ive just fitted a stainless steel manifold took it out and after about ten mins it started blowin so i took it home and had a look.it was the left hand side manifold gasket gone.so had a proper look and the left side of manifold isnt flush to the head any one got any ideas what i can do.?

 

Refit it properly with a new gasket.

 

one side sit flush and one side dont ,no matter witch way you do it one side isnt flush.

 

Have you spoken with the supplier?

 

teres no contact number i bought it from e bay it suposed to fit from a 1993 -2004

 

Are they the megan ones? I worped(spelling) my RWD astra 16 manifold when re-welding it. I took it to a machine shop and had it skimmed flat again on a miller. That would be a last resort of course. Email him and tell him the problem if he won't swop it report him to paypal.

TBH you would better with ported headers.

 

E-mail him then. Perhaps someone will come a long with a magic cure, but as far as I can tell if they don't fit flush then the supplier is obligated to advise why.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUBARU-WRX-STi...QQcmdZViewItem
this is the manifold ive just fitted

 

Interesting, these are very similar to the Headers I've just replaced on my RA which had been welded, re welded, etc and, due to poor fit, were fowling. Ported OE headers perform better IMHO.

The vendor speaks of them being lighter. Being interested in weights I weighed the 4-1s which were 8kgs and the OEs 9kg. I just can't help but think that £200 worth of headers may well have flaws.

 

I very much doubt the claims being made for these headers, 25 bhp and 40nm.

The market is flooded with cheap stainless steel headers and when they split, usually at the collector or on a weld, the material is often so thin or of poor quality, that, at best, welding is only a temporary fix. Ask those that have had Megan headers for several months/thousand miles.
Do not buy any headers that are not quality made from a reputable supplier so at least you have the chance of a refund after fitting and taking them off again.
Also remember that unless the headers are well designed for your application, there will be a loss of responsiveness and spool point will be higher up the rev range which reduces drivability.

 

As Harvy has just said I had megan headers they fitted well but after a month I blew them to bits on closer inspection of them after I took them of I found very sub standard welds,I ended up putting back on my oe ported headers if I was to do it again I would go for gruppe-s/hks headers I know they cost more but they are in a differant league against flea bay items.

 

Maybe find the flange on the side that's blowing isn't a straight edge, quite common onsome manifolds

 

Even if you do get them to fit, you will be replacing them in 5months/5000 miles as the welds on the collector 4-1 will split, this happened on mine. I have just replaced mine with a set from Lateral Performance, as Mark quoted to me - buy cheap buy twice - just my two pennies worth.

Rgds, Bryan

 

Got mine from Lateral , First class bit of kit ,