So i was on ebay as always looking to spend money on stuff i dont have and i came accross a set of OBX headers (stainless) for 275 + 40 shipping. Never heard of this brand and I am curious if anyone has heard of them or uses them?

 

you dont really want OBX stuff. this is based on my honda experience.

 

I realize that they are definitely not going to be the best headers out there, but i cant imagine they would be that much worse than downey's (performance wise) and cannot be worse than stock exhuast manifolds. For as cheap as they are (around 150 less than downey's) could they be worth it?

 

cheaper anit always better you get what you pay for

 

theres a thread on custom tacos regarding headers. Honestly yeah you get what you pay for these are china sweatshop headers with no strict quality control at the least. But who knows u can be the first to try it out.

 

I have heard horror stories and people that are completely happy with them. I also know that some people have tried SS autochrome.... Any word there as to fitament?

 

I think everyone will buy cheap headers once in their lifetime. Then the lesson is learned and for the rest of their life they (me) will not even consider anything but the best quality headers they can find. Stock manifolds look pretty good when you're replacing header gaskets every few months.

Everyone learns from mistakes. Smart guys just learn from the mistakes of others.

 

So what do we go with? TRD only?

 

I don't know. TRDs are probably pretty good, as for what else is out there, IDK. My post is about getting guys to think about how much work header installs and re-installs (when the headers warp, the gaskets blow out, etc) are before they buy a set based on price alone. If I was looking at headers today, I'd check out everything on the market and get the thickest flanges, stainless only, gasketless junctions, etc. If cheap headers were $250, I might spend $500. The last set of headers I owned were stainless Banks on a big block Suburban. Never any problems in just over 90k. Those headers were not cheap, but they were worth every penny.

I hope I'm not coming across the wrong way here , just trying to share what I've learned in the 25 years since I got my first truck.

 

I completely understand where you're coming from. I am also curious if gasketless junctions come on any of the headers offered. I believe that even the TRD's have gaskets and people have had them leak from the get go as well. I just figured that with the gaskets provided and some gasket material, that i could make them tite with no leaks. I am about to do a body lift as well which i have heard makes the job MUCH easier to do.

 

i dunno ive done some research and found that the gains from headers are not worth the trouble of installing them. you do have the blower so your gains will be greater, but its not something i would be rushing out to do. just my opinion, btw i have heard nothing but good from obx, all the sentra guys love them. the flanges are pretty thick, and thats what counts.

 

Some of the 240 guys like them for the same reasons. The ONLY reason why i am considering this is because of my new body lift making it a bit easier to install. Not only that but i already have custom exhaust that can easily be rerouted if the flanges dont match up.

 

Stainless steel makes underhood temps extremely hot. It also discolors over time. Ceramic coating is best; both for underhood temps and exhaust gas scavenging. Reason being is that cermamic coating keeps the hot gasses where they belong: in the tubes. Hot "air" tends to have a greater velocity, which means the combustion chamber can be evacuated and filled more efficiently. Generally speaking, that means more power.

I went cheap (Edelbrock) and paid the price. One of the nuts is next to impossible to tighten, which is really annoying. It added about 3 hours on to an already tedious install. Now I did have them HPC-coated, which helped tremendously. I've had uncoated headers, wrapped headers, and ceramic coated headers (all on different vehicles). Wrapping them seemed to be "best" but it accelerated wear by trapping moisture. That being said, ceramic coating is the way to go. And I speak from experience.

 

??? Mine do pretty dern good.

 

I wasnt saying the downey's were bad by any means, they are actually what i would like (ceramic of course)... I was simply saying that for a little less, the performance gains are probably similar. Both will give me (boosted) a noticable improvement over stock IMHO.