I was told that getting the Hondata intake gasket and thermal wrapping a stainless steel megan racing header may delay the engine warm up, thus causing more time to get the 3 bars for VTEC to work. Is this true? Or will my car warm up normally and still have some power gain? Is this recommended for a N/A AP1 if I want a small power gain? Is it worth it? Or keep the Hondata gasket but dont wrap the header?

 

i dont understand why wrapping the headder will delay heating of the engine. i say wrap it if you dont have a heat shield on the headder. more heat convected in the engine bay couldnt be a good thing.
and the gasket may speed up heating or slow it down depending if it cuts off some circulation or not but in the end it does need to heat less coolant...maybe someone with the gasket installed can chime in. i have one but not installed

 

Hi,
I have the insulator gasket installed. TBH i havent really noticed any significant difference in warm up time.
On Gasket effects the inlet side of the engine is noticable cooler.
Power wise i think that it is giving some extra horses my car even
sounds slightly different under hard load now.

If you have ever tried putting your hand on the inlet side of the
engine then you would have noticed how hot it is , it is burning hot
after a few mins. With the insulator its warm to the touch.
Cooler air has got to be a good thing...

S.

 

I don't think you will see serious warm-up issues in southern Cali. I certainly don't in FL and I have a Hondata gasket and Mugen thermostat.

BTW...use header wrap at your own risk. Some on this board love it, but some have had bad experiences (myself included). Header wrap can lead to cracks in the header over time. This is due to uneven cooling of the metal, which can be made worse if the wrap gets wet. A much safer method is to ceramic coat (such as Jet-Hot).

 

ceramic coat on the inside or outside? Also, will I lose any HP by switching my stock header with a 4-2-1 Megan Racing stainless steel header? I heard I may lose power but then I hear I may gain some HP since our stock header is more restictive.

 

outside the header

IMO i think the megan header is not all that great of a header

i would go with Ricks or if you can find a nice JDM one for a decent price amuse, mugen etc...

 

It shouldn;t delay your car warming up at all.

 

Jet-Hot coats both inside and outside, which is the best way.

I don't know much about the Megan...not sure I've seen a dyno chart showing gains.

I have seen a dyno of the Ricks. It may cost a pony or 2 at top end, but has good effects through the range.

The known quantities in headers that don't cost power are Mugen, Toda and J's. J's possibly being the best. Note that it is best to mate a header to a more free flowing exhaust if you don't have one already.

Also, the stock header is excellent. Only very modest gains can be seen with an aftermarket header...to maximize you need to consider the whole engine as a breathing machine. Increased volume capacity through the header is not much good without better breathing at the intake and free flow out the tail. Consider an intake, header, exhaust and then VAFC tune (or similar piggy-back or stand alone) to see any real benefits.

The best bank for the buck in performance mods are gears rather than header.

 

Yah I have an AEM V2 CAI and custom single Apexi N1 exhaust setup.