[alfa] Re: After market headers

[Tony Martie <tony@xxxxxxxx>]

Please, share with the rest of us who this jerk is,  so we can all go 
elsewhere when we wish to have "the best headers on the market" on our 
Alfa's.

  Tony Martie
'78 Spider
Dallas, TX


Okay, no more fueling around about vegetable oils.  Got a serious 
question
about after-market headers.
An Alfa-owning friend bought from a website that promises, and I quote,
"...the best (headers) on the market at any price. Proper fit and 
clearance
all around."  He paid $145 for a special ceramic coating.

The headers he received weren't welded up properly, as the manufacturer
later admitted; the number one flange was off-center and the pipe not 
bent
right.  There was no way we could get even a 12mm nut on the first stud
without denting the pipe, and then the header wouldn't tighten down.  A
phone call resulted in his being told that a racer would hammer a dent 
in
the header so the nut would fit, then put a welding torch on the pipe 
and
flange while tightening with a wrench.  That, the manufacturer said, 
would
allow my friend to pull the flange down the 1/4" it wouldn't go.  Having
just spent the cost of a new car on paint, upholstery, suspension, 
motor,
tranny, etc., etc., sticking a welding torch into the engine bay made 
us all
nervous.  See a photo of the gap that wouldn't go away at
http://www.greend.com/new_page_3.htm.

My friend next went to three local race shops and asked their advice.  
All
said to send the headers back.  Forcing them onto the cylinder head 
would
result in stress cracks, they said.  So he sent them back.  That didn't
please the manufacturer, but, after calls and e-mails, the manufacturer 
put
the headers on a jig, smacked a dent into one pipe, heated them up and, 
he
says, re-bent them.  Then he had a change of heart and said he'd send
all-new headers. My friend was a happy man.

Unfortunately, after several weeks, several long-distance calls, and 
several
e-mails, he got his old headers back, in a color he didn't order, and 
with a
coating that is not identified.  He wrote a gentle e-mail to this guy 
asking
if, perhaps, he'd mistakenly sent the old headers back (My friend was
already well aware the manufacturer believes ALL problems are the 
customer's
fault, not his).  At that point, the guy e-mailed my friend that he 
knew of
the "mistake" and he's done all he can.  No apology. No explanation 
about
the paint. Just a kiss off.  It got a bit heated in the next exchange, 
but
we'll not go into that.

So, my question to the digest is this: Once headers are formed, can 
they be
forced into a new shape without leading to stress-induced issues in the
future?  In other words, should they be put on the car and given a 
shot, or
should my friend insist on a refund of the $700 or so he spent on them?

A parting thought.  If you know a parts supplier is a hobbyist who is 
mainly
in business to support his racing habit, you may want to check really,
really carefully before purchasing from him. It could be, as in this
instance, that customers are treated more as inconveniences than people 
of
value.

Lyford Hale
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