Ordered my bp header

[manxbuggy1]

Well crap! Ordered a new obx header for my bp last week and boy was I stoked. Three days later I received an email from the seller stating that obx was out of stock on egt headers and would be for the next 8 weeks. I found a pacesetter header for the same price but I have a couple of questions for you guys. What do we know about pacesetter headers? I know that they are just painted steel and the obx's are 304ss. The pacesetter looks like a longtube and the obx a shorty. I know the longtube would require a more difficult install but I intend on going all new anyway except the hiflow cat which I'm told can be stretched from 2" to 2.25". Does anybody know the plusses or minusses of longtubes vs shorties. . Both of these headers sell for $159.00 plus $25.00 shipping on ebay. Which should I get guys?. Which if any would help my (future) camswap the most?

btw they had a header for a protege lx for $50.00 more. Go figure! I hate to be cheap but this swap has already tapped me out.

[perucho]

The folks at clubprotege say that pacesetter headers are junk. May want to check some of their comments/reviews.

[eurotiva]

Casper has a pacesetter on it. It's not too bad. It doesn't have the bottom end torque of my red car that has the stock manifold. And casper has a cam swap like your planning on doing.

[Roboskittle]

Pacesetter is garbage. Havnt heard great things about the OBX either. I say stick with the stocker or boost it lol.

[manxbuggy1]

Thanks for the feedback. I had pretty much heard the same things about the pacesetter header. I had heard both good and bad about the obx. My brother has had one on his 2008 nissan frontier and he loves it. I do know that a header is claimed to raise hp by 8 to 10. Heck I might just stick with my stock cast iron boat anchor for a while. Greg do you think Casper is slower out of the hole because of better air flow and maybe picks it back up on the upper end? Just a thought.

[blkfordsedan]

I've had a Pacesetter header before (one on my '79 Fiesta) and was very pleased with the fit & quality. The one on my Fiesta fit like a glove. The flanges were nice & thick, the bends were smooth and the welds were very nice. It's possible that their quality has gone down hill in the last 5 - 6 years, or I just got lucky!

As for the shorty vs. long tubes: The point of headers is to provide individual primary tubes for each port that are of a length ( there is a optimum length for every application) to provide a scavenging effect that aids in cylinder filling. Shorty headers will never provide the performance gain that long tubes will. A good header will increase performance through the entire RPM range, or at least with minimal loss of low end. Most shorty headers will only add 5-10 HP in a limited RPM range. A good long tube design can add 2X to 3X that.

Here is a great article that will explain the basics of header design.

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tech/0310phr_jack_burns_exhaust_manifold_header_tech/index.html

[chrisofna]

I pretty much get the same story for all the pacesetter stuff (at least for the MR2s). The old stuff was top notch, the new stuff is kinda crappy.

A lot of my friends are running OBX with good results.

[FestYboy]

i've found that OBX's welds at the flange tend to crack after use due to thin gauge tube, and poor welds (the welds LOOK good, but wind up taking away metal form the joint instead of adding, also the welds don't penitrate like they should, likely do to thin tubing being blown through durring the weld.)

[manxbuggy1]

Well I found another ebay seller who had two of them in stock so I ordered it again. Guess what? he sent me an email a couple of days later and seems his inventory was off and he didn't have one either. What is going on? I understand an 18yo engine is not in high demand anymore( except to us that is), but this is blowing my mind. Well at least this seller refunds my money and keeps me on his b/o list and promised my free shipping when he gets more. I will wait for a while and see how long it takes. I understand 1995 egt's came with factory headers. Does anybody know if this is true and if so how is the quality. I guess it would be pretty risky getting a 15yo header.

[sasquatch]

ya the 95 came with a factory header... i got one on mine... looks great, all i had to do was paint it and it looked new again

[manxbuggy1]

That does look good Mike. Your whole engine bay looks clean with wires all neatly tucked.

[sasquatch]

thanks im working on making it better all the wires are in the way of all they turbo stuff lol...