Now that I have my CAI installed, I am looking into what I want to do next. I know I want to get a higher flowing exhaust, but not sure if I should get the cat back from Mufflers-n-More, and buy a Apexi Muffler, or just buy the whole N1 exhaust. As for the header, I have been hearing that the stock header, is 98% as good as the DC header, and is not worth replacing, so I am considering taking out my stock header, remove the rust, and painting it with some high temperature paint, so I can remove the ugly heatsheild. An easyway to give the aftermarket look, without the cost, and since performance wont really change with an aftermarklet DC header, looks is all what would change anyways. What do you guys think?

 

DC makes crap headers. I know a guy who dynoed with the stock vs. DC and got worse results with DC. I say you got a good idea going. You could just paint the heat shield tho, make it *bling**bling* shiny.

 

Hmmm, thats an idea that I will have to think about. I do think the header would look better though, i could try both I suppose. Thanks for the reply. Even if the DC header were to gain .5-1hp, thats not worth the 350 I would have to spend, when i could use that money towards cams, pulleys, nitrous, or anything of that kind.

 

wait for the sms header if its avail for 5th gen

 

It will be available The only difference in the 4th and 5th gen is the legnth in the A pipe

 

the piping of the downpipe from my jdm h22 is larger than my greddy stainless that i ordered for it. i wonder if he accidentally gave me the type-s downpipe

 

The big *** collector and car sound cat will be nice when you are spraying or boosting.

 

I would leave the stock manifold & get a custom 2.5" collector made. a local shop quoted me $150 to do it, with a flexpipe.

 

well from my experience the DC makes power, albeit not a whole lot of power, but it makes power. The primaries are larger then the stock manifold, but the collector is the same size. Now take the DC header and modify it like i did with a 2.5 in collector then it will make even more then a stock header, and a stock DC header for that matter. Add a high flow cat / testpipe, and a B-pipe flange adapter = NO BOTTLENECKS = more power.

 

openning the connector makes the car more powerfull on the high rpm
but it always makes the torque curve rise more slower on the lower and low-mid rpm..

though the hole point of power is to get power in between 5800 and 7400rpm
..

spoon talks about that on their web site in the products downpipe ..
for b16/b18..but it's the same principle..


2.5" OD is the max i would ever go for any ehxuast part in the 5th gen with NA engine that does not want to go over 210-220 WHP ..

wass the price on the bigger cats ?

i think i'll find a way to bypass the cats and let the car go in open loop all the time..need to check out with the voltage required to do so ..

 

I picked up some high heat ceramic paint to paint the header, probably this weekend sometime. Is the header real hard to take off? I will think about either buying that sms header down the road, or having the stock header moded to flow better, it would probably be nice in the higher rpm's and when spraying.

 

the stock header is not mandrel bent on the upper parts..
it reduces somewhat some at some place..

but it's a really nice piece neway..

if you can afford to replace it with something like the SMS then go for it ..
but don't expect gains to give a WOW factor..you are talking in flow imporvement..

 

I am mainly looking for looks improvement at the moment, because a better header isnt really needed yet. Is the SMS 4-1 0r 4-2-1? When is it going to be released and for how much?

 

That's just what I have done! I removed the heat sheild to paint it with high temp paint, and wow that stock header ain't half bad lookin. I can't see its worth spending the money on a DC(that's all I could fund) that I won't notice any difference!

So, I have painted the heat sheild matt black (as it was) and painted the inside silver(to reflect heat back to the manifold). Then I decided that the colour looked good(sort of aluminium paint) on the inside, and I painted the outside the same.

Have refitted and it looks good! (Just have to wait for the smell of paint to go now!)

In the future, I have a club member(http://www.honda-r.org.uk) who is replacing his manifold on his Accord Type-R for a Mugen one, and I'm buying his Type-R stock manifold for mine!


Tim

[Modified by tim.simpson, 1:04 AM 4/5/2002]


[Modified by tim.simpson, 1:05 AM 4/5/2002]

 

how much gains can you expect from an aftermarket header approximately? thanks.