92 GS
JDM B18C(R)
JDM S80 hydraulic transmission
Hasport cable-hydraulic clutch conversion kit
Full A/C and P/S systems installed and working, don’t want to remove either one, stock rad and condenser fans
The previous owner slapped this restrictive Pacesetter exhaust header on this beautiful engine. And I’m trying to get a good solid replacement for it because this thing is holding my engine back.
I’ve been doing a lot of researching and reading for the last hour and I hear a lot about the Hytech Replica header, big tube version. Just so happens a guy about 40 minutes away from me is selling one for $350 CDN. I’m considering purchasing it.
I understand I would have to either notch my stock crossmember or buy an aftermarket traction bar to make it fit. The other thing I was wondering is if this header will fit with my setup as listed above, I do not want to lose my A/C or anything else for that matter.
Please recommend some good headers for making good power with this JDM B18C(R) engine, I am so sick of my engine being restricted by this small ass Pacesetter header lol. I plan on staying N/A btw and I do take my car to the local road courses 2-3 times a month for 5 months of every year.
I dont think you’d have problems with the Hytech Replica Big-Tube header and the AC/PS system… But the thing I dont know is how low it will hang.
But yes you are correct, you will need to either notch the crossmember or get a traction bar setup. That goes for any 4-1 header on our cars, and 90% of 4-2-1s as well.
ya how low it hangs is also a concern for me because i wanna dump the car on my tein SS once I have my other hasport mounts in and the roads in my area are horrific. i’m probably asking for too much all out of one header aren’t i? lol
i tried to find that guy on honda tech or any info about the rmf replica header he makes for that matter and all my searches yielded no results, do you have a link to any of his stuff?
For some reason I thought I recall hearing bad things about KiddRacing? Hence their site being down and their products being pretty damn hard to find these days. I just swooped up an eBay 4-1 header that hugs pretty well, and is basically a jdm R knockoff/replica. It feels pretty solid and has a decent flange on it. If you want a link I’ll find it and post it… but the crossmember had to be notched a bit. I’ve seen other headers need more notching, but it definitely needed more than 1/4inch lol.
With a standard 4-1 you’re pretty much screwed on ground clearance. If you plan on running the car low, or want to daily drive the car I’d suggestion not going w/ your standard 4-1 design that puts all 4 primaries under the engine. Here’s a shot of my ITR replica header (pretty sure it’s a Megan). You can see that it hangs around 2" below my Full Race crossmember (which we all know already hangs pretty low).
Here’s a side profile. As you can see the car is fairly low, but not dumped. The header was actually edited in this photo to show up a bit more (thus you can see it pretty well).
Those pics are old and the car has since been raised up a bit to allow for more ideal suspension travel. Current ride height looks like this and this (driver side is higher in order to help balance the car w/ my weight in the driver seat).
At the new ride height I was still scraping occasionally on a couple bumps around town but nothing I thought was a big deal at all, and was me driving w/o any concern for ground clearance (meaning I wasn’t slowing down for bumps or swerving around stuff). I also had a PCI skid plate installed. Just last week while driving on a local road I was going too fast over a large dip in the road, not a dip like into a parking lot, but just a large “rolling” dip, something I never would have thought I’d scrape on. Well, it ripped the skid plate completely off. Luckily the damage wasn’t severe. And honestly it doesn’t bother me, it’s still about me trying to figure out how low that damn thing hangs and what I can get over and what I can’t. Valuable knowledge I need so I know how to drive the car both on and off track. Here’s the damage from when I ripped the skid plate off.
Hmm thats weird about kiddracing, i still haven’t been able to find any info about that stuff on honda-tech.
that’s a pretty nice setup you’ve got there Colin, thanks for the info.
So looks like I can’t really do a 4-1 unless I keep the car conservatively low. is $350 CDN a good deal for the big tube hytech replica 4-1 header or no?
And what good 4-2-1 headers would you guys recommend then that wouldn’t restrict my JDM B18C(R). cuz anything less than a 2.5" collector would hold it back wouldn’t it?
Thank you. I’ve spent a lot of time on it, but at this point it’s much more function than form. It looks OK in pics but not such a looker up close, lol.
DEFINITELY run a 2.5" collector. I’m running one on my b17a and am pretty confident that I’d be losing power with anything smaller. Engine build after engine build, dyno after dyno has been showing that you pretty much can’t go wrong w/ the 2.5" collectors - even on the smaller displacement b series.
I haven’t been looking at the current options of prices of headers, but I know there are some good conversations and dyno graphs over on honda-tech. That’s typically where I’d research something like this. You just gotta be sure to look in the right places. The All Motor and Tech forums would be a good place to start, maybe the RR/AutoX/Time Attack forum. But stay away from the cosmetic forums or the model specific ones. There also seem to be a lot of replicas available over there in the sponsor marketplace. It looks like there’s a Hytech (4-2-1) replica available for $325 (US) shipped. But if I were you I’d do some research over there before making any decisions.
I was looking at headers recently and came across the Spoolin Performance T*DA (toda knockoff) header. While it is expensive for a knock off ($500) it seems to have good ground clearance and will clear the crossmember. I haven’t done enough research to know long term durability of them, but it looks like he started making them a couple years ago and I have NOT run across any threads along the lines of “Spoolin Performance is a scammer and his header sucks”. And the guy is a sponsor on this site.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isnt the Kamikaze header only good for supercharged motors? I’ve read (though it was a year+ ago) that on an all-motor setup that this header blows. However on a supercharged motor it puts down some great power.
So I’ve been looking at headers a lot over on honda-tech and they definitely do have a lot of replica headers available for sale, and its quite impressive a bunch of them have lots of pictures and videos and everything.
The 4-1 hytech replica looks amazing and makes great power, notching my crossmember a little bit is not a big deal for me. but one thing i don’t understand is by looking at the pictures of it installed i don’t understand how it clears our rad and A/C fans lol, it looks like it would be touching them and possibly melt the plastic.
The DA and header fitment is barely discussed if at all on the header sale pages, its quite frustrating.
I’m going to call a local performance shop that has been very helpful to me in the past with my Hasport engine mounts and other stuff and see what kind of headers they recommend for my setup. They have a brand spankin’ new Hytech Replica header listed on their website for only $350 CDN.
I did want to dump my car but I will sacrifice the dumped look in the front I wanted to be able to have a perfect exhaust setup for this engine. Currently the rest of my exhaust is 2.25" so after I upgrade the header I will eventually go for a full stainless 2.5" exhaust as well. With a Magnaflow hi-flow cat like I have now and obviously keep my resonator as well. Not sure what kind of muffler I’ll go with though.
Not sure about header clearance regarding the fans. I hate those damn stock fans, they’re HUGE! It’s SO nice having a single slimfan setup pusher style because now I have tons and tons of room in the bay. You could run slimfans on the OE radiator. If puller doesn’t fit, then you could run them pusher.
You could run a JDM 4-2-1 ITR exhaust manifold and downpipe. It too has a 2.5" collector. Also, no notching of the front crossmember is required. You do have to remove the front-to-rear brace though.
[QUOTE=Opo;2161223]Hmm thats weird about kiddracing, i still haven’t been able to find any info about that stuff on honda-tech.
that’s a pretty nice setup you’ve got there Colin, thanks for the info.
So looks like I can’t really do a 4-1 unless I keep the car conservatively low. is $350 CDN a good deal for the big tube hytech replica 4-1 header or no?
And what good 4-2-1 headers would you guys recommend then that wouldn’t restrict my JDM B18C(R). cuz anything less than a 2.5" collector would hold it back wouldn’t it?[/QUOTE]
I have the hytech replica header (small tube). $350 is a good price the big tube version. I think i paid $300 for mine.
I’ve got an aluminum rad w/ slim fan, no ac, ETD traction bar, and still have my ps. I’m preeeeeeetty sure the header will clear stock fans…
Ground clearance on this header is horrible… i scrape on everything and i’ve had to reweld the collector back on because it got caught on something and ripped it right off… still a good header though… just make sure your car is not too low. Here’s a picture of how low it hangs.
I’ve also had a comptech ITR 4-2-1 header. That thing was amazing… great fit, no need to notch cross member and stock-like ground clearance. Had it mated up to a custom test pipe and RSR exmag… i reeeeeeally miss that set up for a daily driver, but it just didn’t make as much power as my current setup.
Another header i’ve had was the AR-R race header. Made really good numbers as well, good ground clearance, but horrible fitment… I had to remove my powersteering, would not work with ac unless you got slim fans and a thinner rad, and i had to notch the cross member AND modify the front engine mount… would still be using it today, but it cracked
I say go for the ITR 4-2-1 header if you’re really hung up on ground clearance.
I’m rocking an eBay 4-1 ITR Replica header. Fit great, but had to notch the crossmember. I cant find my USB cable for my phone or I would show the height it sits at… But with a conservative drop, the header sits lower than a soda can… maybe 3.5-4" off the ground? I havent really driven it yet, but with careful driving I dont see it scraping a whole lot.
thanks for all the additional info guys. those are some other nice setups you guys have got, making me jealous lol.
i was just at the local road course saturday night and was very happy with how my car was performing other than my header of course lol. i’m pretty much sold on the hytech replica header. i’m calling that helpful shop tomorrow morning and asking for advice and opinions. i may have an opportunity to get 30% of the regular $350 price as well, which would be awesome.
