Did a visual inspection on it.. found the crack along the weld at the 2 to 1 joint. No time to deal with it right now.

 

That is bad news.

How many miles on your set?

 

My best guess is about 30k on it. Good thing I still have the oem. Will replace it with oem and have the ss reweld.

 

I mentioned in another thread that my 2nd batch of S&S headers also cracked. Just my experience that re-weld does not work long-term. PPE headers on the way and doing new engine mounts as well.

 

disappointed to here the re-weld didn't remedy it. ahhh...!

 

This "header cracking" business is REALLY pissing me off. I am not sure but I think my headers may have a crack in it as well. Can't see it though, perhaps I will look at it when it's on the lift at the next oil change.

My headers are noticebly louder than they ever were and sound almost "hotroddish", like a fast popping sound under WOT; not sure if this is a sign of a cracked header or not. SOMETIMES the car doesn't pull good either under WOT.

 

Headers cracking is certainly a concern. Unfortunately it is VERY difficult to predict whether or not a header/manifold will crack after long term use. This applies to ANY exhaust header/manifold... even factory ones. I have heard that the Tundra V8 2UZ-FE engine had cracking issues with the stock manifolds. Many other OEM manifolds crack. OEM spends millions of dollars on research and developement and utilize computer modelling and STILL can have problems. The exhaust manifold must undergo extreme temperature ranges, vibrations, shocks and also usually help support the weight of other exhaust system components.

It is nice that PPE is building headers now that S&S is gone but there is no guarantee that these will be problem free. Hopefully they will but only time and miles will tell.

Welding CHANGES the metals hardness usually creating harder but more brittle metal around the welds. Shorty style manifolds have LESS material and tube length to accomodate the growing and shrinking of the metal as they heat cycle. Ceramic coating reduces under hood heat, protects from rusting and looks good but can also increase the heat held by the metal itself. Seems like someone here has a 1st gen set of S&S that were not coated and never cracked!!!

Not sure what the answer is here other than when you mod a vehicle you almost ALWAYS reduce the vehicles reliability. It is just incredibly hard to build a part as reliable as factory let alone more reliable.

Seems like $600 for a couple three years of enjoyment is not a massive price to pay... everyone will have to decide for themselves. It is possible that rewelding AND some carefully chosen reinforcement could COULD reduce the problem or even eliminate it.

 

Hey John, can it be possible from having weak engine and tranny mounts? To much shifting (of the engine and the attached headers) under hard acceleration could perhaps make the headers crack? Is this possible?

 

yes rock.....these can cause "fatigue" on the headers resulting in "stress" cracks

 

My PPEs go on this week. I picked up 2 new OEM engine mounts and a new OEM tranny mount. I'm hoping this will help to alleviate the cracking issue. eBay has some good deals on the OEM mounts. There are also some really good deals on the parts that are not Toyota but I didn't want to risk it.

I'm really interested to see how these PPE headers sound. Especially if I get that crazy popping sound at WOT like I did with S&S. What I don't understand is why there are so many sets of PPE for sale. Why do people buy them and not do the install? Anyway, other than the PI TC and 4.27 gears, headers have defintely been one the best mods to date even with the cracking issues. Lets hope the PPE headers last longer than 1 year like my 2nd Gen S&S did.

 

Keep us posted! I too get that popping sound but not always...I think I have an exhaust leak between the headers and the cats (GS400) on both sides. My car sounded a lot more clean and tight under normal driving and WOT; now it sounds almost hot roddish sometimes; but she still moves pretty damn good!

As for people not installing the headers after they buy them - the only thing I could think of is that perhaps they have a GS400 and realize that the labor (time) to install is rated at over 8 hours! Which could be an install cost of anywhere from $500-$800 depending on where you live. So, purchase price plus install costs can EASILY exceed $1200 bucks and even be over $1500 all just for headers; it's a damn shame. FYI, I think the GS430's are rated at 4 hours labor time for the header install.

 

Can someone shoot me some pics of where these headers install, maybe a diy of sorts?

I'm thinking of getting a friend to design some manifolds; if they're braced correctly the will never crack.

 

so u have a friend who can design manifolds but need us to send you a pic of where they install? SIGH........






btw if u SEARCH EVER there are plenty of pics around

 

Thanks for your comments, I like keeping things on topic though.

I dont have a GS430 and as the OP stated; his headers cracked. If I could get some pictures or general idea of the location and areas of flexing of the manifolds I could possibly get someone to help on this matter of cracking and relay this info to a local who braced my gsr setup.

Obviously there is some sort of design issue causing the GS430 manifolds to crack. I searched through all of the threads for a 430 install and out of 15-20 threads, the first 10 albeit a few all report 'cracking'.

The two threads that were informative -- GS300 install and SC400 install. I dont see many issues with those cracking.

I've had this "cracking" happen to me on cheap manifolds that are 'polished' but I've only upgraded my manifolds on my turbo setups; nothing in the lexus. So this is why I am asking for pictures and what not because maybe I can help to alleviate this issue.

 

there was a design flaw with the S&S headers,which are discontinued ....the PPE headers are supposed to alleviate this issue,only time will really tell.

part of the cracking problem btw could be blamed on blown engine/tranny mounts.....PPE also has a flex coupler they sell if needed which will further help reduce this issue