In July of last year I was reached out to by Charles (BHR) in regards to his then prototype designed long tube header. After some brief conversations about my car, setup and his views on the market and desired outputs it was agreed upon that I would be given the chance to get my hands on one of his products before it went to market. Ultimately 3 people including myself where chosen to field test a pre-market edition of this header, I have been in direct contact with the other two field testers (who at this time I will not divulge names, but if they feel to comment below that is their choice). So far to my knowledge this is the second header to be fit onto a S1 chassis, the first being the one Charles dyno tested some months back. Ultimately as my schedule shifts wildly depending on m business requirements I was only able to be home for a quick 4 weeks this December and have been avidly working on this since the start of the month.
Black Halo Long Tube Header, whats in the box?
Install
My initial perception of the install was like most headers we have, drop the passenger motor mount remove the old install the new. Unfortunately this was not the case. In order to install the header I had to remove both motor mounts and push the engine to the drive side of the engine bay and it was a very tight fit, I did notice that if you remove the header stud from the bottom of the rear iron exhaust port that it frees up a lot of room on the install. Just be sure you install the stud again and sink it into the iron before you try to bolt the header to thee engine. Depending on individual skill level I would give this header a 2-4 hour install time depending if you have a lift or jackstands
Fitment
The header was originally designed on the chassis of a stock S1, then (and I may be wrong) transferred over to a jig to make the 3 pre-market products. As my car is no where near a stock S1 I did run into 2 installation fitment issues which did require some modifications in order to overcome.
The first fitment issue was the downstream O2 sensor would hit the tail of the S2 trans, as this was never tested with the bigger S2 trans, which has much more reinforced ribbing at the tail then the S1 trans this issue is due to this. A simple 15 degree rotation of the bung location can correct this issue, but as I did not have that option I decided to notch the trans ribbing enough to clear the end of the sensor loom.
Black Halo Long Tube Header, whats in the box?
- BHR Long Tube Header
- BHR Midpipe
- Engine-Header OR Gasket
- Engine-Header Nuts
- Header-Midpipe 2ply gasket
- Header-Midpipe Bolts
- Midpipe-Catback Donut Gasket
- Midpipe-Catback Spring Bolts
Product Review
A quick side by side comparison between my existing header and midpipe (Exoticspeed header and OBX midpipe). The quality of this product is as to be expected from Charles (BHR) with a very well put together piece, clean and welds and top notch materials.
A quick side by side comparison between my existing header and midpipe (Exoticspeed header and OBX midpipe). The quality of this product is as to be expected from Charles (BHR) with a very well put together piece, clean and welds and top notch materials.
Install
My initial perception of the install was like most headers we have, drop the passenger motor mount remove the old install the new. Unfortunately this was not the case. In order to install the header I had to remove both motor mounts and push the engine to the drive side of the engine bay and it was a very tight fit, I did notice that if you remove the header stud from the bottom of the rear iron exhaust port that it frees up a lot of room on the install. Just be sure you install the stud again and sink it into the iron before you try to bolt the header to thee engine. Depending on individual skill level I would give this header a 2-4 hour install time depending if you have a lift or jackstands
Fitment
The header was originally designed on the chassis of a stock S1, then (and I may be wrong) transferred over to a jig to make the 3 pre-market products. As my car is no where near a stock S1 I did run into 2 installation fitment issues which did require some modifications in order to overcome.
The first fitment issue was the downstream O2 sensor would hit the tail of the S2 trans, as this was never tested with the bigger S2 trans, which has much more reinforced ribbing at the tail then the S1 trans this issue is due to this. A simple 15 degree rotation of the bung location can correct this issue, but as I did not have that option I decided to notch the trans ribbing enough to clear the end of the sensor loom.
The second fitment issue was a larger hurdle to get past, and I am not sure how exactly this came to pass if it was due to a previous modification I have made, or something that was lost in translation going from chassis-jig-chassis manufacturing. The rear iron runner after its loop to overcome the motor mount is then routed to the outside of the header, after initial install I noticed this runner came extremely close to the front sub-frame pinch weld rail, and was confirmed when I installed motor mounts again the runner actually rested on the weld and kept a portion of the weight off the motor mount entirely. This was not an easy fix, but their are two options. I could either modify my motor mounts to add an additional 10mm of engine clearance or I could modify my sub-frame. As 10mm was to much out of my comfort zone I decided on the later. Ultimately about 7" of pinch weld were cut out of the sub-frame and I welded the opening together, after I was left with bare metal I laid down 3 coats of 2,000F header paint, and then covered it with 1800F direct contact DEI tunnel II heat shielding. At the beginning I was skeptical but the end result came out very well done and to the caliber or work I have come to expect.
The rest of the install was very smooth, all supplied hardware was top notch to help with the install and it fit up with my catback with no issues while leaving plenty of clearance on all sides for heat dissipation and I was able to take some initial engine warm idle temps, with 956F EGT, the runners say around 650, while the flange is 250. The heat shielding stays relatively cool at 160
Install Review
Initial review of the product installed, is much less raspy then my previous exhaust, but also better flowing system and a slight increase in throttle response as well as rev range. I have dead on AFR compared to my old system and my current map. At this time I am only able to no-load test, and due to my schedule will not be able to get it on a dyno until March, but my inital reaction is impressed with the differance over my prior system.
As far as how it compares in sound it is quieter that my previous straight pipe setup, but much more throaty and responsive as well. An Overall great change (Vid's below).
More will come, load testing as well as direct dyno comparison between my old system. I will update with more as soon as I can. In the mean time feel free to ask for any testing or specifics you would like but keep in mine all technical questions should still be directed at Charles, I can only tell you what they are, not the why.
Install Review
Initial review of the product installed, is much less raspy then my previous exhaust, but also better flowing system and a slight increase in throttle response as well as rev range. I have dead on AFR compared to my old system and my current map. At this time I am only able to no-load test, and due to my schedule will not be able to get it on a dyno until March, but my inital reaction is impressed with the differance over my prior system.
As far as how it compares in sound it is quieter that my previous straight pipe setup, but much more throaty and responsive as well. An Overall great change (Vid's below).
More will come, load testing as well as direct dyno comparison between my old system. I will update with more as soon as I can. In the mean time feel free to ask for any testing or specifics you would like but keep in mine all technical questions should still be directed at Charles, I can only tell you what they are, not the why.
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