I put my headers on today and they are, can you guess?... Hitting the steering shaft. They are ebay brand headers.. dont care. But I would like to know if it is doing any harm. It puts out a vibration that you can feel through the wheel, but its nothing I cant get used to. Is this doing any harm the the steering column, etc.?

 

Oh no!!! That sucks, Man! I would say that the headers will not be in good shape for long. Being under a constant applied stress that will be amplified by the heat cycling will probably make them fail right at that spot. Plus, if they're eBay, they will probably not be the finest blend of 316 or whatever they claimed the steel was.
How soon, though, is really just a guess. Probably way longer than a week, but I doubt you'll get years out of them... I'm not sure how this might affect your steering components, though.

 

most likely i will take them somewhere and get em to heat it up and bend it just right..

 

what if the bending does not prevail?

if I were you and had time and commitment to remove the headers again, buy different headers that are worthwhile.

sorry to hear about your issue though. it sucks when mishaps like that occur right after your hard work

 

Just get rid of the headers. Youre doing more harm than good.

 

that blows. I would take care of it soon. That vibration will cause chaffing.

 

why wouldn't the bending prevail?

 

care to elaborate/

 

aside from using some long tube collector headers or a stroker engine or something..., they are failry pointless.
Given the fact that the exhaust manifold/headder will see exhaust velocities over 700 mph and see the absolutle highest temperatures present in the vehicle, the tubing is not thin, and having it "bent" is not going to be easy.
What he meant is that headders notoroiusly make little power unless theyre part of an entire system of bolt on mods.. Ive bought alot of stuff for my car, but after the reading i had done, i did NOT go w headers as i did w my Z32.
Should have just used an OEM HR manifold.. they make great power and are heavy enuff to handle the heat.

Even then, they were stillen SS and ceramic coated beauties.

Add to this they do not fit and are involving steering parts, it will get worse as your engine mounts age. Just a bad deal man.

Id take a TON of pictures, send em back, get a tracking number, call your credit card company and get a refund thru the card ppl.. if the orig shop doesnt take the return.. its a price of selling crap on ebay.. sometimes they ahve to eat one.

 

the headers arent doing u any good...so basically u are just causing more harm...pointless mod to do on a n/a Z imo

 

I was referring to the fact that they are hitting the steering column therefore not good for the car in the long run. Esp a piece of equipment that has all to do with the car's movement. Lose "HP gain" for safety is always a +1.

Secondly as everyone here stated, headers really does nothing on our cars. Unless you have it for a full setup, say stillen headers, cats, td exhaust PLUS a tune you would see power gain. But granted these are off ebay my prediction of them lasting a long time is slimmer than a supermodel's lunch. If you have any cat mods you've made more power than you would with headers alone.

So moral of the story is if you are persistent about headers get a name brand set that has been tested and proven fit. Buy test pipes/hfc. Or save all of your money and go Stage 1 cams.

 

of course it's doing harm - sort of a rhetorical question isn't it?

getting used to a vibration that shouldn't be there in the first place? The hooptie-tization of the 350z continues.

I'm assuming you didn't spend pocket change on your car. Why spend pocket change on a mod? Just to say you have a mod? The car is very capable in stock form. Likely more car than most people can truly drive at it's limit. I'm not saying everyone who mods has to go full tilt, no budget, all out, but at least put some value in the changes you do. Otherwise it literally is a waste of money. You're now having to compromise the ****-poor design of a mod just to get it to fit properly in the first place? Why bother? Having to compromise them even more by denting them just so it clears a major component of the car is more compromise than you should be willing to make. Regardless of what the mod cost you. It's not like headers are a simple 5 minute install on this car. Might as well make them worthwhile if you're going to bother doing them at all

 

lol.

 

For anyone who might ever look at this thread again -
Successfully put a torch to the headers tonight, and made enough clearance for the steering shaft. No more vibration!

Here is what it looked like before:



Forgot to take after picture, but will do so very soon!

 

What does the butt dyno say about the gains from ebay headers?