JoeR

Two reasons that this header is so inexpensive:

1. Likely made in China or some third world country. Labor costs!!!

2. A cat is normally an expensive item by itself. Eliminating that brings the cost of any system down. Leaving the cat out in modern systems gains almost nothing and the environment will thank you.

tealtib03

As far as obx quality i installed a header on my Tiburon and had no problems without in the three years i had it. As far as a "cat" this system does have one. It's considered a racing cat. That little are on the pipe that sticks out. Yeah, that's a cat. What an inspection place doesn't know is that it's straight through but does give the appearance of having one there. Which is most places is all that matters as long as you pass the smog check.

I was actually going to be buying this system within the next week or two. I've got an exhaust leak on the flexible pipe coming off the manifold. The exhaust place told me $260 installed and GM told me that they had to replace the cat also which made it $570. So for $250 this sounds like a really good deal to fix a problem and also upgrade the exhaust.

The Curly 1

It should help it a bunch if........
You do a tune on it to compensate for it otherwise it will probably throw error codes.
The cat is probably the biggest restriction in the system and like it or not they are required and your ECM is set up for them.

A problem with most all headers is it is very hard to keep them from leaking and blowing out gaskets. On my race car I had to tighten the header bolts several times a month. I do not want that on my daily driver but headers definatly can make a big difference over factory manifold. There is horsepower and mileage there.

For those who say the headers have to be of the exact size and lenght I will tell you it does not make that much of a difference. On my racer car I gladly gave up 3 or 4 horsepower just to be able to change plugs. My high dollar headers you could not change plugs and it burned the plug wires. I removed them and used some cheap ones that worked as good and did not have many problems.

halfpanel08

lets take ur car to the track someday.. eh?!

MONZA679

I ordered 1 and will install it monday when it arrives, we keep all informed.

HHorange

Anyone else interested in a header might also want to look at this one on Ebay. I think it might be a better choice for those of us with emissions inspections to worry about

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Parts...3A1|240%3A1318

-md- HHR

I hope the ports line up better than the ones OBX sells for the LD9 cavaliers. The fitment was horrible....just like most of their products.

Premiere07

Thant is actually Cobalt Addiction's new header design.

MONZA679

I installed the header Monday. It bolted up to the engine fine but the down pipe wouldn't bolt to the stock exhaust. I elongated the holes and it bolted up. It has more power and is alot louder. I installed a straight through muffler in the rear and that made it too loud. CEL has come on now after 200 miles and 3 days but all I have is a JET stage 2 chip. I'm sure custom programming would turn the light off or maybe even a extension to move the rear o2 sensor out of the pipe. It sounds like a "honda" tuner car now, which I like but the wife and 2 kids don't like the noise. I will take it off tomorrow and it will be for sale. Paid $257.20 shipped, make me a reasonable offer and it yours.

GDZHHR

Good info, looks like I'll be passing on this.