I've put two A&B header pipes on and they've both immediately leaked, one at the cat flange and one at the manifold flange. The welds have generally looked shoddy and have leaked. So, who makes (sells) a reasonably priced header that I'll only have to put on once?

By the way, the new cat which is also from A&B (according to the FCP website) has good looking flange welds - it looks like it was welded in an entirely different shop.

Thanks,
Tom

I just installed a Bosal header pipe today and found that it fit perfectly. Looks good too, with the long tri-Y connecting under the passenger seat as it should. I have seen then join at the turn under on Walker systems, which I will no longer sell.

Apparently they all do -- sometimes.

I started out giving Starla headpipes the stinkeye because of one shoddily constructed example, compared with a Bosal. Then I get a Bosal with similar unusable quality, compared to a nicely made one supposedly A&B, though nothing on the A&B part itself but the Maple Leaf sticker.

Then in a post yesterday I learn even Volvo-bought headpipes are not the same as what the car was given back when it was built, although no allusion to quality problems came through.

And others' reports that make it sound commonplace and de rigueur for pipe shops to grind, bend and weld these parts before bolting them on.

I got the entire system for son's 81 from FCP a couple of yrs ago. Pipes were Starla, and the muffler shop said they were decent quality. They ran the downpipes' flange (to manifold) through their bench grinder to smooth it - otherwise everything bolted up fine and is still OK. The Cat was in a Bosal box but the guys said it was a generic (Walker? - can't recall) unit they see a lot of.
--
Bob (son's 81-244GL B21F, dtr's 83-244DL B23F, 'my' 94-944 B230FD; plus grocery-getter Dodge minivan, hobbycar MGB, and numerous old motorcycles)

I'm pretty sure the downpipe I installed several years ago was made by Bosal. The welds on it are holding up ok, but the 2 pipes @ the manifold flange were not flush and had to be cut down. Other than that, the Bosal pipe is working fine(I have at least 85k miles on it).