We are sorry you have had an issue with our header, and would like to refund you the price of the header for your troubles. Please contact James@TheZStore either here in the forum or by phone (800-633-6331) or email (james@motorsportauto.com) so we can pull up your information and process the refund or store credit, whichever you choose.
Since we’ve literally sold thousands of this model header, we would like to get as much information about how it arrived to you as possible, to give to the manufacturer. If you have any other pictures with the straight edge (the one online was difficult to see clearly), we would like to show that to them along with the other images. If you measured the gap that image was trying to represent in any spot, please note that as well. To add to the information we give them, please let James know the approximate pattern you used for both the initial torque and re-torque, as well as what torque specification you used. The manufacturer also cares about this and wants to review all the facts to see what happened.
If our representative assumed that you installed it incorrectly, again we apologize for that. While we believe you that you did install and torque properly, unfortunately we have had cases where headers were not installed properly (like torquing from the outside in, or not re-torquing hot at 200 miles, or using worn out studs), and a similar leak resulted. To be clear on “checking it” when it arrives, that means for shipping damage and the like, which unfortunately does happen from time to time, and would have the potential of bending pipes and flanges. Some of the shipping damages we’ve seen over the years are hard to comprehend, wondering if they stacked refrigerators on top of the box or something!
Thanks again for communicating. James will follow up with any other questions or concerns from anybody in this thread.