I Said Never Again, I Bought Hedman Headers... Again.

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Ant said:
Welp, in the past I said I'm never buying Hedman or Flowtech headers again, but this time I'm doing things differently. I have not bought long tubes this time and will be returning to a Y pipe for simplicity on my Ferd truck. So I bought myself a set of Hedman shorty headers, because I need to get things going. That's fine, I'll coat them myself and at least they are easier to deal with in the engine bay. So, that fixes the header problems that I complained about in the past, right? Nope! These suckers don't sit close to flat. More work for me to do again, and no, the gasket will not take care of it.

I've told myself no, but the other voice inside my head said yes. "Made in the USA" posted in the listing to make me feel a bit more positive. "Maybe the flange might sit flat like in the past instead of the last set" I told myself. I'm the fool now, I know I am as I read "Proud to say, made in USA" on the box. Embarrassment is what I feel, but it's not because of my decision, it's because of something as badly made like this is made in the USA with pride. It's like taking a dump in the toilet and saying "proudly made in the USA". Is to be proud, to lower our standards? It should not be.

Anyway, I'll have to do some work to get these flanges sitting flat enough so the gaskets can seal(This is not the first time I've had fix this). It just takes some extra time, but it is what it is. Oh, if anyone from QC or manufacturing at Hedman headers ever reads this post, I hope you step on a Lego.

It's hard to see in the photo, but the flanges is vertically curved.
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In the photo below you can see this does not sit flat at all. It looks worse in person, trust me, this would without a doubt be a leaker.
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This stuff is pure fu#king Junk and not fit to put on a shelf for sale!

Should be ashamed to put "Made in USA " on it.
 
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I've been using this stuff without gaskets for years.
 

Ant said:
Sure, you do have some good points. But I do believe Hedman has the capability of getting a somewhat flat sitting flange, they have fit ok in the past and were a much cheaper price. Then the quality started going down and my most recent set of headers which are the ones I'm replacing got more expensive and much worse for flange fitment, like worse than the new shorties I just bought. I do have other options, but everything that is regular steel available pretty much hovers around the same-ish price, but still it's a few, so options are limited. I can fix the flanges, it's the "Proud to say made in USA" I find funny, since as a mechanic I've seen cheaper exhaust components (for other cars) with better flanges.
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Don’t get me wrong, Hedman is totally capable of fixing the issue and improving their QC. Other companies do, they know what it takes.

All I’m saying is that there’s definitely a cost associated with that, and depending on how their manufacturing is set up it’s probably not “easy” to fix it.

Realistically, it’s all about money.
 
On A-bodies, I'm only interested in installing the likes of Doug's, etc - no cheapies....
But I got Hedmans on both Vans and our '80 truck, and no leaks or fitment issues.
 
72bluNblu said:
Realistically, it’s all about money.
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Pretty much, they want the most profit possible. It's been getting worse over the years with other products. I have lost time on simple jobs because of issues that I needed to fix with new parts. Most of the time it's nothing drastic, but still something that should have never existed in the first place. Water pumps, radiators, alternators, fan clutches, brake components and more have cost me time I can't get back. I understand a defect once in awhile, but when the same issues are never fixed months later, that's a problem, especially if a shop has limited options in the area.

I would love to share my history of getting bad autoparts, I do have some that I really remember well. Maybe I might do another thread in the future where everyone can share their stories with defective or poor quality parts.
 
Ant said:
Pretty much, they want the most profit possible. It's been getting worse over the years with other products. I have lost time on simple jobs because of issues that I needed to fix with new parts. Most of the time it's nothing drastic, but still something that should have never existed in the first place. Water pumps, radiators, alternators, fan clutches, brake components and more have cost me time I can't get back. I understand a defect once in awhile, but when the same issues are never fixed months later, that's a problem, especially if a shop has limited options in the area.

I would love to share my history of getting bad autoparts, I do have some that I really remember well. Maybe I might do another thread in the future where everyone can share their stories with defective or poor quality parts.
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Yes, COGS (cost of goods sold) profit is important but when sales are sliding / disappearing due to poor quality / customer satisfaction it won’t matter how large their “on paper” gross margin is.
Improved quality and design (that generates increased sales) through a suitable investment in plant equipment and R&D will always provide far more benefit than some misguided saving that just ends up being amortised over an ever shrinking sales volume.
 
The old headers are out and the new shorties are in. Cutting them makes it easier to get to the flange bolts.

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Jarlaxle said:
What brand? Were they rusted to the point of leaking?

Were they underwater at any point?
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Hedman, they rusted out and had some major leaks, even one of the tubes had split. Road salt eats them, and they rot by the ball flange thingy. No amount of paint could protect them, so I got tired of dealing with long tubes and went with shorties and a Y-pipe. The shorty headers will last longer since they are not as low.
 
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Once again I have a quiet truck now. When the paint finishes burning off, I,ll spray them with some high temp paint. By going with Hedmans, you are not saving much money, so buy better headers if you can. Future readers should take my documentation as a warning and don't let the "Proud to say, made in USA" text fool you. I knew what I was getting into, it's fixed now.

Anyway here are some pics.
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Also, that is a Thrush Turbo muffler, which I bought because it was the cheapest non-glasspack muffler the autoparts store had.
 
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