Hey guys, I'm going to be building a header for the 2.0L that will bolt to the stock cat. If it ends up making power (I will be dynoing it) would anyone be interested in purchasing one? Once I make a prototype I should be able to make a jig to duplicate it on. If I buy the mandrel bends and flanges in larger lots, I should be able to keep it reasonable. Building one out of stainless would of course be more expensive as would having one ceramic coated.

To my knowledge no one is building these yet. The Ford Focus already has 2 companies making a shorty header for it and they both claim a decent gain. I should be getting the mandrel bends within a week and I'm sourcing a collector now. I'll be talking to someone about the flanges tomorrow. I'm hoping to have all the parts within the next 2 weeks and then I'll build it and see what happens on the dyno.

 

would you completely rule out making a full-length header?

 

With good gains I'm sure a lot of people would buy them. If it just looks good who knows.

 

Travaler.... you seems to know something about headers.
I have a question, my friend is also making a header for me, full lenght header 4->1, and he calculated that it should be about 90cm long ... is that about right for our engines?

Sry for offtopic

 

if you get good gains i would pruchase one...

 

eeterp: Well, I'm trying this first to keep it emissions legal since if you remove the stock cat you can get fined. Plus, I'm curious to see if it will help at all. I'm sure a full length that eliminates the stock primary cat would give more power. I've heard conflicting stories about other people making one though. I know they already exist from Mazda but are expensive. I've heard here and through other sources that there was supposed to be someone else making a full length.

JustMe: As far as the primary length goes, it depends a lot more on packaging considerations. What do you have space for? I've seen very short headers make power as well as very long ones. The main tuning point is the length and type of collector. Also, equal length works best. Don't go to smaller pipe right after the collector either or you kill scavenging. If you have a 2.5" collector, use 2.5" pipe. How did your friend arrive at the 90cm length?

To get an idea of what I'm talking about making, look at the Ford Focus header that JBA makes. There is a pic of it in the May 2002 edition of Sport Compact car in an article about a hopped up Focus. The New issue of Super Street has an ad for Edelbrock's nitrous kit and header for the Focus also. It has a good picture of it. The pipes come out of the head and then loop up and over through a 180 degree bend before dropping into a collector that bolts directly to the factory cat. It's a little easier on the Focus because the cat is directly between the #2 and #3 cylinders so it's symetrical. Ours has the cat offset towards the #4 cylinder just past #3 so I'll have to get real creative in order to keep it equal length or close. Space shouldn't be a prob because we have a bit of room but I may have to use exhaust wrap or ceramic coat it to keep the heat away from all the other stuff in front of the engine. I toyed with the idea of having the stock manifold extrude honed, but hell, $385 for one little manifold?

 

I don't know about you guys, but up here in Canada we had a meet at Brullen Exhaust, where they said they were interested in making headers for the P5. I don't know if they will end up doing it, but it seemed that they already had a car as a prototype. Can't verify if they will end up doing it, but things look good.

 

good luck. those tubes will be so short i doubt they will make much difference. i hope it works though.

 

I'm going off what JBA and Edelbrock say about their headers for the Focus. At least 5 lb/ft of torque. Also, they increase the length of the runners to over twice the length of the factory manifold. The big thing here is to make the runners equal length and enlarge them. The stock manifold pinchs everything down right before it enters the cat. Also, the runner out of the #3 cylinder is less than half the length of the one from the #1 cylinder.

 

If you build it they will come......

Produce it , dyno it and sell it reasonably...and you won't be able to fill orders fast enough.

Yea I am interested ...if it produces results....Anyboy know about Random Technology? They build high flow cats...

www.randomtechnology.com

Nothing listed for Protege' but we all know exhuast flow and intake improvements make our cars better. Hopefully we will get some support from companies like this....

 

random technology is one of the two companies that make very good high flow cats.. if you are thinking of getting a high flow cat then i would reccomend random technology

 

APC is making or is going to make a ceramic header for the 99-01 Protege, I saw it for sale on autopartperformance.com, it might be old news but if not check it out

 

I found out Summit (the HUGE warehouse parts guys) has high flow cats available. The have a large number of apps, you just tell them the inlet/outlet diameter you want, the length, height and width. I found one in a 2.5" inlet/outlet that's the same approx case dimensions as our #2 cat for only $65! I think I'm going to have that put in when I have the muffler shop make me my 2.5" cat back in a month or so.

 

Bitch'n....$65 ??? Can you provide the part number?? I want one and whats up with your catback idea??? Do share as i have an awesome muffler shop just need to tell them what I want...what muffler are you putt'n on?? I want performance ...not noise

 

The cat back is no big deal. Just tell your muffler shop what size pipe you want, then have them bend it up for you. The muffler I'm going to get is a stainless straight through design (don't remember the brand) and I'm going to get a stainless tip also. Single outlet type 3 1/2" diameter. Fits the stock bumper cutout radius perfectly. Will look larger without going overboard with one of those sewer pipe tips you always see.