Hey so i just thought i would share my recent upgrade. I got a 6 gen f23a1 and have a cai on it now paired up with a new header. I don't have alot of money to spend so when i do upgrades I try to get best bang for your buck. I got interested in putting a new header on my car mainly for looks and sound, didn't think i would gain much on the performance end. I started looking on ebay and realized that i couldn't afford the name brand ones and started looking at less expensive ones. I didnt want to buy a piece of junk though either so if i found one at a good price i researched the brand. After about a month of research and and saving a bit of cash i found a great deal on an OBX header. Order it and was shipped to me in a week. Installed it myself at a friends house, only hiccup was extending the wiring of the 02 sensor which was a disaster at first (long story). After all hooked up it ran great, no exhaust leaks (it came with all gaskets btw), all welds were good (had my brother who is a welder take a look at them), sounds great and looks awesome too, even got some nice low end torque gains. The car really picks up nice now. So this little thread is just to inform the other car enthusiast and aspiring gear heads on a budget that a little research can go a long way and you don't always need to spend the top dollar.

 

Got any pic's of it on the car?

 

I found the big difference with the cheaper brands of stainless headers was the gauge (wall thickness) of the tubing being used. Depending on what you want from your exhaust this can make a difference in performance. The thin wall headers will cool faster and will not maintain exhaust gas temps. This can actually end up in a loss in power and a rise in under hood temps. They can also allow for an exhaust pulse ring sound from under the hood.

The really cheap Chinese stuff - supper thin (can get really hot and noisy)
OBX and Megan are - bit thicker (I have an OBX on my Mazda... rad support and hood get hot to the touch. No pulse noises)
PaceSetter, Ractive, Edelbrock - Thickest (Had one on my Accord, worked great, low under hood temps and no ping/exhaust noise under the hood)

Will also have to add that even though the OBX welds were OK. the fit and finish was were you really see the cost cutting. The finish cuts and welds inside my OBX header were really rough. Where the Ractive ($500) header that I bought for my Accord was finished inside and out. Any cuts or merges were ground and sanded inside.

 

Obx is hit or miss they make some good stuff and some bad stuff. My rx7 came with an obx exhaust on it and it seems pretty good quality and sounds good. I will probably replace it with hks or racing beat some day though.

 

Just don't OBX suspension parts......they snap randomly on the freeway.



I got a used DC header for $40. Was in good condition, minus the ceramic finish being pretty beat up. Spent $20 on some high heat primer and ceramic header paint. Sanded and painted everything, new gaskets, and now the header looks good as new.

 

sounds like hondafreak91c had a bad experience sorry to hear, and yes I have a pics. You can see some of the rewiring i had to do, the wiring is all covered now with a wrap but dont have a pic of that so you can see the exposed stuff lol. CD5 i did find some of the welds and and cuts on the inside were a little rough, some were well done but a few were a little rough but nothing to bad, and like live2rice said its hit and miss