Ok, so i thought they were all fine and dandy until today.

Prior info - I failed state inspection due to an exhaust leak(i.e. It is illegal to drive the 4runner anywhere at this point.) at the header flange(or so we thought)

I had an exhaust shop weld the entire system up. sealed everything up great. We fired it up and still had a slight exhaust leak. WTF - I thought maybe it was the downey headers flange that everyone warned me about - I got to looking and sticking my hand near everything and lole and behold, where the 3 pipes on the driver side header merge into one pipe - there is a leak from the middle of the 3 -- Thanks a lot downey.


QUESTION! - What avenue of approach do i take on this one. I am really really not interested in taking this header out. Almost to the point of WONT take this header out myself. Would it be reasonable to ask that they pay for a shop to remove/install a new header ? How would you all approach this one.

Katie

 

if they gave you a gaurentee or warenty, then yea. deff.

 

Do they have a warrenty?
You might be stuck with removing it yourself and getting a new one.
Couldnt you get a shop to weld it up or somthing?

 

I just talked at Mike at Downey - He says that I can buy one and have it sent to me and then when I send him the defective one back, after he has it inspected at his exhaust shop, he MAY refund the money to me. I am responsible to remove/install the new header and for all shipping costs involved.

My exhaust guys said that they MIGHT be able to fix it so it wont leak - It's extremely tight in the collector area to weld it(even off the truck) -

 

Downeys warranty out of their catalog -

"You will note that Downey's properly presented formal warranty statement offers no guarantee of any parts after installation. You will also note that Downey remains successfully in business because we do stand behind our products with a voluntary pro-rated replacement policy. Best of all, you're buying directly from the manufacturer."

 

I would get the muffler shop to weld it up, if that don't work just get another set and chalk it up to experience. Oh and don't get Downey.

 

That blows - I didnt expect customer service from them; however, I did expect a good product

 

Note to Self: Dont Buy Downey Products.

Its Bullcrap, that they MIGHT give you your money back.

 

Thats what I say man - I am going to call them tomorrow or the next day after cooling down, and simply let them know that I happen to have 4 Toyota trucks in my driveway, and I opost on this board and others quite a bit. I will let them know that my dissatisfaction, or satisfaction, will be posted for many toyota DIY'ers to see.

Kat

 

Tell them how many members on here and you would be more then happy to tell them about their customer service.

I can't stand when a company will not stand behind their products, its not like you caused the leak when you installed it..

Well, let us know what they have to say, IMO they should send you a replacment header free of charge (no shipping charges) and then have you send your defective one in.

What kind of scam do they think you're trying to pull?

 

the large section of pipe after the collector is pretty much pointless and should be cut down any how. I trimmed a few inches off the large section on mine when I installed them (I welded flanges on) and if you did the same it could be welded from the inside rather than screwing up the finish by welding the out side. Remember you want your exhaust to maintain a linear flow and having those huge cans on the ends of the collectors just gives the exhaust gas a place to slow down and bog the scavenging system down.


Here is what I did and If i had it to do over again I would have cut considerably more off the headers.



Cut that chrome section on the left down to about 2" then you will be able to stick a mig gun right in the end of the header and weld up the hole. That large section has no real use other than allowing Downey to get away with a cheap ass clamping system instead of using real flanges.

 

i bought the exact same thing for my old 93 pickup also leaked and sounded like a tractor,. mine was leaking engine to header it sucked man the bolts didnt work and my threads were stripped out on the engine 300 bucks i spent on fixin it ! that downey isnt a good place to buy headers. shut down if you ask me

 

Ganoid - thanks for the informative post - I was trying to figure out how the hell to get the header out now with it welded in(i still have it clamped on the collectors though) -- How big of a deal is that to put the flanges on? is that a "normal" thing that the exhaust should be able to do no problem? Any luck that it could be done on truck? I think I could get a cutting tool in there to cut the collector, but I dont know about the welding portion.

I could be really half assed and just pull the driver side header(the easy one that happens to be leaking) and put a flange on that side but not the other..... for now.

I just dont want to deal with the passenger side header due to the reed valve and EGR

Kat

 

I bought the flanges at an exhaust shop (4 of them 3/8" thick) and welded them on myself. I welded mine before I put them on but if you had a good welder with a small mig gun and a mirror you could probably get all the way around it. Any leaks you have could be welded from the inside with ease. The flanges actually slip over the chrome header cans so you could actually weld the flange in place first then trim off the extra. You could even tack the flange in place on the side that you are going to cut off to hold it so you can fully weld the front side a little easier. The only down fall to flanges is that you need to look pretty hard to find good header gaskets (exhaust shop can help ya) and you need to change them occasionally but thats a pretty easy task really. I usually end up changing mine once a year or so when they start to leak. Now that I have a FROR cross member my motor never moves so maybe I wont have to change them any more.

there was a post above complaining about the cheesy bolts Downey provides and I thought I would point out that you can get most of the studs for proper install right off the stock Toyota exhaust system. I think you need 12 of the longer studs and you can use the 3 on each end of the cross over pipe and the 3 on the outlet pipe then you only need to buy 3 more from Toyota for $3 or $4 each. The best part about using the stock studs located on the cast iron parts of the manifold is that they are super strong and they have a head on them so you can install and remove them with a socket. The manifold will sometimes need to be heated with a torch to get the longer studs out without stripping the stud head (not like your gonna use the cast iron parts again any how). A trick for keeping a stud in place so it wont unscrew when you remove the nut is to use some red RTV on the threads instead of anti-seize when you install it into the head. The RTV will hold the stud reasonably well and it will never dry hard like loctite. RTV will also seal out any moisture or contaminants (much the way anti-seize does) that could corrode the stud to the head and seize it .

 

*Sorry to Quote the quote Katie, but I don't have their warranty in front of me, but yeah, looks like it says that on their site...Hmmm.

Be sure to post a X-post to this and the build up so any newbie's don't learn the hard way also.

Take this as a bonus, the engines ok though, right!!

Seems like DOA and Downey aren't the people to deal with, kinda sad, they had a lot going for them 'Way back when". Guess things change.

 

damn katie that really sucks, and i am sorry to hear about your problems. thanksaplenty for posting your experience though. i have a set of downey headers on my partslist but for the V6.....i am hoping those aren't leakers....
post up on the other boards, mike er someone else will end up reading a post about this issue and may contact You to work something out....these here boards are a double edged sword....good to get good news about products and their vendors and also good to get out the dirt on some as well!!
ganoid - good info too btw....
hope all goes well -

 

these are for the v6 REDEYE