We did my car and 2 harleys last weekend, all 3 got header/exhaust. I'm sure my neighbors hate me right now. I started working from home in the mornings and don't head into the office til 9 or 10, so it hasn't been much of a problem so far.

I don't know how to lower the starting rpm. I assume there is probably an off the shelf tune similar to the one I already have that will correct it, but I haven't had the time or desire to find it just yet. I'll figure it out and give it a try, but I can tell you this, if you can get it to stay below 1,000 rpm's it is actually quiet as a mouse. It's incredible the difference 4 or 5 hundred rpm make. At 1400, it rattles things in my bedroom.

I'm having a hard time feeling out the gains because it sounds so aggressive now that everything feels faster. It's hard to differentiate between how it feels and how much faster it actually is. Also I've only been doing spirited driving. There are places I could redline it through the gears and get away with it. Every day I take a right at a stop sign onto a 50mph road, but with the exhaust noise and back end swiveling around it just causes such a scene...

If you are worried about the noise, it's really not unpleasant for normal driving. If you want to keep it quiet on the road it's not that difficult. It starts getting loud above 3500 i think. I'll get some driving video that shows the rpm this weekend.

Works now, thanks. Sounds pretty good. Hard to judge volume, but the tone seems great.

Alright I'm gonna come clean here.. I honestly don't really notice much difference in power. I didn't want to admit it but I'm kind of disappointed in that regard. If I hopped in an untuned bone stock 86 and then back in mine, I'd probably notice immediately, but it's just not a huge enough difference for me to try to pinpoint specifically where it feels faster or anything like that. Imo, the mid range still feels like you're making a hell of a lot of noise but not really going anywhere. Sorry to disappoint, it's probably more a fault of my own than of the mods or car. I don't think my butt dyno is sensitive enough.

I'm almost outa gas so I'm gonna give E85 a try tonight or tomorrow. I'm also wondering if new tires (still running stock and they tend to slip) or cleaning the 3 month old K&N drop in will help. I don't have the money for tires at the moment, but I'll clean the filter and try E85 and report back.

Regardless, I still don't regret it. The fat tail pipes, awesome race car sound, and eliminating that strange metallic buzzing noise above 4k rpm made it worthwhile anyway. Not to mention that now when someone says these cars are slow, at least I can say "well mine's got a lot of extra HP over stock". They don't need to know that I have a hard time noticing it :)

Edit: I should point out that I already had drop in filter and stage 1 tune, and if memory serves from my reading, that accounts for almost half of the 22ish hp gain I was supposed to get from the mods. So I might only be looking at 10hp gain for the header and a couple more for the exhaust.

I love my OFT/OFH combo and have a lot of respect for vishnu as a tuner/company... but man o man is the documentation just absolutely terrible. I should say, the lack of documentation and help resources. I felt the same way as you at first. Keep reading, asking questions, etc.

1. KN filter doesnt need to be cleaned for 30k miles I believe. cleaning it will not help.
2. New tires will help the car in just about every aspect besides acceleration (unless you really are spinning wildly)
3. metallic noise you were hearing is from oft stage1 tunes on stock header, it is something with the variable valve timing.
4. the ecu needs time to settle after you reflash it. There is potentially more power there as it adapts. Give it a few days or at least 50 miles after you flash, if you haven't already. Also steve99's guides can show you how to treat your car optimally after reflashing, for quickest recalibration.

The 30 K cleaning is under optimal conditions but depending upon Mike's local conditions it could be clogged (at least a bit). Over the years I have frequently had to clean/replace filters well under the recommended mileage just from all the sand and salt dust that flies around when the snow melts.
Not hard to do and worth checking.

San Antonio is dusty as hell because it doesn't rain for weeks at a time, but I think you'd have to be driving on sand dunes to put 30k worth of dust in 3k miles...

I'm sure I gained some power, but I just had unrealistic expectations due to all the money I spent and crap I installed. I was adding up all my mods to like 30whp, but really only gained 12hp between saturday and sunday.

It's cool though, this wasn't just about power. It was a couple grand for 12whp, boxer rumble, quality exhaust note, interior/exterior/under hood cosmetic enhancements, clean sound tube delete, smoother shifting, and stiffer clutch. It's a superior driving experience, make no mistake about that :)

True if that is all you have on it. I drive over that a month so not really a good benchmark for such things I guess.
The sound is worth every penny in my books! The couple of times I drove the cars with stock exhaust I hated the lack of sound (and the kazoo pipe didn't help). I love my boxer rumble although I am not convinced the neighbours are all that fond of it!

Yea if you want immediate, noticeable results in that aspect you're better off going forced induction.

To me bolt on mods (Intake/header/exhaust, OFT, etc.) are for those who want modest gains without completely changing the nature of the car. Not to mention there's a much less chance that you have to constantly fix issues on the car.

Or for those who want gains without having to invest 4-6k off the bat, and THEN have to get a huge exhaust, fluids, brakes, etc. And then have to worry about making a mistake and blowing your engine.

I thought about FI, but it's just too much time, money, risk, and effort, especially considering that I don't even know if there are tracks around here. I only found one and it looks like a rundown old oval.. not twistys. Honestly from the pics I saw, it looks ghetto.

Edit: I just googled it and one of the first things that showed up was a 2015 article titled "Is San Antonio Raceway Doomed?" lol

http://www.dragzine.com/news/san-ant...o-gain-bidder/

After my experience in the past it was fun but definitely consumes too much time and money. The only way I'd even consider dealing with it anymore at this point in my life is if the car comes boosted out of the factory haha.

I can see myself doing it at like 80k miles and the cars been paid off for a while. I might dump 5-10k into boosting and replacing parts instead of buying a new car. Or just consider it an expensive toy and get a new dd.

There was a vortech supercharger for sale for like 2 thousand something in the classifieds a month or 2 ago. I was tempted, it's doable without breaking the bank. I just couldn't justify it.

honestly, you'll get much better gains with a custom tune over any OTS tune. that's why you aren't feeling a big difference.

So I just filled her up with E85, ran out the rest of the regular gas, and now I'm getting an error when I try to run the tune.. I'm really getting annoyed with this damn flash tablet. It's been really hit or miss for me.

Edit: I eventually got it done last night. We'll see how it goes today after its broken in.

Just finished breaking in the tune and am happy to report it does seem more powerful now. It seems just a bit faster overall, and the torque dip isn't nearly as bad. You can feel it accelerating whereas when it was stock the torque dip almost felt like it was in neutral it was so bad. I think I'm gonna stick with E85 for a while.

It's been a while since my car was stock.. Can someone tell me if you get a nice solid 3rd gear tire chirp when flooring through the gears? Just curious.

Haha... no.