wassup all. well, heres my story...own a rio red '02 lancer es. had it for over a year now(racked uparound 18,000m so far). i decided only now to go ahead and get parts for . so far i ordered 1. cold air intake(AEM) 2. axle-back exhaust(RMR) 3. RRM test-pipe(don't know if i'll install, ca. emmision laws) 4. front strut-bar(RRM) and a few exterior acc. my friends are telling me to get headers for it,but should i even bother? i won't be going turbo or anything like that, i want to keep it NA. will changing the headers really make that much of a difference? i'd really like to know what you guys think out there!

 

i would reccomend that you pick one up. it will only benefit the system your are setting up more. The cold air intake will bring in more cooler air, the test pipe will bring the air to the exhaust quicker, and the enlared piping on the exhaust will emit it faster giving you more hp and from what i've heard, better mileage.

the only part you missing is between the intake and the test pipe. get that header, and after the air passes through the nitake and the engine, the header will guide it down to the test pipe quicker and more efficently. it would really complete your setup and increase your hp and toruqe. i say go for it.

if you get the header, your compleleting the full ideal setup and getting the most out of all the products your purchasing.
good luck with it!!!

 

Without going turbo, header and throttle body are the 2 mods you need to finish off motor. Expect the most gains from header of any of the other mods. Just swap header and test pipe out at emissions time. Takes about a half hour to swap each!!

ROAD/RACE
http://www.roadracemotorsports.com/

 

hmmm...sounds good. i might be getting those headers afterall! the only thing that i'll be worrying about is passing smog or if "THE MAN" pulls me over and does a check-over...or does that only happen when mtv does a "TRUE to LIFE" segment on "RACER", i do live here in cali, DAMN these emmision regulations!! thanx rklancer... and to ROCK, expect a call from me soon to order and ??? on the throttle body!

 

I was going to add TB but you already have that in your post... that will get your intake up to par... as for cali cops they are bad but our cars don't fit profile till we plaster them with stickers and drop them. I'm on the border of this and have been stopped. With turbo my exuast is only slightly louder than stock so you can't tell i have no cats. They never bother me. I know a few with super loud exhausts and they don't bother them either as they are in a family sedan style car. If you caught speeding and are loud then you'll probably get stopped and checked out. Cops try to get you for everything they can it seems. Just say you used oem replacement parts. Seems to work for most cops. My .02 about cali cops!

 

oh, i am guessin by that statement that headers don't meet up to emissinos standards huh, didn't know that, i knew test pipes were not passing the emissions test sine it takes out the (2)catalystic converters.

is the install hard for teh header and throttle bodies? i haven't really had too much experience under the hood of a car and don't want to screw aything up, think i should give it a shot? (
when i order them of course.)

 

COOL!! once i get those parts in and have them installed, then i could probably start to think about suspension(shocks+springs)and rims...oHHHH boy!!! better start saving up again!!!
peace out:

 

Header and TB are simple bolt ons... a couple bolts on header are a little tough to get to but other than that it is a easy swap. Takes hardly anytime/effort at all.

 

if you could figure out how to get that hugeass heatshield off the stock headers, you could probably put that over your aftermarket ones, that way if you get stopped, it still looks stock... but I dunno if thats even possible... just throwing out ideas

 

You could make an extension for bolts... just a strip of steel that bolts to header mounts and extends out to shield holes. It will stick out a bit from header though so isn't really hiding much. Also the O2 sensor hole is an eye catcher as the O2 bung on header is lower than stock header!

 

Getting an aftermarket header will net you the biggest gains on any single NA mod out there, outside of the two new throttle body setups RPW has in development.

 

your saying what ROCK said earlier It's great when people agree... assures people that they are heading in right direction!

 

 

Turn that upside down

 

The test pipe takes out the second cat...headers don't meet emissions because that removes the first cat, which is inside the stock header.