Well now that I have my exhaust I have been searching the forums on header discussions.

It seems that the Toda is mentioned quite often as the best your money can buy. I was set on a Comptech unit but both don't advertise any gains.

What have you guys experienced in terms of hp gain from just a header?

I don't plan on running a straight pipe and keeping my OEM cat. (running a Comptech AP2 exhaust right now).

Please post some of your experiences since they all cost about the same so I'm kinda lost here.


Rick

 

There seems to be some buzz about Comptech headers because they are 4-1. I haven't seen anything though.

From what I have read, J's header is the way to go... for NA or Boosted. That is what I have read, and that is what I have.

Somebody from the 500hp club is running a Hytech header, but I think it lengthens the secondary's (and deletes the cat to make it fit).

 

J's has shown good power. I think ajr put a dyno of the various headers they've tried. Rick's is a good alternative for the price as it's shown good mid. Finally megan has a very nicely priced piece based off the J's but no one has posted a dyno and the low price kind of steers me away until someone posts results

 

I just had the Toda header installed on my S. I had the J's Racing test pipe installed at the same time so the data will be skewed, but I am having the car dyno'd within the next couple of days. From what I have heard the Toda header makes the most power. The J's header is supposed to be close, but the best feature about this header is it is the lightest on the market.

For overall quality and gains, I'd go with the Toda. It is HAND-MADE...and beautiful!

 

From what i've heard, Rick's header is the best bang for buck.

 

Didn't AJR show plots of Toda vs J's with J's being better? Can't remember...
maybe it was one of those most peak vs "area under the curve" debates.

And I thought the lightest header was the Amuse? Didn't they just copy the Mugen header and uses thinner gauge metal????

 

A Toda header will yield about 1-2 hp on the top end. The Mugen has been shown to yield up to 12 hp in the mid range.

 

Hytech is the best. But good luck finding one.
J's is the best you can get now.
Then I'd say Toda (which I have).
Comptech has thin walls apparently, so there is a slight buzz. It's supposed to be good for blown cars as well due to 4-1 design.
Ricks/Mugen are similar in gains, which is only in the mid-range.
DC/OBX loses power.

If you are keeping a cat and stock exhaust, a header is pointless. I think you'll be bottlenecking the exhaust and losing any potential gains.

 

Where did you get that figure from? I'll be posting a dyno graph of the gains, and I'll guarantee they wil be more than 1-2rwhp peak.

 

If youre keeping the cat then I would probably just go with the Comptech. You're probably not going to see a big difference across headers with that setup so maintaining a theme maybe more of a mental bang for the buck than anything else.