Gutted stock header and tune for same HP?

[Lantana frs]

Originally Posted by guybo

I'm running gutted cats and OFT stage 2. It was a big difference from Stage 1 with the cats. It sounds great too with a cherry bomb and Berk dual exit.

I get a lot of compliments on it.

A lot of times when you hear bad things about gutting it's from people who have no experience with it. But it works and it made my car like it has a new engine- huge difference in power but I have yet to dyno it. But My 80-100 MPH time went down by about 1.5 secs and my 0-60 MPH time has lost close to a second too (still on stock tires).

I know the gains aren't the same as the high end headers, but you have the advantage of the stock heat shielding- there is no risk of cooking coils or anything else if you keep the stock heat shields. Also, OEM quality is top notch. No chance of cracked welds.

Those are fair point s. Plus no annoying overpipe rubbing. Im still gonna go with aftermarket uel and run it with e85

[D_Thissen]

Intakes on these cars to next do nothing. You're better off buying a decent panel filter and saving the money for when you want to buy a header. I ran the OTS OFT stage 1 tune for about 6 months, it did help the torque dip, but the biggest change was going from Stg 1 to Stg 2 with the catless header. EL header seems to be for top end power, UEL for low end torque.

Before you purchase anything, I suggest having a quick read through the guide @steve99 has compiled. It should answer most of your questions .
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81493

[guybo]

Originally Posted by LowAndSlowBecauseNoTurbo

I was looking at this thread
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96235
and this is what I had been going off of and it seemed like a good addition. like I said, I'm looking for some way to eliminate it while saving up for a full header back exhaust system.

2 different cars with different mods and over 3400' altitude. I wish I had gotten my car dyno'ed before and after. Once I get everything set with the engine mods (which won't be much more) I'm going to put it on a dyno and see what it puts down, but I'll have no before to compare. All I have are straight line performance stats from my phone using Torque Pro.

I'm still looking for a lace to do a dyno day around here that can actually dyno a boxer 4.

[LowAndSlowBecauseNoTurbo]

Originally Posted by D_Thissen

Intakes on these cars to next do nothing. You're better off buying a decent panel filter and saving the money for when you want to buy a header. I ran the OTS OFT stage 1 tune for about 6 months, it did help the torque dip, but the biggest change was going from Stg 1 to Stg 2 with the catless header. EL header seems to be for top end power, UEL for low end torque.

Before you purchase anything, I suggest having a quick read through the guide @steve99 has compiled. It should answer most of your questions .
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81493

alright, that was a great thread! I just don't want to have to cut my cat off and weld on a connecting pipe haha (call me lazy because I don't want to get measurements). I'm gonna get the OFT and run stage 1 on my stock headers still catted and see what improvements I get out of that first and then go from there. If anyone knows of anyone selling an OFT in the Long Beach/ Los Angeles Ca area let me know!

[LowAndSlowBecauseNoTurbo]

Originally Posted by guybo

2 different cars with different mods and over 3400' altitude. I wish I had gotten my car dyno'ed before and after. Once I get everything set with the engine mods (which won't be much more) I'm going to put it on a dyno and see what it puts down, but I'll have no before to compare. All I have are straight line performance stats from my phone using Torque Pro.

I'm still looking for a lace to do a dyno day around here that can actually dyno a boxer 4.

keep me posted on the dyno sheets if you get some dyno time. I would like to see the numbers and where they are most impacted. your car sounds great by the way. I'm running the same set up but without the cherry and just the Berk dual delete

[ajcarson11]

I'll just add one comment, having spent 15k+ in aftermarket parts for this car:

If I had to do it all again, I would not cut any corners. I would not purchase lower end parts in an effort to save money or try to avoid spending the money. In every instance where I went this route, I eventually turned around and spent MORE cash to get things right. You have to pay to play. If you're like most people you'll find that you just end up wanting more in the end -- more power, more comfort, more volume, more performance. Being totally satisfied is challenging, and you'll always have the question of 'What if I could have had more power from a proper setup?' stuck in the back of your head if you don't do the research and learn from others who have gone down that route.

[LowAndSlowBecauseNoTurbo]

Originally Posted by ajcarson11

I'll just add one comment, having spent 15k+ in aftermarket parts for this car:

If I had to do it all again, I would not cut any corners. I would not purchase lower end parts in an effort to save money or try to avoid spending the money. In every instance where I went this route, I eventually turned around and spent MORE cash to get things right. You have to pay to play. If you're like most people you'll find that you just end up wanting more in the end -- more power, more comfort, more volume, more performance. Being totally satisfied is challenging, and you'll always have the question of 'What if I could have had more power from a proper setup?' stuck in the back of your head if you don't do the research and learn from others who have gone down that route.

yea, thats what its starting to sound like. I just sounded like a quick fix to get me to stage 2 with the OFT. it just seemed so reasonable to spend $50 on some stock headers and $50 on a front pipe and run it. but ill probably stick with name brand. thanks

[guybo]

Originally Posted by LowAndSlowBecauseNoTurbo

keep me posted on the dyno sheets if you get some dyno time. I would like to see the numbers and where they are most impacted. your car sounds great by the way. I'm running the same set up but without the cherry and just the Berk dual delete

Yeah I'll post all that once I do. But I'm going to get E tuned so I want to do the dyno after that.

[Lantana frs]

I had a p&l catted header with tune at one time and the difference particularly in the midrange was almost astounding.

[LowAndSlowBecauseNoTurbo]

Originally Posted by Lantana frs

I had a p&l catted header with tune at one time and the difference particularly in the midrange was almost astounding.

awesome! I'm beyond ecstatic to purchase this OFT now. I just gotta find a reasonable UEL header now hahaha

[JazzleSAURUS]

Originally Posted by LowAndSlowBecauseNoTurbo

awesome! I'm beyond ecstatic to purchase this OFT now. I just gotta find a reasonable UEL header now hahaha

Since you're purchasing the OFT, I suggest going on a bit of an adventure. Flash the stage 1 map, pull the headers and knock the cat out, and flash the stage 2 EL map. You may be perfectly happy with it, and contrary to popular belief, if you're happy with how you spent your money, then that's okay!

I'm running stock headers with the cat knocked out, and it's worlds better. The gains aren't huge, but they are everywhere, and mostly where you need them.I had a local with a tactrix cable flash on the OFT Stage 2 EL map, so for me, my cost was my time, and a header stud that was buggered up, so I really feel that it was a huge value for money modification. (Car is dead even with my friends Borla UEL car with the OFT stage 2 map, FWIW.)

[bfrank1972]

Originally Posted by Lantana frs

I had a p&l catted header with tune at one time and the difference particularly in the midrange was almost astounding.

That's what I have now, and I feel exactly the same way - really surprised me how much of a difference it made, also picks up quite a bit above 6k too. Just goes to show that you can have your cake (or cat) and eat it too.

[MurderousPandas]

I just got done running a gutted header, catless front pipe, and stock catback. Last week. It sounds bad, but there is some performance gain. And it does not smell in the car, even when on e85. Also, only the exit of the exhaust should smell, if it does elsewhere then you have an exuhast leak. I'm now running some cheap UEL headers while i wait for some nice ones.

"Chasing speed with patience"

[LowAndSlowBecauseNoTurbo]

Originally Posted by JazzleSAURUS

Since you're purchasing the OFT, I suggest going on a bit of an adventure. Flash the stage 1 map, pull the headers and knock the cat out, and flash the stage 2 EL map. You may be perfectly happy with it, and contrary to popular belief, if you're happy with how you spent your money, then that's okay!

I'm running stock headers with the cat knocked out, and it's worlds better. The gains aren't huge, but they are everywhere, and mostly where you need them.I had a local with a tactrix cable flash on the OFT Stage 2 EL map, so for me, my cost was my time, and a header stud that was buggered up, so I really feel that it was a huge value for money modification. (Car is dead even with my friends Borla UEL car with the OFT stage 2 map, FWIW.)

so you just have the header cat gutted and left the front pipe cat in tact? would the exhaust eat up the front pipe cat or no? but I was planning on running stage 1 until I bought another set of headers so I can keep the factory headers that came with the car in tact. I will definitely be looking more into before and after of the gutted headers and anymore information I should be informed about with the gutted header would be awesome