Which headers are the best?
 

Hey guys, I am new the car scene and I just wanted to know which headers are best for performance for our cars? Which give the more hp gains? and would i have to buy the same diameter piping as my aftermarket exhaust? i have a tsudo exhaust. I want to buy some with my next paycheck with the hopes it will give me a little more hp and with the hope my car will sound better

Exhaust section, lots dynos and discussion and opinions there.

No such a thing as the Best parts .. especially when you're going to be adding more than one since nobody has done the infinite (nearly) combinations of all the various parts + tune each set up
I personally am looking forward to what seems like a whole years of R&D from nameless made for us in terms of header .. it looks interesting :)

There haven't been many before and after dynos showing gain from header alone. I had a friend get his car tuned with TRD intake and stock exhaust and then swapped in a JDL header over pipe and catted front pipe and retuned at iirc +27 whp at peak. I have retuned his car since and picked up a few more. I have yet to see more "proven gains" as most are stock vs header + tune.

@Rev Works .....what else is there to say

I loved my Revworks header when I had it. I also used to have the Tsudo exhaust as well.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbndvIrWGys"]FRS Revworks UEL header, Tsudo header back exhaust - YouTube[/ame]

@jaime3, Moved to Engine/Exhaust section.

For the most power I'd look at the new JDL EL v2 HKS and Nameless... They are all over 1k.

For cheaper power I'd look at PPE Revworks and OFH

I'm been looking at headers a lot lately and it really depends how much you want to spend and what you are looking for. With a tune + header combo the JDLs are great and expecting the Nameless to be above them performance wise. If you are going to try and stay on stock tune there are only so many options that will net you any gains while not throwing cels. I have narrowed my list to JDL, Nameless, and the OFT combo (tablet + header) for what I'm looking for I'll have to get a tune with my header and the OFT combo seems like the best bang for the buck considering the combo costs as much as just the header from JDL or Nameless

The Borla UEL headers have been the most popular for us in terms of quantity of orders for that part number, and so far I haven't heard any complaints, it's all good news from my customers on that, so I'd probably go for that one.

We've got another install for one I think tomorrow, or the following day, so we should have videos coming shortly after that.

It depends on what you are looking for. From the dynos i have seen the UEL headers with a tune flatten the torque dip out and give a bit of a boost through out the range.

The EL headers are a bit different in that they can be tuned to give a boost at different rpms. Ones like the FA20Club and P&L with a tune actually give you a torque bump where the dip normally is but up top are similar to the UELs. The JDL and SuperSprint ELs seem to give you more of a boost up the top end but you'll still have a torque dip (altho a reduced one) in the low to mid range.

What ever you choose you really need a tune to make the most of the headers.

whats the differrence between equal and unequal?

If you aren't planning on going FI, then the difference between EL and UEL are very minimal. Just choose which you think sounds better! The best EL headers are definitely Nameless, once they come out with it. Both the UEL and EL from JDL are great and their headers show some really good power gains. If you are on a budget and want some headers OFH are not a bad choice either.

No difference between el and uel if staying NA?

Put down the crack pipe.

Uel is for sound. It's a compromise. It might give gains, but a well calculated EL header is always better.

If you're buying headers based on sound, you should probably just play a cd through your stereo of race engines.

Wow diss...

Aside from unequals retaining g the "boxer rumble" that's a trademark Subaru sound they actually give more torque in the range where most people will spend most of their time. Discounting them out of hand is as silly as buying one just for the sound.

I guess that's why formula one, top fuel, drift, drag, and other NA race cars all use UEL. As well as high performance road cars. Ferrari, Lamborghini, mclaren, porsche

See where I'm going with this?

Just because there is a dyno from some who has put on a uel header on and tuned it, and seen gains, does not give any weight to a uel vs el arguement.

I am sure that the 2 to 3 hp will really make a "difference", but personally I don't care enough about it that much. They sound awesome and they make me smile. Also, someone got up to 200whp with some UEL headers on 91 octane. Not bad hey?

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...postcount=1549

OP was asking for the best headers.

I actually agree with you that 3hp is insignificant though. But still.

Also, it's hard for me to respect anyone's dyno results that puts 91 piss in their car.

Edit- looked at that dyno, I'm impressed. Not just by the number, but the shape.

Over here in the good ol' US of A, some areas don't carry anything higher than 91 octane, which is why people are forced to use it.

If you are after every bit of power then yes, EL are definitely the only way to go. Don't need to tell me that. There is a reason why race cars use EL headers.

I personally wanted something that showed good power gains but not at the cost of sound. Despite being associated with flat brimmed hat wearing, monster energy drinking teenagers, I personally enjoy the Subie rumble. So JDL UEL headers it was. Best of both worlds!

Yea it sux, places like California only have 91 octane (except there are some gas stations that will sell race gas too lol).

[pedant]
oxymoron
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Lolwut?

Best, best can mean any number of things, best for what? Absolute highest possibly HP at high rpm and wot? Sure, el all day. Best for tooling around town every day/ street driving with the occasional day at the track? Maybe uel isn't really worse at all.

See where I'm going with this?

If el headers gave higher gains to torque and HP everywhere in the rev range then saying they're the best would be easy, but they don't, do they?

He asked for best headers.

Your arguement is that best is not defined.

So, in that case, maybe he wants the best headers that look stock. The answer would be stock. Maybe be wants the best shit welds, in that case boral.

Nice angle guy. :bonk:

Best shit welds - FA20Club takes the cake at the moment.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55840

Holy shit. :confused0068:

I second this. I heard it on my friend's car and it really gives that Subaru boxer growl. Also he reports that he has notice a significant change in performance along with his other mods.

You can't compare a very well designed UEL header to a shit EL header and claim that UEL is better across the board.

If you look at the science behind it, EL is better. Period. That assumes you're building an optimized header for your application though. There is a TON more involved than just the difference in runner lengths.

4-1 vs 4-2-1, stepped primaries, actual primary lengths, etc are all KEY in how much power it makes and where in the RPM band it makes it. Plus you have to make it fit in the engine bay, and if you want a cat it gets even harder unless you're willing to change where the flange sits compared to stock.

If you were to take the nameless long tube stepped 4-2-1 header and cut down the length on one bank to make it UEL you would definitely see a power loss compared to when it was EL, but would it still have good gains? Absolutely.

Another thing to keep in mind with UEL/EL is how each cylinder is flowing and scavenging. Are you monitoring each cylinder's AFR to make sure you don't have one burning really lean/hot and another burning really rich/cold? UEL can lead to unbalanced flow and heat, but if you look at the AFR after the primaries merge you only get the average. Now is that a concern for the average street car that just wants a bit of a bump in power, probably not. Does it make UEL less efficient (better) than EL, probably.

Assuming Bob over at drift office is a decent tuner and doesn't have money coming from a brand, the best so far is the HKS EL.

Nameless, PPE, Revolution, any of the crazy JDM headers have yet to be 3rd party tested.

Let's be fair. The Jdl uel header made a lot of power on the drift office dyno and it was a completely stock car other than the header. The hks results were for a full exhaust and intake. Also, different car and different day. You can't really extrapolate a comparison between the two from the drift office data other than they are probably the best options out there at this time. There are a few cars running the Jdl uel that have posted 200+whp without e85.

The best header is the one that makes the most power. I'd say that's between the Jdl and hks for the time being with no clear favorite.

I'm just going to say JDL because UEL, and the fact that third party dynos are showing it's really awesome. I love this header. Probably my favorite mod on my car so far for that subie sound and great performance.

"Best" FT86 UEL Headers

JDL > RW > OFH > Borla > FA20

Currently JDL's headers is the FT86 UEL benchmark.

Nameless EL will soon be released, and may be the best performer yet. Nameless makes extremely high quality products.

The new OpenFlash Header (OFH) is also yet to be released, thus it's quality, sound and performance increase are still speculative based on prototype. OpenFlash and Vishu Tunning are highly regarded, so this header may surprise many with it's quality and performance for the price; thus my subjective ranking of it could increase.

FA20 seems to be falling from grace recently, with poorly manufactured products and customer service. Based on that fact, I'm listing their once great header low.

Nameless EL :bonk:

If Nameless was making a UEL, I'd be all over it! That's not Jason's style though. Even if the EL makes 1 WHP over the UEL, EL will be the decision.

Redacted

Hey now, you get out of here with your logic. MAYBE ITS AN ARROW.

Sorry. I've taken too much math. I didn't consider he was painting a picture. ;)

Only said something because it obscured your meaning. Not trying to be a **** 8)

Didn't take it like that at all, joking back at you.

You'd think after all that education I'd get my greater than signs correct, when posting on the internet. Thanks for pointing it out.

Check out this test from nelsmar http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55770

Seems to me removing the stock cats on the stock headers could be cheapest and maybe one of the best ways to go.

Gutting the stock seems to only be good if you're going FI...


I've also seen people claim 195hp with borla and an "intake" which everyone else has shown make no difference.

The real benchmark is 13.90 sec 1/4 mile with HKS headers.

Borla is the most popular but I wouldn't say it's the best. It's perhaps one of the most budget friendly. However, what are your goals? The most power?