Is $850 A Good Price For Headers?

BosnianLanos · Post by **BosnianLanos** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 1:15 am

Like the thread states, is $850 a good cost? It's at a local shop that has been making N/A and Turbo manifolds for Hondas/Nissans/Mitsubishis since modifying them became popular...

His words are:

"that would be ss 1 5/8" primary's or ss 1 3/4" depending on your preference, custom head flange (mild steel), o2 bung, 2 bolt ss exhaust flange and ss flex joint. i'm thinking a 4-2-1 setup would be better, however i can do a 4-1 if you want. the header would be backpurged during welding."

I've seen some pictures of his work, and it's top notch.

There isn't really a place to order them anymore, so I figure this is the best. He says the work could be done in 4 days time.

What do you guys think I should request in terms of the primary's thickness and head flange.

Thanks for your input...I'll try to post pictures of his work!

Post by **PrecisionBoost** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 1:56 am

Sort of sounds strange that he's mixing a mild steel (flange) with stainless pipe.

This guy NITRO wants $200 for their header http://www.daewootech.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10201

Personally I wonder about the quality since it looks like they are using crush bends for the piping.

To get a custom flange made costs about $100 to $150..... but Garrett ( GSE Turbo ) might be able to do one cheaper

You'd probably need about $40 worth of mandrel bends and $60 for three merge tubes

Then there is about $20 worth of stainless and another $15 for each of the flanges.

The flex pipe is usually around $15

So just for parts your looking at about $250 for an all stainless 4-1

Labor is the hard part...... I've made mandrel stainless exhaust and I will say that it's a fairly slow process even if you know what your doing.

Hmmmm.... I'm going to guess 22 to 25 full welds at say 15 minutes a piece (if your taking your time to make them nice looking )

So I'm going to guess about 6 hours labor with fitment.... which is probably going to be charged out around $80 an hour... so that's about $480

$480 + $250 = $730

So that's just a rough guess.... which isn't all that far off the $850 they quoted you.

Personally..... I think you can get one done quite a bit cheaper by using a header from another vehicle.

I would buy a stainless civic header like this...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Civic-88 ... enameZWDVW

I would move around the mounting holes as required and chop up the pipes as required to make it fit.

If it was me doing it myself..... it would probably only take a couple hours labor to make it work ( I belive the Honda and Lanos bolt patterns are pretty close if I remember correctly )

If the bolt patterns were too far off I would cut off the old flange and weld on a new stainless flange.

So.... I'd probably get one up and running for less than $100.... but that's me.... I can fabricate and weld.

BosnianLanos · Post by **BosnianLanos** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 2:24 am

I saw the ones NITRO was offering...but they just didn't look good. It doesn't look like they tried too hard to make them. They don't look to be of great quality...but oh well.

I was also thinking about custom fabricating a header for myself using a Civic header as a base. I don't think the Civic header is that great of a fit flange-wise, but the actual piping comes out OK. I'm very proficient with CAD, so designing a new head flange and exhaust flange wouldn't be too big of a deal. I could even fill in the gaps in the OEM flange and use that! I also have a friend of the family who is a mechanical engineer at a local company and has access to a waterjet and CNC machine...so I'm sure for a nominal cost I could get the flanges made. Fabrication is the issue. I think I have enough technical skill to do it myself, and I have a friend with access to all the tools...only 1 problem. He's in Denver. I suppose I could order/make a flange and have the header shipped out to him. There we can work on it...using a band saw to cut the Civic flanges off, grinding down the cuts on both ends, and using his welding prowess to secure the new flanges on...The only problem would be fitment. I don't have a Lanos out there. I assume if I take accurate measurements on my front and get the head portion to fit, then a custom exhaust could easily be bent at a local exhaust shop so that it fits the new header.

Who knows? Could be a fun summer project. And if I fail...screw it. I spent $100 to have a few days of fun with a friend.

eljunito · Post by **eljunito** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:14 am

http://www.daewootech.com/forum/viewtop ... ght=#63308

You will need to do some modifications, like making a hole in the oxygen sensor. If you noticed, the one that the header has, it just above the A/C. You will need to use termotech in order to avoid damages to the compressor because of the header heat. And for the holes to match with the head block bolts, you will need to enlarge it. Maybe you will have some problems in the header collector. What I did was to move the header collector to the front area. honda civic d16

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:13 am

$850? I'd do it for less. I finally will have a 1.6 to do them with now. Providing the mid-pipe is the same on the aveo as the lanos?? then it could bolt right up.

I don't really have plans to build them unless you want to pay $800+ or a group buy is put togather