Hey all.

I got the Airaid intake installed this weekend. Looks good, sounds nice, and will make servicing the air filter a heck of a lot easier in the future. I don't know what moron designed the stock airbox in this vehicle, but it certainly wasn't made with ease of service in mind.

Now, in my quest for better airflow I come to the next restrictive point in the line, the header.

I know that the GMPP "Extrude/honed" manifold will bolt right on, had that on my SS/SC... however with this one I think I'd rather have an actual header with separate runners for a better flow.

Are there specific headers for the HHR, or will the Cobalt ones fit? A few local friends are running the ZZP header on their LSJs and seem to like it well enough along with seeing some respectable performance gains.

Thoughts on the matter, gents?

 

Any header will at least bolt up whether it's made for the 2.0, 2.2, 2.4. And I'm pretty confident they will all fit since I was able to get a jbp header on and it's possibly the biggest monstrosity made for ecotecs. Not all are made to use the stock downpipe though.

 

cobalt addiction makes 1 of the best looking headers i've seen so far , and at a decent price....but that is all i know , is that i just think it looks well made to me....i use to do welding , fitting , fabricating.

 

I did see the CA one on E-bay... and it does look pretty nice. It is definitely on my short list to do more research on.

 

Im selling my OBX one! :):):):):)
Down pipe is included tho, so no more CAT, but if thats not an issue let me know

-j

 

watch out buying the CA header on ebay, heard some ebay horror stories on the cobalt sites, you may end up with a warped flange from their ebay ones.

 

Got a cobalt addiction and down pipe that came off of my 2.4 hhr when I sold it. It has a high flow cat in the down pipe. Performance increase was amazing. With shift kit already did 1-2 rubber. Made it do 2-3 rubber and a chirp in 3-4. I was running 34 mpg at 75 on interstate with it and k&n cold kit. Bolted up fine on engine and to exhaust pipe.

 

SO....I've lost track? What works the best and what fits our cars RIGHT THE FIRST TIME?? will cobalt stuff work? I'd really like to gain MPG, any performance gains are just gravy on the potatoes...

 

One experienced HHR gentleman who had done a ton of mods shared with me that the best bang-for-the-buck with perfect factory fit is the factory Cobalt SS header. He says it makes a big difference especially on 2.4 liter models as the exhaust is already big enough to take advantage of the header. He purchased his off of the Cobalt SS forums for cheap money when a kid thought aftermarket was better. The quality of the factory header is (of course) great and the fit is.....well, factory. Apparently the swap-out is really easy as it bolts right in the stock spot with no down-pipe change. It is a mod on my list since I have the intake side covered. I am thinking that doing a coating or heat wrap would reduce underhood temps too. I hope this helps. God Bless, Marc

 

Guys (especially Marc!), the 2.0 LSJ Cobalt factory header is the exact same as the stock HHR 2.4 LE5 piece.

Either the LSJ or LE5 is an improvement for the 2.2 L61 ONLY.

BTW, the Vibrant header and downpipe is a great setup, available from one of our supporting vendors, TurboTech Racing.