Got my new exhaust Megan Racing headers today!
First impressions...
They came from USA to AU in a cardboard box with no protection other than individual plastic bags.
Luckily nothing seems to be broken or bent.
The 3 bolts that come with the kit were out of their little baggie and rattling around in the box as I received it from the courier.
Again, luckily, this only damaged was to the top of the secondaries and the primaries were undamaged.
The finish on these headers are nice in stainless steel.
(The kit)
(Top of the primaries)
The primaries.
The overall finish is what I expected. Non-sequential pairing of the primaries confirm they sent the right set of pipes for my engine. The pipes merge together ok with the length of pipe they have. The welds seem to look good, if not a little too good. It almost looks like they have used the bare minimum amount of weld material to get the job done. This means they have either refined the manufacturing process perfectly, or they are cheap.
Pro's: less product weight, cheaper to produce.
Con's: might crack a weld over time, or with extreme heating or cooling.
Where the headers meet the block looks interesting. There seems to be a little more weld blocking the air flow from cylinders number 2 and 3. Even though this is a minor issue, cylinders 1 and 4 clearly don't have the same problem. So why aren't they all the same?
If you look in the left pipe you can see the small lump of slag still left behind. Is it a big deal? Not really. But it may reveals a little something about the level of quality control.
The secondaries.
The secondaries seem fine. Good length with a nice merge. Except when you look down into the collector end.
You can clearly see that the pipe on the inside is not flush. Again, not a big deal but enough to disrupt the airflow none the less. In this case it almost has the effect of narrowing the pipe. I'll have to speak to the exhaust fab guys and see if we can open it up a little.
Conclusion.
The primaries are roughly the same length as the secondaries, indicating a balanced design looking to offer good low and mid rpm performance without sacrificing too much high rpm performance. A short collector with a relatively smooth merge should help keep velocity up and provide a slight improvement in peak power. Again, also note the non-sequential pairing of the primaries.
All in all, (pre-intallation) I'd say these headers get a 6 out of 10. Despite the minor 'defects' they
seem to be a good set of pipes. Also with a D16Z2 engine there aren't many pipes to choose from. Originally I was looking into X-Force, but after speaking to them I chose not to proceed as they could not guarantee their pipe would fit in my Civic / Concerto hybrid. However if these Megan Racing headers turn out to be useless, I may have to take a gamble with X-Force and hope they fit without too much modifying.
The real test will come once they are installed. Yes, they will perform better than stock. The question is: how will they hold up structurally? Only time will tell.
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