Has anyone here spent his money on a header from this Raceland outfit? I know they're cheap for a reason, and I don't expect it to work any miracles. I'm mostly curious to know if they actually fit properly, if there are any issues with the flanges not sealing or anything like that, and how long I could expect one to last.
I need a header for my Miata 1.8 swap and the only ones available as salvage locally are the overly restrictive ones from '99/'00 cars.
Thanks,
Bryan
Buncha people on the various Miata forums have used them. General consensus is that they aren't bad. The two that i've seen in person fit properly and sealed.
I'd give 'em a shot.
I guess the other question would be, if you had to choose between an OBX and a Raceland, which would you have?
Raceland hands down. 
They are really good quality for the price, anyway that is my experience with an 8v MKI vw one.
I've had a couple of the Raceland units. They look great out of the box, good quality welds and craftsmanship, and fitment is good.
Caveat: Don't expect them to look nice for very long. They (like probably all those cheap stainless headers) use poor quality steel. It rusts. I made a number of blog posts about it on my 1.6 Miata. They're really good about customer service though, and I'm on my third (and final) Raceland header as a result.
If you see any of those 4-into-1 headers on eBay that are a knockoff of the Racing Beat design, DO NOT buy 'em.
You can find my blog posts (with plenty of pictures) here: http://www.sentimentalmechanic.com/search?q=raceland
I haven't posted the latest updates on it, which are, in brief: My second header still rusted pretty ugly after just one winter on Chicago salted interstates and side roads. I drove about 40k miles a year, so I'd consider that faster wear than most people will see. This is what it looked like after one winter:
They replaced the header for me for free (except the cost to ship the old one back). I put it in, and just a few months later it's already starting to look E36 M3ty again.
Their jig for building 'em isn't super precise, because access to the header nuts is different with each header. Still, that didn't make any of it interfere with parts of the transmission or body or whatever. It went in just as easy, it was just something I noticed because I had to go at a header nut with a wrench instead of a socket. shrug
For the money, it's hard to argue against it. But unless you're putting a ton of miles on your car regularly, it'll last you a good many years—maybe forever—before you have to replace it. You can buy what, three of these Raceland ones to make the cost of a Jackson Racing one? Makes sense to me.
I have one on my race car. It was all I had cash for and I got it to fab up the rest of the exhaust and get the project rolling, promising myself I'd get a "real" one when I had $$. As it turns out - it is a pretty nice unit. I had it smoothed inside and it made the same power as all the other S52s with $1100 headers on them. It hasn't cracked in 2 years. I call it all WIN at this point.
The only issue I had with fit was that the bolt holes needed to be reamed out a small bit and stainless is a bitch to drill at that thickness.
Thanks for chiming in. The car has seen ~60,000 miles in the last two years, but, if I can come to an agreement on something else, that mileage is not a trend that's likely to continue.
I'll probably keep an eye on Yahoo Japan in hopes of finding something a bit higher end, but from the sounds of things, Raceland is the answer for now.
I STILL can't figure out how to use Yahoo Japan....
92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I STILL can't figure out how to use Yahoo Japan....
I'm going to have to give myself a refresher course, to be honest.
There are all of these stories of $500 Maxim Works headers and the like... I need that.
MG Bryan wrote:92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I STILL can't figure out how to use Yahoo Japan....I'm going to have to give myself a refresher course, to be honest. There are all of these stories of $500 Maxim Works headers and the like... I need that.
There's a "Yahoo Japan drool thread" on MazdaRoadster.net right now.... i want so many things. Have no idea how to buy, i hear stories of middlemen and horrific shipping costs and such.
92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:MG Bryan wrote:There's a "Yahoo Japan drool thread" on MazdaRoadster.net right now.... i want so many things. Have no idea how to buy, i hear stories of middlemen and horrific shipping costs and such.92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I STILL can't figure out how to use Yahoo Japan....I'm going to have to give myself a refresher course, to be honest. There are all of these stories of $500 Maxim Works headers and the like... I need that.
I'm told slow-boats are cheap and there are various middle men that are fine to deal with.
Since I'm finally getting around to modifying this damn car, I'm going to have get back up to speed on who is and isn't reputable.
I want ITBs in a bad way.
MG Bryan wrote:92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:I'm told slow-boats are cheap and there are various middle men that are fine to deal with. Since I'm finally getting around to modifying this damn car, I'm going to have get back up to speed on who is and isn't reputable. I want ITBs in a *bad* way.MG Bryan wrote:There's a "Yahoo Japan drool thread" on MazdaRoadster.net right now.... i want so many things. Have no idea how to buy, i hear stories of middlemen and horrific shipping costs and such.92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I STILL can't figure out how to use Yahoo Japan....I'm going to have to give myself a refresher course, to be honest. There are all of these stories of $500 Maxim Works headers and the like... I need that.
Heh, you have PM. 
92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:MG Bryan wrote:Heh, you have PM.92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:I'm told slow-boats are cheap and there are various middle men that are fine to deal with. Since I'm finally getting around to modifying this damn car, I'm going to have get back up to speed on who is and isn't reputable. I want ITBs in a *bad* way.MG Bryan wrote:There's a "Yahoo Japan drool thread" on MazdaRoadster.net right now.... i want so many things. Have no idea how to buy, i hear stories of middlemen and horrific shipping costs and such.92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I STILL can't figure out how to use Yahoo Japan....I'm going to have to give myself a refresher course, to be honest. There are all of these stories of $500 Maxim Works headers and the like... I need that.
Bastard. 
Bought one for my F Prod Miata. Didn't take long for it to not look so pretty, but it's doing the job.
bought one for my 95, waiting to install it.
Looks pretty good, some of the inside junctions could be a bit smoother. Might do some light work on what I can get to, much better then stock though. (mutters about internal welds on stock header)
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