Anybody Use Performance Welding Headers?

[Jim Wahl]

WOW! Lots of good info. Thank you sir! Jim

[Kenny Wigington]

Since no one else has, I have to ask the question, in all seriousness. How much HP are we talking about, material for material ? 1% to 5%, what is the real number, on 300 hp ? On 400, or 600 HP?

[SSDiv6]

Originally Posted by Kenny Wigington

Since no one else has, I have to ask the question, in all seriousness. How much HP are we talking about, material for material ? 1% to 5%, what is the real number, on 300 hp ? On 400, or 600 HP?

Material does not have the effect claimed. It is the design of the header that makes the power. Like I said in my previous post, if you coat the inside of the header, then you are compromising performance. If you have a stainless header, then you do not have to coat the inside.

[Jeff Lee]

Eric Bell, who has a "reasonably fast" 440-6 SS/E & FA Challenger, went from the header builder I have always used to Performance Welding. As I recall, in back-to-back dyno testing the PW headers were worth 15+ HP.
His style in building headers (from what I have seen) is exactly what I think is a prerequisite over "tuned length" headers, that is, Mark wants long stubs off the exhaust port and "swoopy" curves more so than being +/- 1/4".

[Alan Roehrich]

About 3-4 years ago, we did some dyno testing for NitroPlate. On a standard set of roadster style dyno headers, a 406 small block Chevy making about 500HP gained approximately 2% HP when we coated the headers. It took tuning to get there.

The first thing we found was that the coating leaned the engine out considerably, the average EGT increased by well over 120 degrees. We had tuned the engine to around 13.2:1 AFR, which yielded the most power before we coated the headers.

With no other changes but the coating, the AFR went to around 14:1, and the EGT went to 1480 + degrees at the end of a 20 second pull. That first pull was down about 4%-6%. However, after we got the AFR back to 13.2:1, and the EGT back down to 1360 or so, we had gained a little over 2% over the base line.

If you tune and record EGT, you may find that you cannot get the EGT back down to where it was before the headers were coated. The coating reflects heat back into the header, so even properly tuned, the EGT is often higher than it is with an uncoated header.

We did not do any testing to see if there were gains to be had because of a reduction in under hood heat. We hope to do more testing in the future, but we haven't scheduled anything as of yet. We did test intake coating, we found around 1% or so on a dual plane single 4 barrel intake coating the exterior only, top and bottom, on a 350 small block Chevy 350HP limited circle track engine.

[Ian Hill]

i was part of some testing on a fast burn crate engine, the engine made "x" horsepower on the dyno with a set of custom made regular steel 1 3/4" headers (approx $2500), a second set of headers were tried, custom built for the same style car (mid 80"s camaro) 1 3/4 header, different builder and gained 6 horse and a couple of foot lbs. Then we tried my headers which are right out the catologe Schonfield's 1 5/8 to 13/4 stepped steel header with out collectors, to fit my 67 chevelle. i had mark at Performance Welding make up a set of stainless merg collectors and this combo out did the second set of headers by 11 horsepower without so much as a jet change. $210 for headers $400 for merge collectors 17 horse, win - win in my books!

Performance welding was the only merge collector builder that i contacted that actually asked what my combonation was besides just a 350 ci crate engine. i have to figure that most header builders would not have info on crate motor options as it is only IHRA run, so to be asked for specs showed me i wasn't just going to get another "on the shelf" part that would work for many combos including mine, or at least they made me feel that way. the dealings i had at Performance would make me go back again.

Ian

[junior barns]

Ian Hill

In your test, did you add the collectors to your headers for this test or were they always on the car? If it's the later maybe puting the collectors on the custom headers would be another 6+ hp better??

just curious

[340Cuda]

Originally Posted by Kenny Wigington

Since no one else has, I have to ask the question, in all seriousness. How much HP are we talking about, material for material ? 1% to 5%, what is the real number, on 300 hp ? On 400, or 600 HP?

Jere Stahl told me once that headers had about 5% to do with total drag car performance. If he is correct, I would think header material would be some fraction of that.

This is a good thread!

Bill

[GTX JOHN]

Jim: We are going to see if we can find Mark at Sportsnls. next week....we need 3 sets ourselves....maybe if he builds a bunch at once we can get a little bit of a deal. I have a couple of step design we have been using that work well. Racer7411@yahoo.com

John Irving

[Adger Smith]

Does he have E-mail or web site?