Review: Ace Header Type-B / 350

[NotSoJDM]

Hey Guys, here's a quick review of my ACE header experience. I picked up this header from Matt at ACE while up in VA at 86Expo this year. I had not planned on picking one up, but after talking with Matt, I was really impressed to hear to story behind the making of this header, and was eager to give it a try. I ran this header on my car while it was N/A as well as now that it is boosted. So far, I only have dyno charts from prior to the supercharger, so I will update this thread once I get my car strapped back on the rollers with the Edelbrock kit.

Installation Time: 2 Hours

Installation Difficulty: **

Installation Items:
- ACE Type-B Header
- ACE 350 Overpipe

Previously Installed Exhaust Items:
- Borla Factory Axle Back
- Stock Frontpipe

Unboxing:
The header came well packaged in expandable foam, and included all gaskets and hardware packaged neatly on a piece of card stock with shrink plastic over all the components. Each header is serialized and even included a separate dog tag, which was a cool touch.



Hardware Included:
The header included all gaskets necessary to install, which includes:
- 2 Head to Manifold Gaskets
- 1 Header to Overpipe Gasket
- 1 Overpipe to Frontpipe Gasket
As well as hardware for the unique header to overpipe transition:
- 3 Exhaust Studs
- 3 Exhaust Nuts
The gaskets included were nice quality and featured the fire ring around the ID to prevent gasket blow out. Very nice.



Hardware Impressions:
The hardware included was a little lack-luster with standard nuts and studs. A set of stainless metal locking nuts or a set of split lock washers would have been a nice touch to add to this kit to prevent potential for the nuts to back off. The header to overpipe gasket seems to be a unique gasket that would not be available as an OTS part should you have any issues with it.



Header Material/Weld Quality:
This is probably my favorite part of this header. The welds all look phenomenal, and were all back purged. The merge inside of the header looks flawless, as well as all of the pipe to flange transitions. The Type B header utilizes a MIG weld at the merges due to the angle of the merge, and it looks great as well. All flanges on the header are nice and thick, and are also of equal material quality as the header tubing.







Fitment:
The header fit the car very well, especially given the tight clearances from the 350 overpipe. As noted by ACE, the 350 overpipe does rub the subframe, but only under hard left hand turns, on stock engine mounts. They suggest stiffer mounts, which I have not tried yet to remedy the rubbing. I received the first production Type B header, and as such ran into one fitment issue. The primary o2 sensor bung was welded such that the sensor came in contact with a connector on the front of the engine when assembled to the car. After notifying Matt, ACE began working on a solution, and eventually sent me out an adapter to space the o2 sensor away from the connector on the engine. I chose to mount my secondary o2 sensor in the new adapter since I did not want my AFR readings to be skewed in the primary o2 by spacing it out of the exhaust stream with the new adapter. In doing so, I had to drill out the adapter to accommodate for the longer sensor tip in the secondary o2 sensor. I also removed the factory heat shield on the o2 sensor for some additional clearance, as this relocation is still a pretty tight fit.




Dyno Facility:
Phantasm Motorsports
919 Capital Boulevard
Raleigh, NC 27613
DynoJet Dynamometer

Power Gains:
This is probably what most people are interested in, as the biggest selling point of this header is the claims made of 200whp on an otherwise stock car, with an appropriate tune. With that being said, I chose to compare this header to an OFT Stage 2 setup that I was running prior to making the change to this header, and as such utilized the same OFT Stage 2 tune, only tweaking the VVT tables to compensate for the new header, and adding a bit of timing across the board (~1 degree). I did start to see some knock in the higher RPMs so I didn't advance it any further. Below is a chart comparing a stock dyno run to my best OFT/OFH run to my best OFT/ACE run. While the peak numbers are not vastly different, the midrange is huge, and was VERY noticeable around town.



Sound Differences:
I prefer the sound of the UEL header on our engines, however I was willing to give up the sound for power. The EL header does make the car sound much more like a 2.0L high rev engine, so keeping a quiet exhaust on the car was my priority. I also notice a lot more 'mechanical' noise while driving around town, likely due to the wall thickness of the header tubing. I may try to header wrap the unit down the road and see if that helps with the sound.

Overall Impressions (NA):
I am happy I made the switch to the ACE header over the OFH. The midrange power and torque was dramatically improved, and the car was actually fun to drive throughout the entire powerband. Even without the advertised peak horsepower numbers achieved through a custom dyno tune, the power delivery from this header was awesome. I have since added an Edelbrock Supercharger Kit to the car, so I will post up some numbers after I have had a chance to get it on the dyno with this header.

[NotSoJDM]

Reserved for supercharger updates...

[raven1231]

look at those terrible welds, and then there is that collector...Oh god!

[CSG Mike]

@raven1231 you know you want one

[Pat]

Wowzers! Check out the difference in torque at 4,250 RPM between stock and Ace. 30 foot pounds! That's nuts.
And there may be just a little bit more left in it with an ideal tune using EcuTek. Very impressive.

[vividracing]

Weld porn! That serial # is a cool little touch too.

[raven1231]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

@raven1231 you know you want one

Do they make them for a 2016 wrx !

[vividracing]

Originally Posted by raven1231

Do they make them for a 2016 wrx !

If you're not on E85 in that car already, you should be! Definitely do that before a new header! They make SILLY gains running E85 and a downpipe.

[raven1231]

Originally Posted by vividracing

If you're not on E85 in that car already, you should be! Definitely do that before a new header! They make SILLY gains running E85 and a downpipe.

In the process of it ha ha. Going to get a dyno tune from TIC once it's all ready to go, just collecting parts currently. Also, trying to make sure it stays as reliable as possible as it's my DD.

Current plan:

Cobb Accessport (have)
Invidia Q300 catback (have)
Depot racing J-pipe/Downpipe Combo (have)
Grimmspeed CAI
Grimmspeed 3 port BC
PRL EGR delete
Nameless BPV
AWD motorsports TGV deletes (have)
Unsure of Flex fuel kit

[vividracing]

For sure! Yeah there are a TON of new WRXs running E85 on the daily and they're solid and reliable! They're quickly outpacing the previous gen WRX/STI in the power department while being .5 liters short in the engine department.

[jasonc]

Looking good NotSoJDM! I just put in the Type B/250 OP. No dyno yet (except the butt dyno) but ripping through 2k - 5k rpms with this header is unbelievable!

[churchx]

Hmm, wasn't rubbing with very worn engine mounts mentioned in relation to Type A? Shouldn't it be non issue for B-s?

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by raven1231

Do they make them for a 2016 wrx !

Well, we do have a 2015 WRX R&D car...

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by churchx

Hmm, wasn't rubbing with very worn engine mounts mentioned in relation to Type A? Shouldn't it be non issue for B-s?

It's a hit or miss depending on the car.

The A and B position the piping identically. The only real difference is in the weight.