'17+ stock headers vs aftermarket catted headers
 

Doing some searching and not seeing much consensus as to whether there's any real benefit to adding a header (if it's going to be catted) in place of the stock '17+ header as apparently they were opened up in the refresh.

Looking for a small bump in power, and to be able to run OFT stage 2, but not sure if adding a header is going to be any better than stock in this case.

(only considering catted header as I'm not looking to run into any emissions testing issues)

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

From my (limited) understanding, the real gain in flattening the torque dip (and a mild boost in overall power) is from removing the cat, not from the tune alone. So I would guess that a catted header wouldn't provide as much benefit as a catless header (or maybe none at all for 2017+).

A good aftermarket catted header would have a small advantage, because it is using a sport cat. Meaning a cat will less cells.

Probably no real advantage with an aftermarket catted header. Catless would help. Tune it and enjoy it. Keep it clean and as stock as possible so you can move it when you want a faster car.

Ok, but given there's little difference between the stock '17+ cat and an aftermarket one, would I be ok to move to OFT stage 2 with what i've got stock?

Honestly if you want to stay catted on a facelift car, get a flex fuel tune and run E85. torque dip will be gone.

Love to.....but the nearest E85 station is 90 mins away....

that's just a small detour on you're way home! :burnrubber:

Go drive someone’s 13-16 twin with a catless header and compare to your car. Only way you will really know.

My 16 is jdl catless header, jdl FP catted and resonated, drop in filter and Crawford powrblocks with OFT stage 2 plus tune. It is significantly better than stock, but nothing like the bump going to stage 2 on my WRX. Still worth it.

Appreciate that I guess....cept the whole 'rona thing....And not sure I'd compare a BRZ/86 to a WRX....very different cars

I agree just saying the benefits for NA are small things that add up. Compared to the WRX where changes are more dramatic being a turbo.

Not worth it. Only reason if you wanted uel for a different sound.

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I'm firmly in this camp now too. Once you learn to drive around the torque dip, it's a non-issue. I went from stock > UEL > UEL+FP > UEL+FP+E85 > Stock header/fp + catback. The catback was worth it for the sound. Everything else, even the E85 didn't make a great difference in the higher rev ranges, not for the money spent at least.

You will get some power, but sound should be the main goal for that setup.

It allows you to run pretty much any catback without being obnoxiously loud.