Madcat
12-06-2007, 05:52 PM
When I bought my ’98 Wrangler about 9 months ago, the factory exhaust manifold was already cracked. In less than a month, I pretty well was fed up with the sound of the exhaust leaking and decided to replace the manifold. Realizing that replacing a manifold on an inline 6 would be a hassle, I decided to install a header instead of a replacement manifold. After looking on the internet for available options, I purchased the Gale Banks “Torque Tube” header.
One day a large box arrived with the words “Banks Power” on the sides. Inside the box were the header, bolts and nuts for the down pipe connection, graphite “donut”, a header gasket, and instructions. The parts were very well packaged for shipping. First thing I did was to inspect the header. I happen to be a manufacturing engineer and I spent 12 plus years making exhaust systems for cars. I’ve made mufflers, tail pipe, down pipe, manifolds, and dabbled with converters and tube mills. I was expecting to “pick this thing apart” in terms of its manufacturing.
Right up front: This is an extremely well made header. I could not discern any bend reduction in the tubes. The scarfing of the welded tube seams was almost perfect. There were no nasty scratches or gouges anywhere on the header. The primary tube welding at the flange was excellent. In fact, all of the welding was excellent. There was no weld spatter anywhere. The mounting face of the flange had been ground to a smooth and flat surface. The Banks header is made from 409 series stainless steel. This is the same material that the automakers use for the factory installed exhaust systems.
There were only two negatives that I could find. The first was a small burr at one end of the flange around the edge. Three minutes with a mill bastard file solved that issue. The second was the header gasket. As a personal preference, I used a standard replacement gasket from FelPro. This gasket uses stainless steel o-rings and I felt more comfortable using it. There have no leaks after seven months.
Installation was straight forward (for either a header or manifold). The Jeep was noticeably more “perky” after the install. If you are in the market for a header for your 4.0 Wrangler, I can definitely recommend this unit from Banks.
One day a large box arrived with the words “Banks Power” on the sides. Inside the box were the header, bolts and nuts for the down pipe connection, graphite “donut”, a header gasket, and instructions. The parts were very well packaged for shipping. First thing I did was to inspect the header. I happen to be a manufacturing engineer and I spent 12 plus years making exhaust systems for cars. I’ve made mufflers, tail pipe, down pipe, manifolds, and dabbled with converters and tube mills. I was expecting to “pick this thing apart” in terms of its manufacturing.
Right up front: This is an extremely well made header. I could not discern any bend reduction in the tubes. The scarfing of the welded tube seams was almost perfect. There were no nasty scratches or gouges anywhere on the header. The primary tube welding at the flange was excellent. In fact, all of the welding was excellent. There was no weld spatter anywhere. The mounting face of the flange had been ground to a smooth and flat surface. The Banks header is made from 409 series stainless steel. This is the same material that the automakers use for the factory installed exhaust systems.
There were only two negatives that I could find. The first was a small burr at one end of the flange around the edge. Three minutes with a mill bastard file solved that issue. The second was the header gasket. As a personal preference, I used a standard replacement gasket from FelPro. This gasket uses stainless steel o-rings and I felt more comfortable using it. There have no leaks after seven months.
Installation was straight forward (for either a header or manifold). The Jeep was noticeably more “perky” after the install. If you are in the market for a header for your 4.0 Wrangler, I can definitely recommend this unit from Banks.