Okay, tonight was install night and we broke down the car leading up to the headers. Old manifolds removed and we were free sailing. Well, getting the new strup header in on the drivers side was not easy. The third pipe furthest from the front kept hitting the steering shaft so we unbolted it and moved it out the way. Once we bolted the header up we torqued it down and reassembled the steering shaft. However, Now I cant even turn my wheel a full revolution. The car is still on jack stands, we tried everything short of hitting the header with a hammer! I am pretty pissed off I am going to be contacting the place I bought the header from tomorrow to see what kind of thing we have to do to get my car up and running ASAP. It is my daily driver and I didn't expect downtime for more than one day. This is not good. What do you all think? Any similar problems?

BTW here are pictures and a video. Sorry about the quality, my phone is all I had at the time.




http://z.conceyted.com/strupcontact/...ingcontact.3g2

 

can't tell much by your photos...are you sure the header is mounted flush to the engine? I installed strup headers and had plenty of clearance w/ the steering rack (I did have to unbolt the steering rack to get the headers in, but everything went back together smoothly).

good luck!

 

I'm positive they are mounted flush. like I said I did have to remove the steering shaft from its gear but once the header went in it was fine. I am really not sure why you had tons of room but we literally have none once you rotate the steering wheel one revolution. hmmm **** I'm hoping we just got a bad header

 

I just got off the phone with Charlie at Strup. He was very apologetic and reassuring that they would take care of me. He spoke with me a few minutes about the issue and took my name and number down. I was told I would be hearing from them within the next few hours. I will keep you all posted, hopefully this was just a bad header and will soon just be a small mishap.

 

Crawford > all other headers imo . But sorry to hear about what sounds like a manufacturing defect .

 

I haven't heard anything bad about the Strup headers. Glad to hear that they are working with you.

 

+1 I am impressed so far. He seemed very concerned and willing to help.

 

Heres a video link converted to AVI so you can see it now. http://z.conceyted.com/strupcontact/...ingcontact.avi Listen closely and you can HEAR it contacting the steering column and if you look closely you can watch it LIFT the entire engine.

 

You did a proper job with the installation. It’s a defective header. Sorry for the frustration.

 

thank you mr obvious but you do know they are twice the price and twice the pain in the *** to install dont you? to most people it's not worth it.

 

any update? Charlie seems like a really nice guy - I'd buy from Strup again! (all companies make mistakes, but good companies solve them correctly and take care of their customers.)

 

New update! I spoke with charlie via email a few times ad ended up sending him the video of the steering contact. he thanked me and assured me that I would have a new header by the weekend. I was kind of worried that would happen and asked him if he could upgrade shipping to overnight while also offering to pay the difference in shipping costs. he sent me an email back stating it was not a problem and that it would be shipped next day air by wednesday. honestly, I am happier with strup now than I ever would have been if they simply bolted right up. the way they treat their customers speaks for itself. I am very pleased.

in other news, we got the passenger side together. everything bolted right up and we have it all back together. when the other header gets here we will have it on that night and so long as we have no other issues, this will be a done deal. thanks for the help and support guys.

PS: Sorry about capitalization and some punctuation. I am posting from my phone as we work on the headers

 

glad to hear it's working out - Charlie @ Strup FTW!

 

now what happens if the new header does the same exact thing?

 

If you plan on coming to Austin to get tuned @ Uprev with the new headers, shoot me a PM, I'd like to see the results.

 

If the new headers do the same thing I will probably go berserk and blow my car up. ... but really, if that happens I think ill probably have to have a shop heat the pipe up and bend it in as far as they can. I don't think it will happen, but honestly it is a possibility. I can't see how Id be the first to have this happen twice. Honestly, the headers are contacting SO much that its pretty hard to believe they would be designed this way.

 

I am actually going to use the maps they pretuned for me for now. Once they release aftermarket wideband compatibility so I can log afr then I will be sending my logs off to fine tune. So, in short, sorry but no trip to austin.

 

I doubt this would happen as well...this is the first time I heard anything like this from Strup headers - it's either a unlikley error on Strup, or his 350Z was made differently than all the rest (hope it's not this )

 

Umm, yea if my z is different than everyone else I am just going to sit in a corner and cry the years away before I sell the car.

 

so, today we got the new header in. I will post pictures later tonight when I am home but let me say it was moved drastically out of the way as to not hit the steering column. we were feeling great! well we bolt it all up. the cats go on. sure as anything the ****ing cats don't bolt up to the exhaust. pissed off, I grabbed the stock cats. bolted them up and they aren't close to lining up. so we compared headers. while the old one lined up the cat with the exhaust, the passenger side cat was too short to bolt up. that means that not only was my driver side header off, but my passenger side is SHORT. and the final blow was that the replacement didn't line up. honestly I know that it is hard to get these things perfect for everyone. and while these guys were really nice and helpful, I can't keep putting parts on my car over and over again. my daily driver has been down for a week now. this is uncalled fr and I am asking for my money back. so the million dollar question. which header do I go with that has no problems with fitament and is relatively inexpensive like strup was? btw, am I being irrational wanting a refund instead of keeping trying new headers over andover with strup?