Borla vs Tomei UEL
 

I have purchased Tomei uel headers however there is a 4 week wait and have been offered borla's as an alternative. Going by YouTube, the borla's seem to have great sound however reputation for quality does not seem as good as Tomei's.

What are peoples experiences with borla v2 headers and also Tomei? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Why not go with JDL uel header? Is on same price range and lifetime warranty. Also the build quality is top notch and

Wait for the Tomei.

The Borla UEL gets such a bad wrap of the forums... I remember researching about UELs before I bought mine and no matter what thread I read there was always that ONE picture of a bad weld that EVERYBODY went off... and well that's where it all started (not saying that's where it finished)

Yes their Version 1 was shitty and people had problems with them but they took those off. I myself have the v2... If you want a deep rumble go borla...

My friend that lives next to me (same car) has the Borla as well he loves it but he is straight piped so he's mad loud, but rumbles never the less. Neither him OR myself had a single problem with them, nothing but fun in the torque dip fix and the sound.

Tomei does have an excellent reputation and I have heard it in front of me, not really a fan of the sound compared to the Borla, it's not as deep IMHO.. I wouldnt worry about performance differences when it just comes down to 1 - 7 hp...

Shoot, if you can wait 2 months Ill sell you mine since I'm going sssssuuuuuuutututututututu :)

Tomei all the way!

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

My borla UEL has some welding issues, not on the outside pipes but on the flange.... they blew out a chunk of metal welding the inside of the pipe to the flange in such a way that the gasket would never seal. Flanges were also warped quite a bit, but I sorted the warpage out with a 10 ton press and a jig.

Could not get the gasket to seal with the missing material in the flange so got a warranty replacement. Same horribly warped flanges. Bought a rev works UEL and compared side by side. Huge quality difference in both appearance and workmanship. Flanges were dead nuts flat, no gorilla welds in the collector with slag everywhere, just a much higher perceived/observed quality.

Not leaking was a huge plus

Maybe they got the issues sorted out, but they wasted a lot of my time installing/uninstalling 2 different headers.

Their warranty is excellent though, and dealing with the warranty department was a pleasure.

There's more to it than just the welds. The collector in the Tomei looks significantly cleaner than the one in the Borla. And on top of that Borla's flanges have had a reputation of being warped thus leading to an unfixable exhaust leak.

Thanks for your thoughts folks. Have decided to stay with the Tomei. Love the borla rumble but I'm in Australia and any issues might be a pain to deal with just due to shipping times and cost even if the customer service is great. Jdl looks good but pretty sure here that will cost an extra 30% on top the Tomei Price and looks like an even longer waiting time.

Agreed. Waited for mine.

Even the Borla V2 has fairly common failures. At this point I've welded three V2's to 'bide time' while people save for a better option.

You chose wisely waiting for the Tomei.

imo ACE>JDL>Nameless>Tomei>Gruppe-S>Stock with the cat smashed out>Borla>most ebay/knock off options.

The only problem with ACE imo is price. I'd only go ACE if I was making an actual racecar. I went with JDL because I managed to get one second hand

Ace's price isn't THAT high once you add to price of all the others also overpipe for apples to apples comparison. Yes, expensive, but not THAT much anymore.

Tomei. Put a Tomei exhaust on too. Kinda regret not getting one

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

That's always how it is with the best part available for any given platform. The design, research, and manufacturing is substantially better than anything else, and that work sure isn't free.

It's the best NA header option period, and the JDL is a hell of an option at it's price point. You can't go wrong with either, just whichever fits into your budget. :thumbsup: