Actually, this isn't the definitive thread. This is just a thread where I'm going to tell you, the fellow 996 owner not to waste your money on 996 eBay or otherwise cheaply produced headers.

How I ended up with ebay headers: In short, the exhaust system on my car was rusted, dented and even cracked in places from the headers to the tips. It was leaking from the gaskets where the headers connect to the cat pipes because the gaskets themselves had eroded to nothing. The bolts were rusted in place, and basically it was a squeaky, rattling nightmare that I wasn't going to fix piece by piece, but by replacing everything from the headers back in one swoop. I figured I'd give the ebay headers a shot because they were cheap, the seller agreed to ship internationally, and to be honest, they looked a whole lot better than what came off the car and that's all that really mattered to me at the time. I wasn't looking to gain any power, I was just looking for a fresh start with some rust-free parts.

When the headers arrived, I knew they'd be cheap, because you get what you pay for. However, upon more careful inspection, I decided to toss them because I couldn't in good conscience install such pieces of crap on my vehicle. Based on how they are designed, I believe they might actually IMPEDE the flow of exhaust from your 996.

Describing the deficiencies in depth is probably pointless because there are tons of people out there thinking "Well dude, they're only $150, so I'm going to give them a shot man. What's the worst that could happen?"

And essentially, the worst that could happen is that 1.) You waste money or time installing an obviously untested and un-researched product on your Porsche and 2.) You might actually LOSE power (I know that one 996 owner dynoed them at a consistent loss over stock, google it).

The collectors are tweaked at a slight angle where they don't need to be. Where the tubes are welded to the manifold flange, they don't even line up properly, they are off-centered (and not just a tiny bit) meaning that the exhaust coming out of your engine is not flowing unimpeded, but instead is coming up against the sloppy off-centered tube, and the even sloppier weld job used to tack it into place. I mean, if you took these headers to a hot rod shop that actually builds functional headers, they'd probably laugh at you.

Overall, save your $150 for something else, like car care products, or lap-dances. If someone gave me a free set of these, I still wouldn't put them on my car.

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So, what is your plan of attack now. If you are trying to keep your cost down have you thought of calling one of the dealers that will sell you headers below retail or contacting a salvage yard? Also, if the headers really are junk I would contact the seller for a refund. You might loose the cost of freight, but not the entire purchase price.

 

I ended up just buying some name-brand headers from a company with a reputation for producing quality Porsche parts. Now my entire exhaust system is new from the headers to the tips - no more leaks, no more rust, all new gaskets etc.

I'd send the headers back, but since I live overseas, the postage is actually more than the cost of the headers, so essentially they're going in the dumpster.

 

When I was running my Sti, alot of guys in the community would buy the cheap headers and would basically redo them. They had to smooth out all welds inside the piping, tack a few places on the outside to ensure no leakage, polished out the inside and cleaned up all the sloppy welding. So about a day needed to get them some what acceptable. The only down side is the less than acceptable gradual bends in the piping, you can't fix that. One thing that most didn't know at the time was the thickness of the piping. Cheap ones are cheap for one of many reasons, they use less metal and cheaper quality of metal. So one place you don't want thin walled metal piping is on the headers. Good Call to get nice headers. When you buy something nice, you have it for years.

 

Plus headers are designed to increase performance meaning they are specifically designed and performance tested for the platform they are going to be used on. Pipe lengths, diameters, etc., are all designed-in to modify HP and torque in a desired RPM range. Most header builders, especially the no-name ones being sold on ebay are have not and lead to negative improvement gains meaning you are probable losing power..

 

most of the time gains from headers come from simply removing the cat, or moving to a long tube design (typically previously impossible because of the cat). on the 996 there's no cat in the header, so there's no point of replacing it..

 

Headers are NOT worth the investment on a street car!!

 

See PM.

 

I didn't install headers for performance gains. I installed headers because my OEM manifolds were heavily oxidized, the passenger side was dinged/cracked from the previous owner backing over a cement parking block and scraping it. Previous owner tried to replace the damaged manifolds, and broke one of the studs, so I had to drill it out and re-tap the hole for a new bolt.

All in all, I replaced my ENTIRE exhaust system from the header bolts to the exhaust tips, all the gaskets, all the bolts etc. Figured I'd go with nice aftermarket headers since I already had very nice cat delete pipes brought over from Germany. The system matches up really well. I wasn't expecting to see gains from the headers, I just wanted a nice replacement part with good build quality.

If I hadn't had leaky/damaged exhaust parts, I wouldn't have touched any of it. Since my oem exhaust system was rusted/leaking/damaged/had bad gaskets, I figured if I was going to replace it, I'd do it all in one swoop.