Why are headers so expensive?
08-27-2014 | 09:50 PM
#61
Registered
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 1,754
Likes: 6
From: Long Island, NY
if you wait for the failure then your going to be buying a motor and headers , the 525 is a great motor and you can get a lot of hours out of them. at 300 hrs you should be changing the valve springs get new headers and be good for another 300 hrs
you are lucky to have gone this long
the hardin marine headers are a replacement
you are lucky to have gone this long
the hardin marine headers are a replacement
An easy (and safe) way to pressure check the headers while they're still on the boat is with compressed air. You can use a leakdown tester or make a homemade one consisting of a pressure regulator, 1/4" ball valve and pressure gauge and a bunch of fittings to get it all together. First, block off the water inlet and outlet with 1" rubber furniture stoppers and hose clamps. Then hook one end of the tester to an air compressor and the other end to the 3/4" fitting on the header. Then open the small blue drain plug and let some air in to purge any remaining water in the headers so they're empty for the test. Next, set the regulator to 60 psi, open the valve to fill the header with air, close the valve, then monitor the gauge to see if there is any loss in pressure. It really works great and will tell you if you have any leaks before they really bite you. It's easy, safe and you can do it pretty regularly without taking the headers off. Here's what mine looks like.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]528457[/ATTACH]
08-28-2014 | 09:52 AM
#63
Registered
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 3,581
Likes: 3
From: Houston
at 300 hours, you should definitely be doing valve springs and also consider rocker arms. and H20 is right.. if you wait until your headers fail to check, it will be too late.. ask me how I know..
An easy (and safe) way to pressure check the headers while they're still on the boat is with compressed air. You can use a leakdown tester or make a homemade one consisting of a pressure regulator, 1/4" ball valve and pressure gauge and a bunch of fittings to get it all together. First, block off the water inlet and outlet with 1" rubber furniture stoppers and hose clamps. Then hook one end of the tester to an air compressor and the other end to the 3/4" fitting on the header. Then open the small blue drain plug and let some air in to purge any remaining water in the headers so they're empty for the test. Next, set the regulator to 60 psi, open the valve to fill the header with air, close the valve, then monitor the gauge to see if there is any loss in pressure. It really works great and will tell you if you have any leaks before they really bite you. It's easy, safe and you can do it pretty regularly without taking the headers off. Here's what mine looks like.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]528457[/ATTACH]
An easy (and safe) way to pressure check the headers while they're still on the boat is with compressed air. You can use a leakdown tester or make a homemade one consisting of a pressure regulator, 1/4" ball valve and pressure gauge and a bunch of fittings to get it all together. First, block off the water inlet and outlet with 1" rubber furniture stoppers and hose clamps. Then hook one end of the tester to an air compressor and the other end to the 3/4" fitting on the header. Then open the small blue drain plug and let some air in to purge any remaining water in the headers so they're empty for the test. Next, set the regulator to 60 psi, open the valve to fill the header with air, close the valve, then monitor the gauge to see if there is any loss in pressure. It really works great and will tell you if you have any leaks before they really bite you. It's easy, safe and you can do it pretty regularly without taking the headers off. Here's what mine looks like.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]528457[/ATTACH]
08-28-2014 | 11:43 AM
#65
VIP Member
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,992
Likes: 48
From: Cleveland Ohio
My company produces motorcycle exhausts, we use various grades of titanium, carbon fiber, carbon and stainless steel in the different applications and models we make. After buying our boat with the CMI exhaust and reading about the experiences I looked in depth at creating something along the lines of CMI. At the end of the day, producing a CMI like exhaust would have been a substantial up front investment and not being in the Marine industry a large gamble for my company. The margin would have been OK and pricing would have ended up slightly under CMI. So not a smart business decision for us if we went into production. The reason automotive headers are so much less expensive is demand, supplier competition and shear production volume.
