Worries about headers with flexible connections
 

I've had a couple of cars which had these flex connectors as adapters between headers and B pipes, or other places to absorb the movement between the two pieces (example below). In the salt rich environment of the great white north these were always the pieces that would wear out on an OEM exhaust.

Is anyone concerned enough about that area, and it's potential to rust, to shy away from headers that have the piece? I see these on a couple UEL designs and wonder why they are in place since I can look at lots of other UEL header designs for Subaru's which don't have that flex piece. Is it used because our cars don't have a UEL to begin with and thus a normal UEL design won't work?

Interested in everyone's thoughts.


https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...3ZbDmqaee1M17F

I've only had bad experiences with those flex connectors as well.....

However, some of the header designs use an accordion section much like the OEM manifold, I think those are a little more robust

Theres many different types of flex joints...

We first built the headers using these exact ones:
http://vibrantperformance.com/catalo...oducts_id=2425

Everyone of them failed and we ended up replacing all the headers. The bellow was paper thin and basically crap.

We switched over to this design and haven't had an issue since on 100+ headers. Its a triple layer joint all stainless. Most of the ones you see in normal exhaust systems are single layer and just consist of the braid you see on the outside.
http://jdlautodesign.net/wp-content/...9/New-Flex.jpg

I have borla uel headers with flex joints. It's been running fine for the last 6-7 thousand miles I've had it installed. No cracks, no leaks, perfectly fine. I do have mine wrapped with header tape.

And I think I'll let @Jesse@JDLAutodesign then explain why they don't like header wrap either ;).

The oem header is designed to last the life of the car and uses flex sections. Borla and JDL both offer essentially lifetime warranties and use flex sections. Every header without flex sections has a 1 year warranty. Maybe it's only coincidence.


Something to watch out for with flex sections is their actual construction. Many of the wire mesh variety use stainless steel wire but aluminized mild steel end caps which will rust away, freeing the wire mesh and essentially falling apart after only a few years. Others don't even have a liner. The flex section pictured above by JDL appears to me to be about as good as they get.