Gang

I installed a set of STOCK ported headers that I got from a board member over the weekend.

I know it is supposed to cut down on turbulence etc. Should I "Feel" anything different in the car?

Just curious

 

i was under the impression that the stock headers on your x50 car are some of the best parts you can have. Did you have any ceramic coating done after they were ported?

 

No.

I did compare the two and the new ones were much smoother with regards to teh welds etc.

 

huge gains. seat o the pants.

 

regardless, I hope you get something out of them! Good luck!

 

Look at the difference in the below pics. There is a lot of material that can be removed from the inlets and outlet on the stock headers. It can increase the diameter of the opening by at least 3-6mm. Doing so will certainly improve flow. It is a simple mod that has no downsides and should improve spoolup and overall power. I have 2 sets of spare headers if anyone wants a pair to DIY pm me.

 

Yup! That is what mine looked like!

 

Better flow,, maybe a few ponies on the top end. Looks great!
Tim, did you lower your ride yet?

 

There is a lot more to obtaining max power than opening up to the size of the gasket.

When they are wide open, you introduce harmonic distortion to your valve train which will drop power. The top part of the head to header has a step which addresses the harmonic distortion. The rest of the header will benefit from opening it up.

 

Yes I did Chris:

 

Engrish Preese? I would like to better understand WHAT you just said.

 

cjv, this is not gasket matching. What we are talking about is grinding away the excess weld material in the stock headers (there is a lot of it!). There are threads here and on Rennlist started by Kevin (UMW) describing the whole process.

Porting the inlets of the flange itself (gasket matching) would take a remarkable amount of work and many bits as it is very hard stainless steel. But since you mentioned it, I was surprised to see how much smaller the flange inlets are compared to the size of the gasket. If it was intentional for the reason you stated then it makes sense. Do you have any data to support that info? I only ask because match porting is a common practice in racing.

 

I always wondered if this really helped since the header gets so much smaller right after the inlet. So if it's a little bigger at the top, does it really help much?

 

it helped on my setup up top and also helped my spooling.

 

It does help. Think about how the engine cycles. The cylinders do not fire at the same time, right? Accordingly, they release their exhaust at different moments in time, the pulses then reach the collector in series, not all at once.