Found these on ebay, but they acually look kinda decent. Cattman Headers are $800, these are under $300. Look a little different but comes with everything, made of SS, says it produces same HP gains. I have heard of them before and they have reviews on VQPower.com with dyno charts. Just looks like a copy (obviously not of cattman). Would you buy it?


Click here to see Stone Racing Headers on Ebay


_

 

ask yourself this, would you risk it?

 

What reason do you have to doubt them?

 

I'm not trying to stop you from buying them. but, I personatly buy quality stuff for my car. things that are proven, already "guinea pigged" you know..

 

True... Well i only wanna spend no more than like 400, would you take a cattman ypipe over a "non-Gunied" headersystem? same price....

 

i heard these actually produced power on a 4th gen so i wouldn't see why on a 5th gen. Only problem is that it produced the same numbers as a y-pipe (just a different curve). Stone Racing had problems with the turbo manifolds - my friend told me that the older ones easily cracked (from the 240 forums and I think from the sr-20 forums). A lot of people will bring up the whole "unequal headers vs equal headers" thing but I have been reading a lot and it seems to be overrated but thats what I've been reading.

 

that I'll do. cattman is real good.

 

I wonder how these are.... might pick them up next week and compare them to Hot *****. Any dyno graphs other than the one on VQpower.com ?

 

Havent found any other dyno charts. I emailed the guy and asked him if he had a set or if the 4th gen set would fit a 5th gen. "chromeSE5", have you seen these headers having problems other than the cracking. why would they crack?

 

Pretty much...
They barely made any extra power it wasnt worth going through the hassle of installing when a Y pipe would yield about the same.

There was a huge thread on the "shorty" headers they had and a whole lot of hoopla around them. Stone racing was willing to give away a set for free and the customer pay only for installation as long as they got the car dynoed... someone bit and well that was it. We know someone had them installed and dynoed but the numbers were never posted leading us to believe they made almost no power over stock.

OBX headers for 4th gens were even worse, their fitment was horrible... one of the motor mounts had to be moved/adjusted.

 

4th gen headers will work on 00-01s. 01s will need to plug up the EGR port, since most are Cali spec and don't have EGR.

 

Personally, I would go with the Cattman Y-pipe. You KNOW that it's quality and makes power. I don't trust unknown products on ebay. just my .02

 

Ditto

 

similar to the "performance chips" that are sold on ebay for 1.00 and advertise a 20-30 horsepower gain

 

I have read that Stone Racing was owned by another company before and that the other company was really cheap on materials. I haven't heard any fitment issues though.

 

i would stay away if that were the case

 

Looks like im getting a Cattman Y-pipe...

 

the welding doesnt look too good

 

does anyone know about how much it costs to instal the cattman y-pipe?

 

They look like the Stillen headers...

 

I say try it yourself first... if ya can't get the bolts off with a wrench, a breaker bar, and some WD40 or Liquid Wrench, then go somewhere to have em try air tools or a torch... lemme just say that certain places will not do this install for ya because a y-pipe is not street legal...

 

Oh yeah, I'd think that it would be a relatively inexpensive job... considering the hardest part is just getting the rusted bolts up front off.... $50? I dunno... I'll let someone with actual experience comment on that...

I have a y-pipe sitting here and haven't gotten it installed yet...

 

I asked blackbirdvq about installing the rear headers and he said something about dropping the rear of the engine and crossbar... iunno maybe i prolly misunderstood him. One exhaust shop said the fwd cars a bit ch cause of the rear manifold/header.

 

Do it yourself. I have never done it, but it can't be that hard. It's like 10 bolts.

 

Hmmmn.....these could be canabilized for cheap turbo feed pipes/shorty headers.

 

^^^^ thats about all they are good for.


the rear manifold sux to remove,,,, big time.

 

All ya gotta do is drop the cross memeber, and then remove the rear motor mount bracket from the engine. On my 3.0L doing headers takes about 1 hour MAX. Its very eassy with air tools and a lift. I don't have any problems on my car. Then again I don't have these. I got something else

 

i do not have air tools, and i do not have a lift

 

I did my Y-pipe in my driveway myself it took about two hours. The two hardest bolts to get off are the ones that got to the cat. I needed to torch them off.

 

that guy used to sell oBX exhaust for cheap on ebay! thats how i got mine
and mine bolted right on...i dunno if that iwll help ya out

 

so nobody has 5.5 gen dyno proof of gains or losses? fitment issues?

 

Maybe we should start a "testing fund" for people to donate to subsidize the purchase and testing of these headers....

I mean, if a bunch of people donate 10-20 bucks apiece and these are tested and proven to be beneficial, it'll still save em money in the long run...

 

Not a bad idea at all.

 

You can look at my comments as coming from a competitor or coming from someone with a little experience in this area (or both), but this is what I would point out about this design.

It is not good practice to design the manifolds to fit an existing y-pipe design - you compromise the primary features of the part as a trade-off for cost savings and design expediency. Instead, design should be driven by coming up with the very best manifold design you can fit into the car and make on a relatively affordable basis. Once that's done, you design a y-pipe that will fit between the outlets of those manifolds and the catalytic convertor. I think most of us are familiar with another company that used that approach and the mediocre result.

They could have also done much better with the clearly deficient 3-1 collector design - that kind of very abrupt confluence, forcing the gasses very quickly into a much smaller volume, creates excessive turbulence and loses power. Keep in mind that you can make a dyno say anything...

Finally, clearly this will seem self-serving, but since so many people have been waiting (and may be reading this thread), I'll mention that the new US-based production of the Cattman headers is all lined up and will be underway soon. The already-proven design is currently being upgraded in some useful ways by Tim Richards at Speed Force Racing and we hope to have new 304, TIG-welded Cattman headers within 4-5 weeks. Patience has its rewards!

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

Thanks for the input Brian! It was a pleasure talking to you today. I look forward to being able to pick up a set of your new headers and y, along with your high flow cat. make the whole system flow well I would be willing to be a guinea pig for those that want to pool some money. I can get my hands on a set easily for the 5.5 gen. and go to the dyno to answer the questions we all have. i don't mind doing something to actually add useful info to the org, instead of "i heard...", "my friend said..."

blackbird...wanna fly to syracuse and give me a hand...LOL! i have some connections to a couple shops with lifts and could go to town on it if you guys really are serious about puttin some money together to cover some of the install/dyno costs.