poor, if at all. The pipes below the collector acted like a heat sink. If this had been a true butt weld it might not have failed.
FYI, you could have the pipe re-welded with ( mig ) mild steel wire. It should work fine. It will rust somewhat but unless you plan on it being an art piece on the livingroom wall, who cares?

 

what i would do in your case is buy a flex joint or cut off the flex joint from the OEM header and weld it in between the broken OBX header and the flange..

i think if done properly your header would never experience this sort of bad situations...

i got an obx header to and one of the reasons i havent installed it yet is the lack of a flex joint...

cheers

 

More work to get it right but the best solution.

 

I poked around a bit, the OBX header's are built out of pure SUS-304 stainless steel.
I'm going to trust the coupling setup on mine.