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I’m not sure where you read that Topgear has poor quality but based on my experience (center X pipe) and many others, their quality and fit is top notch. I don’t think I’ve read a bad review of Topgear products on this site. So it’s a bit ironic that you ended up choosing some random ebay brand for your headers. Good luck and let us know how it works out for you.
The headers have arrived. They seem to be acceptable quality. There is some attention to detail such as hand finishing of the exhaust ports. Of course these are MIG welds and doesn't compare to a set of TIG welded headers but at $899, that is expected. I will be installing them in a week or so and will follow-up with how that went.
oh boy - now I feel a bit dumb. I have TopGear cats... (Not TopSpeed)
I went to find a sound clip and see it there in the description - too many mods over too many years!
Sorry about that!
Header install complete. The job is straight forward and definitely a DIY assuming you are an average shade tree mechanic. Start to finish about 5 hours. The most difficult part was removing the header to intermediate pipe bolts because they were completely rusted and had to be cut off.
Results:
1] No check engine light.
2] The sound is perfect. A little louder, deeper tone, and sounds very sporty. No drone, and with windows up and cruising at 60 MPH you can easily have a conversation without needing to talk over the exhaust.
3] Performance = feels no different until you get to about 5000 RPMs+ then it is noticeably stronger without a doubt.
Conclusion = this a hard to beat dang for buck improvement! Recommended!
Congrats on the successful install and hope you get many miles of use out them. No CEL is good to hear. Did there end up being any weight savings from the stock headers?
Congrats on the successful install and hope you get many miles of use out them. No CEL is good to hear. Did there end up being any weight savings from the stock headers?
I just weighed the stock header and it was about 14 lbs. If that's correct, a 1 lbs weight savings - not enough of a difference to note.
Another note on these headers - the manifold flange is much thicker than stock. Therefore, you cannot re-use the stock header bolts because they aren't long enough. The stock header bolts will thread in but you will loose about 1/4" of thread depth - not a good plan. Good news is the header bolts are a common size and easily sourced.
Any noticeable loss of torque at low RPMs due to less back pressure?
No noticeable loss. The powerband feels exactly the same until you hit the higher RPMs, then it pulls stronger and revs faster. Also just to repeat - the sound is improved - deeper tone, etc. - sounds amazing!
Here is my final piece of advice to anyone who is modifying their exhaust...If you are going through the labor to pull your mufflers, install a third muffler bypass, you should really consider doing the headers as well. You are 90% done with header install at that point. Getting to the headers is the hardest part - R/R the headers was relatively simple and easy. Knowing what I know now - I would purchase the entire exhaust and do it as one project.
and advice for those doing headers, consider replacing the header gaskets - and if you re-use yours, make sure they're super clean and that the bolts are torqued to spec. And - for the bolts, be super-careful to get them threaded in properly.
At the request of a member I am providing an update on these 200 cell cats now that I’ve had them for almost 2 years. I have had no issues with them but I only drive the car about 2000 miles per year. The car sounds awesome and if it gets too loud I close the valves on the mufflers (very rare). If I had to do it all again I would go straight to a valved muffler setup and the 200 cell cats. I would also keep the stock center muffler because deleting it does very little to the sound and I actually think the deleted muffler makes the difference between valves open and valves closed less prominent. If you don’t need the ability to open and close the valves then I suspect a Gundo/Fister hack would do the trick although I’ve never heard them in person.
Also don’t forget that these cats may or may not pass emissions in your state and they did trigger a CEL which was dealt with by the Softronic tune.
10-19-2021, 08:35 AM
