American Racing Headers, Fitment and Thoughts

[digger]

It was sarcasm. As in, of course they're crap. They took the IDENTICAL design that they use for their pickup truck headers, fitted it for S54 exhaust ports, and called it good. Since different header designs are needed for different powerbands (torque vs revs), they were never going to be a good option.

That was then compounded by not working with the ECU (1 pre cat 02 while the ECU wants 2), and statements from the company that showed how little they understood/cared about the platform (intake comments), and you end up with a product that... never had a chance.

when you use a 6-1 design all inline 6 are going to look fairly the same. Ironically their design seems to benefit more at topend than the bottom end which does not suit a truck at all and seems to be what most M3 owners are looking for.

[Obioban]

I wouldn’t call them crap. Paul Claude stated they (ARH) only came behind SSV1’s by a couple whp when he tuned cars with them installed.

Peak, yes. Area under the curve, no where close.

I will post my dyno numbers once my new car is finished. I
I can't believe how much hate there is with ARH.
ARH doesn't suck. There are cars including race cars with ARH headers make more power than other setup. SS V1 was designed a long time ago. ARH came out recently.
There are a lot of information that's not posted here; such as dyno results with ARH vs SS V1. The shop and tuner that I use has done many cars.
Give me a few more days.

ARH may have come out recently, but they didn't even put a car on the dyno while developing them. There's nothing S54 specific about them-- stock truck header, with S54 exhaust ports.

I'm not sure what you think changed in the way exhaust gases flow since the V1s came out. As far as I know, nobody changed how the S54 worked. SuperSprint actually developed their headers-- made an initial design based on exhaust theory, dynoed, iterated,dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, dynoed, iterated, etc. ARH did not put the car on a dyno before shipping them out.

Paul Claude did the tune on an ARH car and then the ARHs were replaced with OE euro-- the ARHs made the same the same peak power, and less power everywhere else. Same car, same dyno, optimized tune for each.

All that said, if you're posting a dyno, please make sure it's a Dynojet in SAE mode.

[Arith2]

It's sad when my $250 headers are better than $3000 headers

[digger]

The sad part is they have been making headers for years and dont do any of their own testing. Their testing program consists of waiting for customer feedback. I saw an interview from like 2013 and that was what i got from it and nothing seems to have changed. That probably works when the vehicle comes with restrictive cast log type manifolds like many domestic vehicles and some imports as you could throw any random header on and make an improvement but its seems to have been found out. I'm all for seeing further independent tests but wont hold my breath on it being better without some caveat.

if you're going to pay around $3k might as well get the SS atleast it looks like a $3k part not a $1500 part with a luxury tax

[stash1]

The sad part is they have been making headers for years and dont do any of their own testing. Their testing program consists of waiting for customer feedback. I saw an interview from like 2013 and that was what i got from it and nothing seems to have changed. That probably works when the vehicle comes with restrictive cast log type manifolds like many domestic vehicles and some imports as you could throw any random header on and make an improvement but its seems to have been found out. I'm all for seeing further independent tests but wont hold my breath on it being better without some caveat.

if you're going to pay around $3k might as well get the SS atleast it looks like a $3k part not a $1500 part with a luxury tax

Wait, did your account get hacked?

[TosM3]

It's sad when my $250 headers are better than $3000 headers

I wouldn't say that

[TosM3]

what are people opinions of epic motorsports headers

[stash1]

Ehhh, they’re really not any more difficult to install than any other header on an S54-lol. I would recommend losing the p-side motor mount however...makes the job a little easier. Also, I’m not posting graphs, but I can definitively say (after dyno’ ing on 2 different dyno’s) that they shift the torque curve about 1,000rpms to the right, and AFR’s need to be leaned out in the lower rpm’s...i.e. they don’t flow as well at lower rpm’s vs. SSV1’s. Whether it’s reversion, or just the larger tubes/collector design...who knows. Also, top end is very similar...within a couple horespowers of the SSV1’s. The above are facts, not conjecture.

[HassanEido]

Didn't Hassan just tune a car with these? Maybe he will chime in with another opinion.

I did. The car made good power. They flow very well uptop. Doesn't flow that well below 4k rpm. Have to take out a good bit of fuel so car wouldn't stumble its way to 4k rpm and hit proper afrs. Even while tuning vanos intake and exhaust cams to account for the flow characteristics in that area, they still needed a quite w bit of fuel taken out from the lower rev range compared to SSV1, megan headers, or euro, which perform significantly better in that area. Up top they needed quite a bit of fuel added and flowed very well, even the catted version made gr8 power.

I don't like them personally for several reasons:
-They cost a huge some of money
- They don't flow very well down low.
- They flow well uptop, but probably not better than a euro, or a super sprint setup (for those wanting a big dollar setup)
-the ecu has less resolution to adjust trims, all 6 cylinders will be reporting to one narrow band sensor that can in time make the tune 'drift' unless u delete long term fuel trim adaptations etc.
I just don't see an upside?
I'd just slap on a set of megans/euros for budget (yet great power) builds, or ss for high dollar builds. Just my two cents.
Now some folks like the looks, the sound, and don't care for lower rpm torque which the s54 isn't very notorious for anyway, then when tuned it will be ok for them.
Also, to date, the highest power car I ever tuned, was on eurocharged Orlando dynojet dyno, and it made 387whp on pump and 392 on e50, had SSv1 headers.

[digger]

Ehhh, they’re really not any more difficult to install than any other header on an S54-lol. I would recommend losing the p-side motor mount however...makes the job a little easier. Also, I’m not posting graphs, but I can definitively say (after dyno’ ing on 2 different dyno’s) that they shift the torque curve about 1,000rpms to the right, and AFR’s need to be leaned out in the lower rpm’s...i.e. they don’t flow as well at lower rpm’s vs. SSV1’s. Whether it’s reversion, or just the larger tubes/collector design...who knows. Also, top end is very similar...within a couple horespowers of the SSV1’s. The above are facts, not conjecture.

not hacked........so if it shifted the torque curve to the right and made within a couple hp then it didnt really gain at all? Any regrets?

they dont have the twin collector to help the bottom end so i dont see the tube size being at play. It probably behaves much like a zoomie exhaust.

[stash1]

not hacked........so if it shifted the torque curve to the right and made within a couple hp then it didnt really gain at all? Any regrets?

they dont have the twin collector to help the bottom end so i dont see the tube size being at play. It probably behaves much like a zoomie exhaust.

Yep, peak torque didn't occur until around 5,600 rpms IIRC. IMO, unless you're building an all out race/stroker engine w/big compression, big cams,etc. that spends it's whole life over 5,500 rpms, I would say that (for the avg. street car) the torque shift/loss at lower rpms isn't worth the trade-off for maybe a couple ponies up top. Regrets in life, some, but not w/this header system-lol. I like experimenting, and was willing to take the risk. Ya, I'm assuming it's the large non-stepped primaries, single collector, and single pipe 3 1/2" section I that all contribute to the torque shift phenomenon.

[poth2034]

There is a used ARH set with catted section 1 on facebook e46 m3 classifieds. Person is asking $2,000

[jacketedlobster]

Solid info all around... Appreciate it.

Looks like I'm going Euro or something comparable, no need to pay top dollar for a "truck header." 👍

[Arith2]

I wouldn't say that

Mine are basically Active Autowerks headers without the upcharge.