6 heat exchanger price point, R U in ? Options

[scotty b]

There is a need, and seemingly a larger group willing to shell out the money for nice S.S heat exchangers, but at what price ? I may be willing to head up contacting some of the possible suppliers but not until I have a better idea of how many are SERIOUSLY interested and at what price point. Vote in the poll, and post if you are genuinely serious. Please don't vote or post just to say it would be neat, or that you would be in for 500.00 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif). I would like some sort of numbers on hand before contacting any suppliers.

Potential suppliers would be :

Hayward and Scott

http://www.haywardandscott.com/914-6-perfo...exchangers.html

Dansk : ( if they have the tooling and interest )

http://www.jpgroup.dk/uk/danskjopex-exhausts

Original SSI builder ( if he still has the tooling/plans and interest )

I have no contact info so if anyone does please forward it

Keep in mind that Dansk and Hayward would also have to be shipped from across the pond

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=241939

[earossi]

I'm just getting started in the 914 arena, and have a 3.2 in my garage that will go into my car sometime this year. So, I would be interested in proper heat exchangers. I have read quite a few of the postings, and would like to share my "cold eyes" opinion.

First off, welding technology has evolved and improved tremendously since the 60's, when Porsche was concerned about failing welds within the heat exchange boxes. Modern TIG and MIG equipment creates far superior welds then were the norm 50 years ago. So, YES, a weld in an area that could be a source of CO into the cockpit (if a weld fails) would be an issue to be concerned about. But, the probability of that occurring is extremely small. And, if a weld did fail, I doubt that anyone would succumb from the CO simply because the odor of the exhaust gases and vaporizing oil would bring tears to your eyes before you reached any state of asphyxia. Ask me how I know!

Secondly, I would venture to guess that those owners who own sixes, either original sixes or converted sixes, put very many miles on their cars. And, of the miles put on the cars, I would doubt that no more than a few would be in inclement weather. So, the life span of a set of exchangers done in carbon rather than stainless steel would probably be longer than many of our life spans. So, why opt for stainless steel which appears to be cost prohibitive? If you are concerned about the look of corrosion, you can have the entire system ceramic coated for far less than the cost of stainless.

My car is 40 years old and probably has over 200,000 miles on the chassis. But, now that it has been restored and is in my ownership, I doubt that the car will have 2000 miles a year put on it. And, am I that much different than the typical owner of a car that has been restored? So, starting out with a new set of exchangers that will probably have about 2000 miles of annual usage and little if any of that in inclement weather, I would gladly opt for a set of carbon steel exchangers that were affordable. Because, as was pointed out before, why would I want to spend $4000 on a set of exchangers to put into a car worth about $20,000?

Which brings me to what I would like to see. There are a couple of companies out there that make quality headers for the 914-6 for less than $1000 a set. So, what would be the cost to make a jig to reproduce the sheet metal clamshell cans that could be fitted to a set of headers and welded out? The clam shells could be marketed by themselves for installation by the owner or his favorite welder.

Personally, I would be willing to pay $500 for the sheet metal clam shells to install on my own exhaust headers.

Is this idea feasible? I put it out there for discussion only as an option to what appears to be an overly expensive design that most would not opt to purchase.