Thread: Double win of header failure, lengthy story ahead.

I made a vow several years ago to prefer to buy a used reputable brand with known quality than those brand new offbrand Ebay shithouses. They are the very reason some name brands are actually extinct

However I, as yourself, thought at this point, even the knockoff stuff from the likes of SSAC was good, especially according to how many people here had very good luck with the 2.5" header (myself included from about 5+ years ago). I guess we all were/are wrong

i have a ebay header sitting here would of sold you cheap o well

Yepper, upon creation of this thread, I have discovered it would be rather foolish to try and embrace any sort of poor copy. I should have allowed the forum (and the members/local friends) help me. I received a few messages from good folks who either offered to sell me something that is not broken or give me something to fix my silly situation. Hopefully this section will expand and maybe this can be the last time we hear of a member buying crap, expecting something to at very least, be delivered in a usable condition.

Maybe I should just turbo something and/or install a VE in something or do both, amIright?

You have one of the headers that killed the SR20 market. HotShot made a decent product, not saying it was the best but it was designed and tested for our cars, then OBX ad SSAC stole the design and started making cheap copies. The kids buying the cars at the time started buying the copies ones since they were much cheaper than the real thing, and forced HS out of business. It's going to be hard for any company to come into this market with a product to compete against these eBay parts and hope to make money. Because of the low production, the cost are going to be high and you are back to the original issue.

At the end of the day, you have people driving cheap 20 year old cars and it's hard to justify a $600 header on a $2000 car. It's a sad world, but that's just how it is for these cars now.

Hotshot got greedy IMO. They were the only ones who had the product. *supply/demand* Hell, Hotshot got about a grand of my money. I bought two different headers AND one of their CAI's.

$550 for a header was too much. I understand that this cost factored in lots or R&D but the reality is, these are Nissans, if I can make 10HP with a OBX for $160 or 10hp for $550 choice is obvious.. what I still don't understand is why Hotshot never sued or how they didn't patent their design.




Couldn't have said it any better.

When you are spending time on R&D and fabrication for an american made product, there's a thing called overhead, and it's usually higher than elsewhere in the world. Chinese knockoffs not only cost less per hour to make but they don't have to do any design or development. Hotshot wasn't greedy, people are just cheap.

id love to help. but unfortunately way too busy!!!

this is deff a terrible thing.

Cheap china junk!

no offense either cus I know you had no choice but to buy an ebay header but this is truly an example of the saying (u get what u pay for).

I know you have no choice in seeing how there are no cheaper well made headers for our cars.
there never will be. just cost too much to make even a budget header.

So how many of these headers did you buy?

First aftermarket exhaust header was a Megan Racing. I had it for years, it was a great piece. It bolted in easily, had all provisions for USDM cars and lasted a LONG time. It eventually developed a cracked above cyl. no. 3 (lucky) primary right at the flange. A quick hit with a wire wheel for a clean surface and I utilized the cold welding material "Thermosteel" and it worked. I eventually removed the system just for the hell of buying the 2.5" and sold the header to a forum member sometime later. Positive experience with that one.

Number two for my own personal cars was the DNA Motoring header. I had to grind out the outermost holes of the flange for the header to fit correctly and it has been on for 4 years now. The hole is in the flex pipe. This one sat a bit lower than the Megan racing so snow and other bullshit would hit the flex pipe and what I guess get trapped for a while and destroyed the flex pipe. This year had record weather which just wrecked the whole car, along with this secondary.

This OBX was the first one I personally bought. I have heard and seen and helped folks install OBX header and I never saw this or even heard of it before on these forums.

It was a rather "cheap" mistake compared to what I have seen be way more hundreds of dollars and sometimes thousands, or complete cars being stolen from people. I appreciate all of the responses so far and only hope to help someone who just may think what I thought, "Maybe this will be a good piece".........

The headers that John @ Hotshot made in the early days had their problem too. Once we got on to Gen 5 and Gen 6 the quality was there at a price of $550 IIRC.


To me, a true quality header for a SR20 would cost in the $750 range if I had to put a price tag on it. For QUALITY stainless, a QUALITY fabricator and what not be prepared to spend.

Now a days, if you want a quality MADE in USA product be prepared to shell out some green back$.

Well, they did something wrong, b/c they're out of business