That doesnt look used at all. Its just a steel header that has been sitting for a while waiting to be purchased. During that time it has gained surface rust.

Throw a new gasket on it, and run it. In a few weeks it will look like a piece of **** anyways.

Coating it will look like **** after a few weeks too.

 

From the picture, I can't conclude that it "obviously was used." They told him they tested it on a working engine. Testing it does not make it "used." It would, however, burn off any protective oil residue and help the oxidation process to start, resulting in exactly the light, easily corrected surface oxidation you see in that pic. It wouldn't have to sit very long at all to pick up a thin layer of rust. Since he bought it from a retailer and not from APN directly, there's no way to know how long it was sitting before he bought it.

APN could have not tested it, in which case he would have risked having to beat on it with a hammer to install it, or worse, gotten a header that wouldn't sit flush and would have to be returned. They might have oiled it again after testing, but then he would be complaining that he had to wipe it down with mineral spirits to prep it for coating. And it still would have needed to be sanded to be prepped properly.

It's funny that someone would buy one of the cheapest headers imaginable with a reputation for quality issues and then complain that it was cheaply made, especially when the "problem" is so easily corrected. You guys are making a mountain out of a molehill. It reminds me of little kids who pitch a screaming fit because the corn touches the mashed potatoes on their plate. Oh no. Now it's ruined.

 

I'm not really seeing the problem here.

I't doesn't look to me like they ran it, just bolted it up to a jig (actual head in this case) to check for correct fit. This doesn't seem unreasonable.

They could have applied a rust inhibitor but it would have to be removed by the end user unless they want it to burn off under the hood.

I wouldn't expect any vendor to ship a header ready to coat with no prep, especially not at this price point.

 

Coating won't look like **** in a few weeks I had mine ceramic coated and it still looks great after 1.5 years

 

I understand where you guys are coming from. This header is going under the hood of a Jeep, and will be exposed to the elements there after. I think I have reached my tipping point with companies that provide services or products that are not what they are supposed to be. Building this Jeep, I ran into a few companies I will never do business with again. This has happened over 20 times with this build. Now, maybe you can see why I will not settle for a "new" product I have to do extra work on. Here is a snap shot of parts that were doomed from the get go, that I bought from companies with good street and thread cred:


Wheel spacers, Monstaliner, Lift kit, speakers, port tube, head unit ran dash AMP, pro comp gauge set, steering gear box, water pump, spark plug wires, 62mm TB, ball joints, transmission lines, grant steering wheel, grant adapter, Momo adapter, Hub bearings, Rotors, window motor(s), window switch.....ETC.....ETC....


These are the products that required me to waste time trying to correct them or find a replacement. This is a list of parts, this does not include supplies used that were garbage. I have spent hours and hours making something work the way it was supposed to or getting it in the condition it is supposed to be in.


I am all about progression. Calling someone or going to their business because they sold a piece of crap has wasted valuable trail time. This APN header was the straw that broke this Jeep builders back.

 

I really doubt that. You should post a picture.

All of my ceramic coated headers end up looking like crap a few weeks/months after being used.

 

Stop buying junk.

 

I can see why you might have been taken aback when you opened the box and saw rust. I probably would have been a little concerned at first as well. But a closer look really tells you that there's nothing majorly wrong there.

You're buying a very cheap header that actually has a well-known reputation for people having to do extra work to install it. Haven't you read the stories about people having to beat the things with a hammer to get them to fit? If you didn't want the extra work, you probably should have bought something else. If I bought that header, I would be happy if surface rust were the only problem I ended up having to deal with.

Even the higher end stuff is sometimes going to require extra work. I have a set of Banks Torque Tubes. That's a $500 header, yet when I got it some of the welds were kind of messy. They were protruding out into the exhaust flow inside the upper flange. I ended up spending a half hour with a Dremel smoothing them out. On something like this that wasn't installed on the Jeep in the factory, I really sort of expect that I might have to do a little extra work to make it work. Hell, to me that's part of the fun.

Mine didn't come with surface rust. But then, it's not a sub-$200 header.

I have a set of JCR Offroad steel bumpers for my Jeep that I haven't had the time to install. They actually ship bare steel because if JCR paints them, the paint gets destroyed in shipping. When I pulled the cardboard off, there was quite a bit of light surface oxidation that had to be sanded off before they could be painted. They had to be sanded and rubbed down in mineral spirits, then painted, then painted again.

JCR actually discloses on their website that you're gonna have to prep and paint the bumpers yourself. Maybe APN should do that as well. Or maybe they just assume that people will realize there's nothing wrong with the header when it arrives.

Just part of the fun.

Then you ought to be accustomed to it by now. This isn't just a Jeep thing. This is typical for aftermarket for any car, especially when so many of the parts are being made by what are essentially small boutique suppliers.

 

^^What he said ^^

If it were me I'd be pissed off too. Then I'd clean that thing up and install it.

Because the reviews on Amazon are good, and because the vendor has already installed it on an engine and proven the fitment. So it's just to get a new gasket and slap the thing on there. Write the gasket off to bad luck.

If you hit that thing with a 4" hand grinder w/ a wire wheel and it will clean right up. That looks like shelf rust to me, and Stainless Steel will rust where its welded. Once you start running it ...it will cease to be pretty anyway.

 

For instance, I purchased the DIY JCR OFFROAD bumper (front and back). After all that measuring, grinding and welding, the hitch receiver on both the front and back were oddly shaped. That tube comes pre made. It took all day to fix that issue on both bumpers. This APN Header, was the first time I used a product that was way cheaper than the others. Most of the expensive parts that I bought from major labels were awesome. Some of it was very poorly made. It is the same way with some of these small business trying to get established. This is my first Jeep build, but not my first build. If you look at my pictures you will see the work that has been done. For some reason, something as simple as a hole saw that will cut a hole in thin metal in order to make cup holders is hard to find. Since I built my first hot rod, the quality in many products have dramatically fell. The ball bearings in my brand new Timken front hubs fell out all over the ground as I removed them from the box. I think it is quantity over quality these days. It's sad really.

 

 

I still need a high flow cat. Does anyone know of a company that makes one without the rattling heat shield upon start up? That noise will cause my first ulcer.

 

I picked up a magnaflow high cat. Was like 70 bucks or something. Seems fine.

 

I have a Magnaflow bolt-in cat. It cost me a lot more than $70, but it works fine. My only complaint is that where the O2 sensor bung on my original cat pointed out at an angle, the bung on the Magnaflow points almost straight up into the floor pan, drastically reducing the amount of clearance for the O2 sensor and making it necessary to drop the exhaust from the cat back to replace the sensor.

 

Is that bedliner over the entire Jeep? If you told me you were going to do that, I would have expected it to look like crap. But in the pics it looks awesome.