Thread: Headers Dyno Comparison Thread

i have a dyno of my header vs the ssac and i gained 10whp. and i have a graph of my header vs the fuji and it made 6whp more. ill have to get them and post up

i have been reading, and i would like to ask you, your setup and what ecu are you using?

AND how did you tune for the ssac header, and tune for the asp header?


i have no side in this argument, but am looking for answers for my cousin who will be recieving his header soon. im just looking to see were we can enhance were your experience with the header let you down.

* i would like to also let you know, that there is no sure fire way for things to work, this guy is adding to our community, a community which has basically no support. i can understand your frustration, but atleast make it constructive. i am no one in the sr20 world, but i am an mech engineer in training, and the one thing i learned is patience. why not take your header and find the flaws in them for further enhancement? Nothing ever *ever works the same as another thing. i can put an exhaust on 10 motorcycles and have varied results. yes the objective is repeatability, but things only become repeatable in time. if this guy were to take his time out and really test his product with various combinations and.... the product your spending 500-700 dollars for will cost you 2100 easy. this is not some big shop like full race making the product, its one man trying to support a whole community. if you didnt want to be the test pig. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE PURCHASED IT. im sure your an intelligent person, anything gen1 has problems and needs things to be sorted out. if you dont want to deal with it. dont buy it.

sorry for the lengthy response, but thats just crap that people know they are going to be guinea pigs are complaining. * there is no miracle setup that will give you 300WHP offa this header. But there is a way to play with your tune, to get the best results for your car.

It's going to be hard to sell his header. I got lucky and got mine sold, while I had it up for sale I got all kind of low ball offers. Not everyone is willing to pay for a good header.

N1 cams
cam gears
valve springs
asp header and 3" exhaust
crane coil
nistune ECU

I'm using a nistune for tuning, both with the old header and the new. Tuned by the same person, on the same dyno, with perfect AFR's.

If the tune was off, then it also would have been off with the previous header.

There is no way I can recoup the costs of the ASP header, not even 1/2.
Who would pay $1200AU (not including ceramic coating, or modifications to make it fit) for a header that performs the same as a $400AU one?
I certainly wouldnt.

Hard to say whether the previous header you had was really that good for the price but it seems to be. Everything I've read in your posts indicates that you did and are doing whatever you can to gain as much as possible through tuning for the ASP. We all take a chance when buying and applying performance parts for our cars expecting a decent gain on our investments. When we spend a lot we expect somewhat the same in return. Aftermarket performance parts are always a risk to buy, hence the dyno charts and reviews of members with similar setups to guide our decision. I'm assuming you made more midrange but no more on the top end with the ASP. Chuck's 4-1 header may have been the better choice as Happynole's dyno did show in comparison with the ASP 4-2-1 on his NX. His SE-R did have headwork done with the 4-1. Don't know if this info would have made any difference in buying either one but I can't help but think there is still more power you can squeeze out of your setup with some intake work, etc. Sorry for the long post, hope you can stay positive through this....

i guess i can say its like having a set stream of water coming through a hose, and you have a nice stream going, but if you change the hose to a bigger hose-- you wont get better flow you get worse flow if you leave the hose at the same water stream of water. you have to increase the flow of water to get the optimal efficiency.

same concept, correct me if im wrong. but you cant have a dc sport header and then change to a race header and expect better gains. i mean you can use it as a baseline, but still needs alot of tinkering to get it correct.

from what you wrote it looks like you have a tune, used the same tuner to check and make sure that the car was still at the same afr, but didnt do an actual tune, just a dyno pass.

even to a much finer point, maybe the 2.5" header might be best suited for your setup, but that doesnt mean the header is crap. others setups can possibly benefit from the header. you unfortunately had to be the geuinea pig to show those with similar setups that such a big header is not optimal. i highly doubt that it was that horribly designed were it is so disproportionate that it will never make gains.

yeah i'm not dirty at charles, its not like he had an x-force to compare against, i knew the risks buying it. Doesnt change the fact its a lot of money for no gain

And yes, i picked up some midrange, but i suspect some of this came from the 3" exhaust, and moving forward the activation points.

Agreed, the 4>1 header suits the top end more, and i think that the intake and headwork on happynole's car is a major contributor to the extra power he is making up top.

Will see how restrictive the intake is when i get my custom intake made and tested.

edit: forbidden710 - we played with ignition timing and air-fuel ratio's and gained nothing, so yes it was fully tuned to suit the ASP header.

***even to a much finer point, maybe the 2.5" header might be best suited for your setup, but that doesnt mean the header is crap. others setups can possibly benefit from the header. you unfortunately had to be the geuinea pig to show those with similar setups that such a big header is not optimal. i highly doubt that it was that horribly designed were it is so disproportionate that it will never make gains.***

i've never said the header is crap.

quite possible the smaller headers suit, but im running a pretty common setup, so the results are still valid.
This thread is good to get more comparisions going, when all the 30-40 people who bought headers put up their results, we will get a much better understanding if the header is good or not, over a wide variety of cars.

until then, its just people individual expriences.

Well said... I am using it on a De so I am pritty excited to see my results. We'll make make 1 thread no conversations, just post your set up and dyno results period.