I'm thinking of ordering one of these - it seems like a good precaution.

Has anyone ever dealt with Fastline Performance?

Does anyone have one? The race version looks well designed, but is the aluminum strong enough? Or will it just bend?

 

hell yea protect that header....good buy

 

damn - that could have saved my old JR header ('91 civic)...3days after install, driving in a new area & BAM 30% less flow

 

Stupid Question - what does that do?

 

i imagine that it's designed to protect your header from the bumps and bruises that occur during day-to-day driving...

 

Keeps your header from getting dented

 

How much does this thing cost? It looks like you could make your own with 1/4" aluminum plate and some patience.

 

They're $69.
I'm sure it could be easily made, but I don't have the tools/facilities to do so. It's not much more than the oem rear shield - which offers much less protection I'm sure.

I think I'll order one tomorrow.

 

Dude, thats like 10 bux in material. Go to a scrap metal place and buy a piece of metal, bent it over a base ball bat, drill some holes and your set. Could build one for less then 20 bux

 

that and acts like a lower heatshield. its worth the cost as long as it does protect the header. not sure how strong the steel is

 

Fawk, if its steel, you'll bend the **** out of the brackets that the pad bolts to before you scratch the pad. I'd say its 1/4 al, which will hold up pretty damn good and does not weight to much. I'd probably end up going 3/8 as it's alot easier to bend that radius in it and it'll hold up pretty well to. Plus alot cheaper and easier to find.

[edit] good, spelling bad [/edit]


[Modified by AssPenny, 11:39 PM 3/14/2002]

 

It doesnit work against dents. I bottomed out the plate which then in turn dented the header regardless. Its safe to say that it wont dent as much, but when you're talking metal to concrete.. metal will give in.

 

its worthless to me then. i say save your money to have it fixed when it does get dented. or raise your car up and spend it on an engine/motor mod

 

wouldn't the plate better protect the header if you left a gap between the bottom of the header and the top of the plate itself? that seems like it would leave a little bit of a "crush zone"...

 

yeah but that would leave very little ground clearance

 

This is a very wise investment especially if your car is lowered to the extreme like mine. I have H&R sport springs and my car sits really low in the front. When I had a JDM header on my car I have hit it a couple of times and dented it. I didnt' notice any performance decrease, but it would be wise to have a shield like that to protect your investment.
EVIL

 

why spend the money if its not gonna do what it was made for

 

...the stock lower heat shield, not the Fastline skid plate.

The stock lower heat shield doesn't do anything but block heat. The FLP skid plate does what it is supposed to do - protect.

- Slater

 

has anyone had experience of bottoming out and not having damage to the header from the skid plate?

 

It's only been on sale to the public for about a month now, and I've only sold a few to people on H-T. 'Twincamtech' has one - he posted pics of the thermal coating he had put on his JDM 4-1, along with the stock upper heat shield, FLP skid plate, and test pipe. Maybe he'll share his experience and if he's had a chance to bottom out his header yet or not.

But I have definitely had at least 2 customers that bottomed out their headers - one was running one of the 1/4" T6 aluminum prototypes. The pic of the prototype is on the Fastline website. The plate was really beat up (dented and heavily gouged) and the bolt heads were tore up, but there was no obvious damage to the header. The second one was a customer that bottomed his header out on his driveway so many times he had to get a section of the primaries replaced/rewelded. The last time I talked to him since he got one of the skid plates he said he has not had any more problems with damage. He got one of the SS street plates.

Joe R @ Hybrid also used one of the Race skid plates when he went to Laguna. Hybrid split up before he could post an article, but he said that was very pleased with the plate. He was actually TRYING to punish it against curbs and whatnot hehe. Hopefully when the Hybrid split gets sorted out, the article will get posted.

Also, someone asked me about doing a Group Buy on the plates for H-T members. If anyone is interested I can get together pricing.

Also, to answer delinquent's comments about the need for a "crush zone" - there is a small gap between the plate and the header tubes that will provide some breathing room in case you manage to dent the skid plate.

- Slater