megan headers?

by **SleeperSolara** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:22 am

cdeez wrote::o .............

+1

Yeah more than a 1 year warranty for me, or some mileage warranty since my car is a DD.

by **Astro** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:34 am

Damn, I'm glad I picked up the JPP headers/y-pipe...I hope you all don't have those problems.

by **dominoSLEV6** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:27 pm

Those pics are scary. If it's between getting that crappy quality or spending the extra $ on jpp, I'll save my money until I can afford the jpp setup. Why would a company put so much time into fabricating a product and let detail, care, and proper welding go untouched.

-chris

by **Grazi07** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:19 am

I don't believe they would.

I can understand your concerns, and I find those pictures to be equally shocking. I know people who have used the same products and have had no trouble whatsoever. All the welds on the product I rec'd were very clean, unlike that nasty unsanded one. It looks to me like it could have been a patch job at one point, the quality of that one weld on the test pipe is incosistent with every other one I've seen from Megan.

I don't know how metal cracks like that, I'm no engineer. Seems to me a pretty serious amount of force would be needed, probably moreso than is exerted by exhaust pressure. I don't mean to question anyone integrity, but a company wouldn't stay in business very long selling a product that craps out after 6 months. This is the experience of one person.

It up to you guys what you do with these. I don't care either way, mine are still free. And as far as the warranty issue goes, how long is the warranty on all the stuff thats purchased off ebay? Or through sales on this forum, like used GReddy exhausts for example?

by **SleeperSolara** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:36 am

Might still be interested want to go NA for now.
Till i can get enough money to get or find an S/C......

by **GReddySetGO** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:47 pm

Yes, that one weld that looks unsanded was a patch job. The pipe had broken once, so it was rewelded so the driver could at least drive his car around. Then the pipe broke again in the same spot.

The metal cracks like that, because it is thin metal. It's not only the force of the exhaust pressure, but also engine movement. The header is a high-heat, high-stress area.

The exhaust works as a cooling system aswell. Its designed to help cool the exhaust gas before it is released into the air. The exhaust manifold(header) is the hottest part. Out of an NA car, these gases are around 400-600+F. After long periods of driving, this can soften up thin metals. Combine that with engine movement, and you can see how this could happen. As you drive, shift, etc, your engine shifts a little here and there. Your exhaust parts are deisgned to flex/shift with it. But if its weak, and hot, and shifts a lot, then you can get cracking.

They stay in business because they sell many other parts other than what has been broken here. And since most of these are being pushed so much on eBay. I'm sure only 10% or less of the broken parts even get turned in for warrenty replacement.

In addition, I'm sure GReddy, DC Sports, etc have similar warrenties. Maybe only a year or so. But heres some more food for thought. I've been a DC Sport, GReddy dealer for the past 6yrs. And a Megan Racing dealer for 2yrs now. I have NEVER had to warrenty a GReddy/DC Sports exhaust part, EVER. And I just warrentied 3 Megan Racing parts last month.

by **GReddySetGO** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:51 pm

Also, so it doesn't look like I'm just Megan Racing bashing, when I brought in those parts. They wanted to take pics of it and send it to the factory. They also told me a version 2 of most of these parts were already in the works. Which leads me to believe I was not the first to warrenty these parts. Its just part of R&D of any company. Megan Racing is fairly new to the industry, and it takes time for a company to master its fabrication techniques. But their intrest to find out what went wrong and attempt to rectify it, shows they are trying to better their products. They are just still new, and will learn from their mistakes.

by **ruffrydasean** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:39 pm

It looks like the metal in the headers in Grazi's pics look thick(er)

by **GReddySetGO** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:25 pm

How can you tell the thickness of those metals from his pics? I'm not talking about the flanges, I'm talking about the sidewall thickness.

Everything looks good and nice when its new. Its after use thats of more concern to me. Here are some pics of those exact same parts I posted earlier, when they were new:

by **SleeperSolara** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:30 pm

Man this is makin' me think. :-?

by **GReddySetGO** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:44 pm

Yeah, I know its kinda sucks for you guys. You're very limited in your selections since very few companies make these parts for you cars. But in the end, you get what you pay for. There is a reason Megan Racing parts are rediculously cheap.

You guys gotta think long run, especially those of you who pay for installs etc too. Many of my customers have made that very mistake. Yeah, save a few hundred bucks on the part. But all it does it give them troubles. They have to keep coming back cuz the parts are breaking. Then they have to come up with money to pay for new parts, and labor etc. And they need it now, cuz they can't drive with a broken header, etc.

I had a customer who wanted DC headers, but they cost like 5x the amout of Megan Racing. So he went with Megan Racing and a few months later, came back and bought DC header cuz his cracked. So he ended up paying for labor twice and two sets of headers. When he coulda just got DC the first time and been done with it.

by **sydemoid** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:50 pm

Ok people...

Here is how it goes... No matter who you are, as a fabricator, you are going to have some discrepancy in your product, somewhere along the line. You have to think about where they get their materials from, the quality of that material, and how its handled as well.

I agree that they are atleast looking at the parts that are broken, to learn how to rectify any weaknesses, or issues.

And yes, heat does weaken metal, so think about your science class folks... when heated molecules expand, when cooling they contract.... now, think about it in thousands of cycles.... anything, if not prepped properly will give in/crack/break.

My suggestion to Megan would be to use 16 or 14 gauge piping, they may have to increase the pipe diameter to offset the gauge thickness, and allow the same flow. DC from my understanding and research uses 16 gauge pipes.

As for the welds.... maybe they should test them in an environment that exceeds its natural habitat... In other words, get a Camry/Solara/ES300, install their components to it, and run this vehicle hard... Im talking autocross hard. Then, do a spot check on the components to see how they stood up to that abuse.

Anyway, enough of my ranting... I will consider Megan when I decide to get headers for my Solara. All depending on price, and how the final product turns out.

Sorry for the long post, Im ex-military, and did a lot of quality control, still do... :drinking:

by **SleeperSolara** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:10 pm

^^^^
Dang yeah i agree wit you man.

by **Too Bzy** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:55 pm

Something else about those pictures that makes me go, Hhmmmm. The markings on the pipes...did that guy use wraps? They are known to weaken metal.

by **SleeperSolara** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:12 pm

Too Bzy wrote:Something else about those pictures that makes me go, Hhmmmm. The markings on the pipes...did that guy use wraps? They are known to weaken metal.

What wraps????
Those are to protect the headers from bein' damaged from shippin' it.

megan headers?

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