Y0N1P8T5R1F5A4T

I have berk and love it. Ive understood that exhaust manifolds like asm, spoon, mugen, toda, and J's racing are strictly meant for off road use is because those headers are not to with stand the constant beating it gets from regular streets. I.e. pot holes, cracks, and speed bumps. Track use the pavement is often more smooth. That's what I've heard. Sorry though man. Great header. My friend has the toda kun. I don't know if he is using the toda oem bracket also though. I'll ask him. A lot of other aftermarket exhaust manifolds don't have the oem bracket. I guess it was bound to break because of all the vibration coming from the car and engine.

skibbz

Mine broke off too... Plus, I wasn't even using the bracket - it just snapped off at the bend

Sticky2k

I agree, I've had a Buddyclub exhaust, and now a JIC Spartan and on both the hanger welds broke.

Vanishing Point

At the very least, being the warranty is only two months out, they should give you some credit toward the replacement header. Otherwise, I would shop around for a replacement of better quality.

azn akira

Old thread but this information may help some people out (all information I've gathered is from Google translate and DeepL so may not be accurate).

When researching the AP2 Mugen header which is also infamous here and in Japan for welds breaking in various places some shops in Japan recommend not to use the mounting bracket in the middle of the header. At best the bracket will break but it can also lead to cracks in other places of the header

Arrows ブログ エキマニ取り付け

translation:
"When installing the exhaust manifold, be careful not to fasten the stay to the engine side with bolts and nuts.　These exhaust manifolds are not as thick as the stock ones, and the vibration can break the stays.　If it's just the stay that breaks, that's fine... but the worst that can happen is that the exhaust manifold will crack. （Some customers say that they feel uncomfortable if the part that should be fixed is not fixed. If you fix it as it is when you know it will cause problems later on, what's the point of coming to Arrows, a store that specializes in S2000 (although we don't specialize in that)? (laughs)"

I've also read on some Japanese blogs that using stiffer engine mounts help, which makes me think a lot of people have worn engine mounts which causes excessive movement and welds to break.

Kyle

Yup! This thread was a big help when installing the header to ultimately not bolt up the tab. At first I was looking for some kind of bushing that I could use in conjunction with the stay that would allow for some movement, but ultimately given how close the tab is to the header, it would certainly melt. A majority of the aftermarket headers, even the more expensive ones, don't retain that mounting point. I think the tradeoff that allows that is how much lighter the aftermarket header is vs. the stock one. Even still, I don't think the stock one really needs the tab either.

Feezy

I just completely shaved the bracket off before cerakoting the header.

Kyle

I thought it would be a shame to do that when the header was still brand new. I'm sure in a few more years it'll be ugly enough for me to just pull it off and do the same though, lol.

114_ap2

I've had my Toda headers for maybe 70-80k miles. Not a single crack or anything. The last 70-80k were 75% track miles too. Maybe I got lucky.

Feezy

Mine was new as well, but I had it cerakoted so I thought it was a good time to go ahead an remove it. I'm pretty sure this picture is of the wrong header, but you get the idea. I had originally purchased one from a buddy who thought it was the Torquie-kun version, but I didn't realize until after I had it coated that it wasn't. I ended up selling that and replacing it with the version I wanted.