whats up fellas, i just installed some alphawerks headers this weekend and noticed at about 2500 rpms that the make sort of a raspy , rattley sound. please tell me based on your experience that this is normal or not. thanks

 

I dont know since i have not installed my headers. Were the Alphawerks headers the last part you installed?

 

you sure it wasn't from the hfcs? certain models can sometimes be raspy when paired with headers

 

It isn't an exhaust leak sound, is it? I had a shop install my Alphawerks headers with Crawford cats and when I was driving it away, I heard a prodigous exhaust leak. Took the car back to the shop the next day and discovered that the driver's side header was defective. We had to have Alphawerks overnight a replacement and it just got reinstalled last night. I have yet to pick it up again, but I'm hoping that everything is worked out. It's been a real pain. On the plus side, I was able to get Alphawerks to replace it for the cost of shipping.

But yeah, hope that your Alphawerks don't have a defect. It's a real pain. Good luck.

 

i'll be going back to where i installed them to take a look. it basicly comes at 2500 rpms and up, oh it's not the cats cause it comes from under the hood and not from under the car. at low rpms 0-2000, it's quiet but, at wide open throttle it gets raspy and sounds like it's rattling and starts sounding ricey, bleh! i'll keep you guys informed. good luck with you new replacement too man.thanks fellas

 

that could be it as well. the shop said it could be that these headers are thinned walled and it could be normal. i'll find out.thank you

 

actually if you mean the day of installs it was first. i installed the headers and the y pipe and exhaust.i already had everything else on

 

Did you check to see that the Alphawerks headers were level where they attach to the engine? Because the driver's side header I had and then the one they sent as a replacement were both not level. We machined the metal down to create a good fit, but it was a real pain. It sounds to me like you have an exhaust leak at the engine though. If it has a blat, blat, blat quality to it, in other words it pulses and is rather loud, that's probably your problem.

Let me know what happens.

Also, when you do get that problem fixed, there is also an issue with the Alphawerks headers and high-flo cats lowering the exhaust angle so that there's not enough room between the back pipe into the muffler and the crossmember that runs across the exhaust at the back of the car. It'll rattle when cold and at certian RPMs. Some 14 mm washers added to the crossmember bolts should solve that.

Good luck.

 

thank you. i'll be sure to inform the shop about this as soon as i get the chance to go back.
take care

 

alpha werk requires that when you bolt them on, you bolt from the inside (middle) towards the outside... seems like most of them are not leveled, but you can over come that by bolting them in that pattern...... hope that helps.....

 

Did Street Image install them that way for you? Did your Alphawerks headers rattle too?

 

Hey guys,

We installed Tony's headers for him, and we did not notice any unusual fitment issue at the time..
A header leak is a distinctive "TICK" or "Tapping" sound all throughout the RPM range. The Rasply sound is 99% due to the thin walls of the Alphawerks headers and combined with high flow cats, it causes a rasp in the 2500 rpm range, this is not terribly unusual..Tony will be bringing the car down for a retourqe of the header bolts, which need to be done, and we will inspect the headers at that time..

 

exactly..... mine didn't have any rasp...... well..... except from my HFC though....no rattles from my alpha....

 

Im going to have the outside of the headers coated by Swain Tech. According to Swain Tech the coating is about 5mm thick. Will the added thickness of 5mm of ceramic make the headers less raspy?

Will the 5mm added of thickness make the headers harder to install?

 

thanks to mrc for everything. they helped me understand what the causes were and will be heading down there next week.