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5out of
5stars
Dittman
Purchased/Installed these a few months ago. I wish I would have had time to send them in for a nice ceramic coasting job inside and out, unfortunately I was replacing two cracked OEM manifolds, again, on my 2009 JKUR, and I needed to get it done ASAP. They are very much saturated with oil to avoid rusting in the packaging. I cleaned them multiple times with engine degreaser, and 91% alcohol. I also used a Dremel with sanding drum to remove the flashing left behind from casting them. I then cleaned them in a dishwasher with boosted heat for the water temp and used the drying setting as well. When I removed them, they were basically orange with rust which was kind of a dusting on the surface, it was odd but then that's cast iron for ya'. I cleaned them with a really good rust remover, and rinsed them, allowed them to dry indoors, and cleaned thoroughly again with alcohol. I then painted them with Rustoleum 2000° high heat primer, several coats, then Rustoleum 2000° Ceramic high heat coating, several coats. Installed them with the AFE "Twisted steel header gaskets", which are actually just Fel-Pro gaskets, and usually I like that brand, I should have gone with the other gaskets sold on this site. The others have the smooth solid plate of thin metal on one side like the OEM and they are probably better. I never have had trouble with that style, I have had issues on other engines with this Fel-Pro style that AFE seems to want you to use. Time will tell. I actually like the type which utilize copper, couldn't find any. I purchased some nice new exhaust specific coated bolts for the manifold flange to head mounting, and some fairly similar for the Y pipe attachment bolts, they worked out well and still look decent so far. So after a couple months of a few 50-90 mile trips, and several 10-20 mile trips, the finish still looks OK but I can see where there appears to be possibly some very minor coating issues starting, not surprised, expected it would not take too long for coating to burn off in the hotter areas and rust to appear. They seem to work great, no actual performance improvement noticed other than the improvement due to no large cracks anymore. I run Granatelli spark plug wires and they are routed well, no issued with heat as of yet. It does seem like the sides of the hood where it is near horizontal, by where it meets the fenders, is a lot hotter after driving, and the weather was quite cool. So far, I would say a big improvement over OEM, as the price is not much more, especially since I got them during a sale, and I have high hopes that the improved design and material will actually hold up. A lot of pics showing various angles right out of box, cleaning/painting, install, and the last 5 or 6 are after ~2 months of use in November/December rainy getting cold mountain weather. 2009 JKUR a/t, 4.5" lift, 35" tires on AEV Pintler wheels K&N Cold Air intake (FIPK?) MBRP High Clearance Off-Road Cat Back exhaust Silver Bullet Throttle Spacer Granatelli plug wires
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