The other night we decided to go ahead and do a little dyno comparison on a couple headers that we had laying around. The testing was done in a back to back fashion with tuning done to air/fuel and timing accordingly for each header. The runs selected below are both at the same temperatures, in the same style run conditions, within an hour of each other.

The chart below is of the TDM Hytech Big Tube Copy vs. the Spark Racing SMSP Copy.

The purple/fuschia line is the Spark header
The black line is the TDM Hytech Big Tube



The Spark Header peaked at 224whp and 144wtq
The TDM Header peaked at 228whp and 148wtq.

The Spark Racing header gave us some great midrange from 6000-7200 rpm's with as much as 20whp and 11wtq in some areas. Otherwise anywhere else on the rpm range was dominated by the Hyech Big Tube Copy. I'm sure that an actual real header from either real company would dominate either of these clones without question. These cheap alternatives do still show a little potential for the investment spent. I feel that the BigTube header might've sucked ***** in the midrange due to the lack of displacement in our test engine and possibly because the way the runners are paired.

The specs on the engine used for testing are:

"b18c1 block with CTR pistons on gsr rods
All honda bearings,seals,pumps,and belts
pr3 head with portflow standard headwork
Full omnipower valvetrain set
Blox Type 3 cams with skunk2 cam gears
RSR gt2 exhaust
Buddy club headgasket
Reused over and over thermal intake gasket
PerformerX Intake Manifold
professional products 68mm throttle body
Custom ProFunction Tuned Length Intake w/ Vstack
Tuned on Crome pro"

For reference numbers on how nutty this little pump gas budget engine is, here is a dyno layover of our best run vs. a recently tuned K20-R w/ RBC mani, Custom Cold air w/vstack, Rcrew header, and BC Spec2 exhaust on Kpro.

Black Line= K20R
Purple Line= 1.8L Vtec Budget Engine


Obviously we couldnt do anything against the mightyness of displacement or the excellent powerband found from VTC, but going by the numbers it's a stronger engine from 7200RPM all the way on.

The K20R peaks at 218.5whp and 157.2wtq
The B18C peaks at 229.4whp and 149.7wtq

We look to do more comparisons in the near future, stay tuned!

Modified by MikeySpec at 12:54 PM 6/21/2008


Modified by MikeySpec at 1:00 PM 6/21/2008

 

Thanks for taking the time to throw something a little different out there with some added commentary

 

Good post. Interesting that the big tube loses out up top. What were the primary pipe sizes on the SPARK header, if you know?

 

Typical results when comparing a std. size/big tube, especially with the camshafts you are using. Blox 3's have smallish primaries...if Pro1's were used the graph would differ dramatically. Thanks for sharing

 

Your typed peak numbers for the Spark header are wrong.

We build at least 11 different B series 4-2-1s, which one was this a copy of?

We haven't had a header test in a while, since these are copies the thread should stay fairly quiet................

 

No doubt, throwin the SMSP name in is kinda whack right??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MikeySpec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
The Spark Header peaked at 210whp and 144wtq
The TDM Header peaked at 228whp and 148wtq.


</TD></TR></TABLE>

Is the 210whp a typo ???
On the graph it looks more like 223whp or so. Am I reading it wrong or something?

 

I'm glad you take time out to do testing on products. Keep up the good work homie.

For the price of these headers you can't go wrong.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SMSP &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Your typed peak numbers for the Spark header are wrong.

We build at least 11 different B series 4-2-1s, which one was this a copy of?

We haven't had a header test in a while, since these are copies the thread should stay fairly quiet................</TD></TR></TABLE>

Good catch, a lack of sleep and multi-tasking while making this post was bound to result in some kind of typo's. It actually peaked at 224. I'm not too sure on which version they copied but i'm pretty sure it doesnt stand a chance against the real thing.

 

nice test.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Combustion Contraption &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Good post. Interesting that the big tube loses out up top. What were the primary pipe sizes on the SPARK header, if you know?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The big tube gains up top, the spark is the one that loses. I dont have the pipe sizes off hand, i forget what i measured them out to be. I know the I.D on the spark header is definitely smaller than the large tube header.

 

Nice comparrison. I love the k20 vs the b18c too

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MikeySpec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

The big tube gains up top, the spark is the one that loses. I dont have the pipe sizes off hand, i forget what i measured them out to be. I know the I.D on the spark header is definitely smaller than the large tube header. </TD></TR></TABLE>

doh. my mistake. makes alot more sense now.

 

nice

 

pm'd

 

Nice test !!!
The K20 reference helps to put things in perspective.

 

Great write up, very informative. Thanks Mike

 

i did the same test with the same headers. on my build (similar 1.8) the sprak header killed the big tube everywhere.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .CUBISH. &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i did the same test with the same headers. on my build (similar 1.8) the sprak header killed the big tube everywhere.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Can you post up some dyno plots?

 

nope. that was about 2 months ago.. ive since switched to the winpep7 software and didnt save any of the old dyno graphs

 

Great test as always mike, i own the "real" Hytech 2.0 liter version your thoughts on it vs these two knockoffs?

 

i am waiting for a h22 "taiwanese header"

 

I've dealt with real production headers from both smsp and hytech, either will beat down these copies in a heartbeat. Smsp has many specific designs per setup as does Hytech, where as the copies are just imitations of 1 or 2 designs and as shown in many different tests.....one size doesnt fit all.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by alterdcreations &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i am waiting for a h22 "taiwanese header" </TD></TR></TABLE>

The camp1320 header is an excellent budget alternative. I've put together some setups that run great power on that header.