OBX Longtube Headers

[dekan513]

marrylandcreed , lol if u were sellin these u would be all about them its funny that everyone that i know that has obx are happy right. the real back story to obx they are a good product for the price i know of 2 sets 1st hand. Mine which have about 5k miles on them and i cleaned on them about a week ago when cleaning under the hood and have to say they still look good. The other set are on a friends 600 hp+ car for about 20k miles no problem yet . as far as heat and cooling goes have u ever tried cutting stainless with torches it def takes a bit more to do it. also u say the kooks 304 is better stuff how do u know they dont get the metal from the same place or a sister company.

[Badbubba]

Originally Posted by dekan513

marrylandcreed , lol if u were sellin these u would be all about them its funny that everyone that i know that has obx are happy right. the real back story to obx they are a good product for the price i know of 2 sets 1st hand. Mine which have about 5k miles on them and i cleaned on them about a week ago when cleaning under the hood and have to say they still look good. The other set are on a friends 600 hp+ car for about 20k miles no problem yet . as far as heat and cooling goes have u ever tried cutting stainless with torches it def takes a bit more to do it. also u say the kooks 304 is better stuff how do u know they dont get the metal from the same place or a sister company.

From my experience, you can not cut stainless with torches, you basically melt your way through it. You need a plasma cutter or air arc for cutting. As far as metal fatigue (cracking/splitting,warpiing), due to heat cycling, it will eventally happen to all metals. Some faster that others. It all depends on the composition of the metal, the weld material, the consistancy of the weld beads and a few other factors. I work in an electrical maint. dept. as a predictive maintenance reliability cordinator for a Steel Manufacturer. Lots of heat cycling where I work, so we need to know the metallurgy of materials before we use them in critical areas. We've gotten some low quality metal products, including conduit, that have been nothing but headaches. Btw, running rigid & coated is slightly harder than emt.

[Mr. Unassailable]

Originally Posted by Badbubba

From my experience, you can not cut stainless with torches, you basically melt your way through it. You need a plasma cutter or air arc for cutting. As far as metal fatigue (cracking/splitting,warpiing), due to heat cycling, it will eventally happen to all metals. Some faster that others. It all depends on the composition of the metal, the weld material, the consistancy of the weld beads and a few other factors. I work in an electrical maint. dept. as a predictive maintenance reliability cordinator for a Steel Manufacturer. Lots of heat cycling where I work, so we need to know the metallurgy of materials before we use them in critical areas. We've gotten some low quality metal products, including conduit, that have been nothing but headaches. Btw, running rigid & coated is slightly harder than emt.

The OBX headers I received a few weeks ago were cut with a cut off wheel. Not a plasma or gas cutting system. The lack of weld root / penetration left plenty of room to see the scared edges of the pipes.

It is very common and I bet most header manufacturers use that same method. They may plasma cut the flanges but the piping is very most likely cut by wheel or band saw.

And on "all metals", not true. As a professional weld inspector, I look at new production welds as well as 50+ year old in service welds. You could replace all metals with cost efficient alloys and have a fairly true statement.

[kcox2010]

Can someone do a picture of the spring bolt or tell me how to install it on the header to cat thanks

[toml_pa]

Originally Posted by kcox2010

Can someone do a picture of the spring bolt or tell me how to install it on the header to cat thanks

This isn't OBX, but should give you an idea how they go. Spring goes on the bolt side not the nut side. Mine kept coming loose so I got new (better and shorter) bolts, washers and lock nuts (without nylon) and ditched the springs. No problems since.

[dekan513]

u can cut it with torches its not easy but u can that what im sayin. i work as a carpenter and do alot with metals aswell but , i rent a building to a friend that uses it as a recycling place i go down there alot to look and see what he gets in its amazing what ppl scrap. i help him sometimes aswell cutting stuff up. im decent with torches not the best in the world but good enuff. i cut some stainless the other day to finsh makin a powdercoating over as i need a bigger one.

i didnt know this about stainless either till the other day they are chromin stainless now. i didnt know u could do that but never had anything chromed or know alot about it.

also i learned alot about inspecting welds in the last year or so as like i said i am a carpenter and sometimes do metal work. my last place we were i was over 50 ' in the air workin on i beams and the welder there pulled me to the side to say hey i noticed u just walk out on a beam after someone welded without lookin at the weld first. as he said its ur life in the balance so do what u want but i would recommend to inspect the weld urself , and he showed me what to look for and throught the job he showed me alot about welding. he said he had been doing it for 35+ years professionally. im no expert in no means but the obx headers look like a good product to me

[papawattz]

Originally Posted by ss/rs-matt

First, I used to be an commercial electrician and supermarket refrigeration tech and bending conduit was the easiest part of the job. Second, in your original post you mentioned nothing about heat cycles. You did point out that when bending thin electrical pipe it would split. So what? I didn't have to bend my headers into place, incase you didn't know they come pre-bent, genius. Third, I was the one who checked the thickness of the OBX headers and if I remember correct they were either a 14 or 16 gauge stainless. So what if the thinner stuff breaks, OBX used the thicker stuff.
Lets say OBX did break the thinner so called "inferior stainless" then it sounds like they resolved your "assumed issue" they MIGHT of had using the thicker stuff.
Any other brilliant thoughts I should comment on?

Commercial electrician, uh huh, nobody that is a REAL electrician says" I use to be a commercial electrician" and superemarket refrigeration tech? Kinda like the refrigeration-electrician-plumber-tech's that I worked around at TYLER refrigeration, here in Niles Michigan. Were they good refrig. tech's, I don't know? I am not a refrig. tech, were they good plumbers, once again I'm not a plumber, I don't know? What I do know was that little refrigeration course they took at the community college didn't teach them shit about what a REAL electrician should know Installing MC cable, flex or pre-bent conduit, or maybe bending the occasional stub 90 doesn't make you an Electrician. And wiring up refrigerators, lets see, I'm no expert but lets see , power for fan and compressor motors 120/ 208-240 volts. a little control wring for T stat 12/24 volts- 120 volts, general lighting 120/ 277 volts, door switches, defrosters, etc... Anyway the point I was trying to make was if the poor quality steal was splitting when thin,it is probably just barely hanging on when it is one or two gauges thicker! Therefore, when you start adding heating and cooling cycles, you start to stress the metal, not to mention the welds! Genius

[papawattz]

Originally Posted by dekan513

marrylandcreed , lol if u were sellin these u would be all about them its funny that everyone that i know that has obx are happy right. the real back story to obx they are a good product for the price i know of 2 sets 1st hand. Mine which have about 5k miles on them and i cleaned on them about a week ago when cleaning under the hood and have to say they still look good. The other set are on a friends 600 hp+ car for about 20k miles no problem yet . as far as heat and cooling goes have u ever tried cutting stainless with torches it def takes a bit more to do it. also u say the kooks 304 is better stuff how do u know they dont get the metal from the same place or a sister company.

Hey I'm not trying to bash anybody for what they went with, I'm not trying to sell anybody on Kooks over OBX's, I do agree with alot of what Maryland speed is saying! To each his own, it's your money spend it how you like. I'm just giving my input on experience with cheaper Chinese pipe. I really don't know if there steel is really any different than Kooks, but I do know if the steel is a lower quality, more brittle and less plyable steel, you have to go thicker to accomplish the same bending radius's! As with OBX's being thicker it just makes me wonder why??And for me I'm a Union electrician that supports this country's workers and believe I should show this by what I am purchasing, that's all. I'm not trying to compare union to non-union here, I'm just giving an opinion, that's all. And I know the car is Made in Canada but like I've said before, Canada's like our 51st state, and besides they buy and support alot of American products and jobs, they are a good trading! And the profits go right back to the good ole' USA

[papawattz]

Originally Posted by Badbubba

From my experience, you can not cut stainless with torches, you basically melt your way through it. You need a plasma cutter or air arc for cutting. As far as metal fatigue (cracking/splitting,warpiing), due to heat cycling, it will eventally happen to all metals. Some faster that others. It all depends on the composition of the metal, the weld material, the consistancy of the weld beads and a few other factors. I work in an electrical maint. dept. as a predictive maintenance reliability cordinator for a Steel Manufacturer. Lots of heat cycling where I work, so we need to know the metallurgy of materials before we use them in critical areas. We've gotten some low quality metal products, including conduit, that have been nothing but headaches. Btw, running rigid & coated is slightly harder than emt.

You talkin' PVC coated rigid, you are correct, with out the proper shoes this style of conduit is a bear!Pvc coated rigid is worthless without it's coating, even the patch material is not that great!!

[Quick]

Description:

• Sus-304 stainless steel
• 16 gauge runner wall
• 1 7/8" primary tube
• 3.0" collector diameter
• 2 1/2" collector outlet
• CNC machined
• Mandrel bend for smoother flow
• Individual port
• Accessories on photo are included
• See disclaimer on the bottom
• OBX backed warranty

[Badbubba]

Originally Posted by Mr. Unassailable

The OBX headers I received a few weeks ago were cut with a cut off wheel. Not a plasma or gas cutting system. The lack of weld root / penetration left plenty of room to see the scared edges of the pipes.

It is very common and I bet most header manufacturers use that same method. They may plasma cut the flanges but the piping is very most likely cut by wheel or band saw.


And on "all metals", not true. As a professional weld inspector, I look at new production welds as well as 50+ year old in service welds. You could replace all metals with cost efficient alloys and have a fairly true statement.

Ya your right with the abrasive and hack saw. But I was refering to hot work, since that is what was posted, using torches.
I gotta disagree with not all metals will crack. Given enough time with stress and heat cycles, it will crack. Nothing lasts forever. We have equipment that is over 100 years old, we continue to use the frames over and over, no cracks. Other equipment cycles in and out of 2400F temps, cracks develop alot sooner in that environment. As far as welds, the variances in weld thickness/wideths, rod material, current setting, undercutting.....can play a role in cracking. Differences between rod material and base metal along with variances in beads will cause different expansion rates during the heat cycles. Thus fatigue faster. But how long will it take who knows.

Originally Posted by dekan513

u can cut it with torches its not easy but u can that what im sayin. i work as a carpenter and do alot with metals aswell but , i rent a building to a friend that uses it as a recycling place i go down there alot to look and see what he gets in its amazing what ppl scrap. i help him sometimes aswell cutting stuff up. im decent with torches not the best in the world but good enuff. i cut some stainless the other day to finsh makin a powdercoating over as i need a bigger one.

i didnt know this about stainless either till the other day they are chromin stainless now. i didnt know u could do that but never had anything chromed or know alot about it.

also i learned alot about inspecting welds in the last year or so as like i said i am a carpenter and sometimes do metal work. my last place we were i was over 50 ' in the air workin on i beams and the welder there pulled me to the side to say hey i noticed u just walk out on a beam after someone welded without lookin at the weld first. as he said its ur life in the balance so do what u want but i would recommend to inspect the weld urself , and he showed me what to look for and throught the job he showed me alot about welding. he said he had been doing it for 35+ years professionally. im no expert in no means but the obx headers look like a good product to me

They may have added more chromium to the stainless, but I don't believe they would have coated LTs. Although, I'm fairly certain they are now polished. Stainless usually has about 11% minimum chromium content. Also, burning, welding and grinding stainless exposes you to hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen. We are required to wear respirators when performing this kind of work with stainless. You'd be amazed at what we throw away. BTW, how's the logging with the SCT coming along?

[ss/rs-matt]

Originally Posted by papawattz

Commercial electrician, uh huh, nobody that is a REAL electrician says" I use to be a commercial electrician" and superemarket refrigeration tech? Kinda like the refrigeration-electrician-plumber-tech's that I worked around at TYLER refrigeration, here in Niles Michigan. Were they good refrig. tech's, I don't know? I am not a refrig. tech, were they good plumbers, once again I'm not a plumber, I don't know? What I do know was that little refrigeration course they took at the community college didn't teach them shit about what a REAL electrician should know Installing MC cable, flex or pre-bent conduit, or maybe bending the occasional stub 90 doesn't make you an Electrician. And wiring up refrigerators, lets see, I'm no expert but lets see , power for fan and compressor motors 120/ 208-240 volts. a little control wring for T stat 12/24 volts- 120 volts, general lighting 120/ 277 volts, door switches, defrosters, etc... Anyway the point I was trying to make was if the poor quality steal was splitting when thin,it is probably just barely hanging on when it is one or two gauges thicker! Therefore, when you start adding heating and cooling cycles, you start to stress the metal, not to mention the welds! Genius

lol, I worked for Edison source a sub company of so cal Edison. I installed automated energy management systems that controlled everything from the lighting to the compressor racks to the air handlers. I custom built the controls which housed the I/O boards and relays. I installed and programmed the variable voltage variable frequency drives for the compressors and hvac system. I did everything from run the pipe to wiring the controls to full start up of the system. I have since left that trade and now build, install and repair commercial elevators and escalators for the second largest elevator company in the world. On a day to day basis I diagnosis and repair some of the most complex computer controlled automated elevator systems on the planet. This includes wiring changes to software programming. Your right, I don't have to bend pipe anymore. I let my helpers do the easy stuff. :-)

[ss/rs-matt]

With all these metals experts on here can someone explain to me how the $100 mild steel hedman headers that are rusted and look like hell havent fallen off my 46 ford? They've been on for 15 years and have been through many heat cycles. Are you going to tell me that mild steel is better than supposed Chinese steel? I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here and say my OBX headers will outlast the mild steel fenders on my car.



Btw, china produces 44% of the worlds steel.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel...ntry#section_1

[papawattz]

Originally Posted by ss/rs-matt

lol, I worked for Edison source a sub company of so cal Edison. I installed automated energy management systems that controlled everything from the lighting to the compressor racks to the air handlers. I custom built the controls which housed the I/O boards and relays. I installed and programmed the variable voltage variable frequency drives for the compressors and hvac system. I did everything from run the pipe to wiring the controls to full start up of the system. I have since left that trade and now build, install and repair commercial elevators and escalators for the second largest elevator company in the world. On a day to day basis I diagnosis and repair some of the most complex computer controlled automated elevator systems on the planet. This includes wiring changes to software programming. Your right, I don't have to bend pipe anymore. I let my helpers do the easy stuff. :-)

Allright,allright, I see you have some knowledge. Your not as dumb as you look! ..LOL, just kidding.I'm impressed with your background, I was just testing the waters to see what kind of experience you had. Your story hits close to home! I too, have had some experience with PLC's and Freq. drives, can't say I'm the best at it, but I can hold my own! I really don't do alot of conduit anymore, kinda moved past that knuckle draggin' stuff..ha,ha.I worked construction for years(Industrial,commercial and residential) and have had the privelage to see and to work with just about evreything in the Electrical world, including elevators! Would I be safe to assume you work for Otis? I work at a Nuke plant here in Michigan(the one that isn't shut down),and I see the Otis guys here every now and again. Now I've done some pretty complex pipe racks/networks in my time so I wouldn't say it's all easy stuff! There is some skill involved,especially when you start running rigid conduit! I'm also a certified(3G-UP) welder,that's where I had my concern with the grade of steel? like I said in another earlier post, I'm really not too sure, the the grade of steel the OBX's are? I was just questioning yhe cost and the reason to go with a thicker gauge! I guess my experience with cheaper Chinese pipe from the past caused me to question! I 'm not trying to put anyone down with their choice of headers. At least that wasn't what I was trying to put out there.I guess I just got caught up with the comment about being a fool to purchase Kooks instead of the OBX's!Anyway I'm rambling here, I don't think anything bad about anyone buying the OBX's, I'm sure they are good headers, just not for me! Nice color by the way, that was actually the color and stripes I almost got, but I got my second color choice for alot less, couldn't pass it up! Later.