Borla Headers Update

[DJCarbine]

Originally Posted by fstlane

Less than 5 minutes with a press and it's fixed!

Worked out pretty good right? Just a few seconds with the press is all it needs

[fstlane]

Originally Posted by DJCarbine

Worked out pretty good right? Just a few seconds with the press is all it needs

It worked out perfect. Thanks for the tip!

[ThisGuy919]

Originally Posted by ATL BRZ

How did you check for leaks? If you have a warped flange you may notice some black soot around gaskets at the flange connections. You should check the torque specs on all the nuts also, but if you already have a warped flange that's not going to help much. I would uninstall the header and put a straight edge on the flanges to be 100% sure.

Waved my hand around the gasket areas and the welds. It sounds like it's coming from my intake the more I search for it. It def wasn't there b4 the install..

[Fast_Freddy]

Originally Posted by fstlane

As a point of reference, here is some pictures of my latest production run header. The quality is still a bit lacking but an improvement over some of the older pictures I've seen on here. There is still some flange warping and one tube is full of metal shavings. I was hoping to install it today but I'm not sure about the gap in the manifold to head flange. It appears to be around .3mm and I'm hoping the gasket will seal it. If not I might use the DJCarbine method and straighten it with a hydraulic press at work. Either way it will get a thorough cleaning inside before I install it. I just wanted to update the Borla update thread with some recent data.

Odd that the head flange could be warped considering that on my older Borla header the flanges appeared to have been machined flat after welding. Of course I did check mine with an actual straight edge. Are you sure that blade is perfectly flat?

[fstlane]

Originally Posted by Fast_Freddy

Odd that the head flange could be warped considering that on my older Borla header the flanges appeared to have been machined flat after welding. Of course I did check mine with an actual straight edge. Are you sure that blade is perfectly flat?

If you compare the head to manifold flange and the manifold to downpipe flange you can see they are bent different directions with the same blade edge. On the passanger side head flange it's concaved towards the center. The driver's side was perfectly flat and the downpipe flange was bowed out. They look similar to the other pictures I've seen on the forums. The flanges were likely surface ground flat prior to assembly. They were warped from the heat of welding process. After welding they appear to just have been cleaned with grinder/polisher but not surface ground flat again. There are several easy ways Borla could eliminate these issues and save a ton of money on RMA's and their reputation.

[PhastekSport]

One of our customers went ahead and installed f1point4's replacement header. We used the Grimmspeed gaskets...

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K3jfu_17os"]PhastekSport.com - Borla UEL Header 17284 for the Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ - YouTube[/ame]


Setup

Borla UEL #17284
Perrin 2.5" Overpipe
Invidia Catted 2.5" Front Pipe
FT86SpeedFactory V1 2.5" Catback Exhaust

Another local customer with an earlier run got his replacement in this weekend as well.

[jflogerzi]

Mine should be shipping today. Fresh batch according to FT86SpeedFactory. I hope to get it installed by the weekend.

[Fast_Freddy]

Originally Posted by fstlane

If you compare the head to manifold flange and the manifold to downpipe flange you can see they are bent different directions with the same blade edge. On the passanger side head flange it's concaved towards the center. The driver's side was perfectly flat and the downpipe flange was bowed out. They look similar to the other pictures I've seen on the forums. The flanges were likely surface ground flat prior to assembly. They were warped from the heat of welding process. After welding they appear to just have been cleaned with grinder/polisher but not surface ground flat again. There are several easy ways Borla could eliminate these issues and save a ton of money on RMA's and their reputation.

On my header the head flanges were perfectly flat and showed the tool marks of having been machined flat. Since there would be no reason to do this before welding I assumed that it was done afterward. Obviously I can't know for certain what Borla's process is. Perhaps the slightly warped flanges are ground flat but the more badly warped flanges aren't always ground down enough? Obviously their QC could be better but for the money, there is no other choice.


FWIW, I just wanted to add that under certain conditions I had a very annoying metallic resonance noise coming from my exhaust that both I and my shop thought was probably the Borla header. It turned out to be the heat shields on the oem over-pipe. Replacing the oem OP with a Perrin eliminated this noise entirely. I hope this might help some others since I've read a lot of complaints about similar noises and the header was the usual suspect.

[fstlane]

Originally Posted by Fast_Freddy

On my header the head flanges were perfectly flat and showed the tool marks of having been machined flat. Since there would be no reason to do this before welding I assumed that it was done afterward. Obviously I can't know for certain what Borla's process is. Perhaps the slightly warped flanges are ground flat but the more badly warped flanges aren't always ground down enough? Obviously their QC could be better but for the money, there is no other choice.


FWIW, I just wanted to add that under certain conditions I had a very annoying metallic resonance noise coming from my exhaust that both I and my shop thought was probably the Borla header. It turned out to be the heat shields on the oem over-pipe. Replacing the oem OP with a Perrin eliminated this noise entirely. I hope this might help some others since I've read a lot of complaints about similar noises and the header was the usual suspect.

I guess my thought was the raw flange was ground flat after being cut out.

But then as you can see from the lack of tool marks in this close up, very little was done after final assembly. At best it appears they cleaned up the welds a little and polished it up a bit. If it had been surface ground you should have seen grind areas on the high points which is near the bolt tabs. Instead the only part that shows work done to it is between the ports in the center but that area is already low.

Either way the header is repaired, installed and I'm happy with it. I haven't noticed any issues with the heatshield yet but maybe I'll check it out the next time I'm under there. Thanks for the tip!

[Ray_32]

I received my Borla UEL header yesterday. It's light! A quick look at it and yep it's definitely not the best made header out there - compared to Perrin's welding and finishing (had the Perrin OP on the same order) it is day and night. I took a metal ruler to check the flanges for any warping and the header>overpipe flange was slightly warped (1mm at most). The header>engine flanges were pretty flat but the surface is very slightly wavy on the touch. I've arranged for my go-to workshop to mill it down and probably have it installed by the end of next week. Hopefully everything works fine and I don't need to go through the hassle of a refund process. I live in Asia and international refunds are not fun.

Overall, I think Borla should really improve their QC. The weld quality is rather worrying, though I can't tell if it'll hold up until I have it installed. Honestly, I chose the Borla after going through a ton of sound videos and I hope I won't be disappointed. Fingers crossed.

[Fast_Freddy]

FWIW, here is what one of my flanges looked like.



Not the best quality header in the world but it makes great sound, very good hp/tq gains, the cost is very reasonable and the warranty is as good as it gets. I too wish the quality was better but honestly, it's good enough for a H4 header that no one sees.

[fstlane]

[QUOTE=Fast_Freddy;1287346]FWIW, here is what one of my flanges looked like.

/QUOTE]
Mine must have missed that step on the assembly line. I'm glad yours came out better!

[Fast_Freddy]

Originally Posted by fstlane

Mine must have missed that step on the assembly line. I'm glad yours came out better!

Thanks! Sorry your header was made on a Monday... The important thing is that you fixed the minor problems, it's on the car and you can enjoy it. Do you have a tune yet? I had my AT FRS dyno'ed with the Borla and a Tsudo HFC front pipe installed before and after a Visconti stage 2 tune. Brady at Pure Automotive did the work and said that a stock AT 86 should do about 150whp on his dyno. My car did 160 un-tuned, 170 with the base tune and 178 whp after Visconti tweaked the tune a little bit. I was surprised that the tune did more than the header and FP.

[jpit]

The Borla header is one of the only headers that comes with a ceramic coating.