actually...don't trust him.

you have an ap2...the ricks header is meant for ap1s only, although it will fit an ap2 just fine.

if you had an ap1, i would say follow his advice ( and mine as i have the ricks too ), but it isn't going to be helpful on an ap2.

 

no need to wrap the stock header, it has a heat sheild. venting your hood would be a much better use of money and time if you are looking to dissipate heat better.

aftermarket headers that can't reuse the stock heatshield should be wrapped, coated, or given a vented hood to breathe.

 

^Help me out here guys, I understood the purpose of Dancer ceramic coating his header was too keep the temp up for better exhaust velocity. So if you can't use a heat shield and you vent your hood, wouldn't this result in lower header temps?

 

i don't know about the velocity thing so i'll let someone else answer.

but if you put in a new shiny header without a heatshield, coating, wrapping, or vented hood you will have a lot of heat under the hood. heat soak = bad. it will steal your power. that's why some people go to great things to keep things at an appropriate temp under the hood.

i don't really know if wrapping or coating a header will make give you more power, but i know if you don't do something about the heat under the hood you will lose any power, and more, you gained by the aftermarket piece.

 

awesome replies and thanks to everyone for your help.
In my OP I was just throwing around the idea of P&P cause I know someone at a machine shop. It will not cost $600-700

I meant the it would be $600-700 to get a decent header that was new.


After all your help I think that I will wait on the headers and get a exhaust for now. (that should hold me over until I get a job.
I also need to install my audio stuff.
thanks again everyone

 

Can someone explain porting a header, I've never once heard of the terms porting and header used together. I understand porting an polishing a cylinder of course.

 

Porting a header is pretty simple because there isn't much to do. Because of the smooth surfaces on the inside of tubular headers, there isn't any porting or polishing that you need to do and even if the inside of the tubes had rough surfaces you wouldn't be able to do anything it anyway because you can't get your porting tool more than 3 - 4 inches down the hole. The only possible improvement you can make is to take a look at the openings where the header bolts to the cylinder head. Sometimes the welds aren't perfect and if there is too much heat in the wire, some of the welding material can "sag" into the path of the tubular opening (the hole that the exhaust gases pass through). You can get out your die grinder and remove that material so that the hole is perfectly straight and smooth. Also, there may be some weld "spatter" in and around that tube to flange area. Lastly, if you save the old "crushed" exhaust manifold gasket, you'll have a pretty good idea of what the new gasket is going to look like after you torque the studs to spec. You can fit the old gasket to the new header flange and scribe around the hole of the old gasket, and remove a little bit of material. Make absolutely sure that you don't take any material off the tubing wall itself - just the flange. I'm sure you've heard of it before - it's a very old trick called gasket match porting. This is for the severely anal retentive out there (like me) because it might result in a horsepower increase of 1/4 of 1%.

 

I wasn't aware that we had multiple headerS ... hmm maybe thats why when I only put 1 one it didnt make a big difference, ill look into it...

 

i heard that the stock headers are just as good as anyother aftermarket headers seeing that it has a tubular design. you might as well just keep the stock headers and just get 70 mm test pipe and 70 mm exaust or even the megan 3 inch exaust. the 3 inch exaust would relive the flow a bit earlier right after the test pipe...im trying to get the megan 3 inch hehe! and invidia 70 mm test pipe

 

Seriously? Why would you go for a huge cat-back exhaust after the first half is the restriction? Unless I'm missing something with how a huge cat-back scavenges the gases better or something for increased velocity, The biggest diff you'll see on N/A exhaust is to go with test pipe, and perhaps a carefully selected header and cat-back to match. Then you'll see some slight benefits from choosing all 70mm.