Fast Intentions Long Tube Headers review +FULL BOLT ON dyno (G3 FI CB & FI LTH)
 

Well it has been a while, and although everybody hates me on this board, I thought I'd at least post this, mainly because I don't care what yall think about me :)
Fast Intentions Long Tube Headers Review:
Pictures first:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...r/CIMG0709.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...r/CIMG0710.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...r/CIMG0722.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...r/CIMG0727.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...r/CIMG0726.jpg



Appearance 10/10
My friend who basically did all the hard stuff for the install wouldn't stop complimenting the welds and how well the ports were... ported? Anyway it was definitely great work. The only thing I could compare them to was my Toda Race Headers for my RSX which cost an arm and a leg and the quality was just as good if not better.

Fitment 10/10
No issues at all. None!

Sound 8/10
Ok I need to elaborate here. There are THREE (3) categories here that I rated as a whole.

First of all, the sound of the FI cat back with the FI LTH is much louder above 3000 rpms and at a cold start. Below 3000rpms and at a warm idle I can't really tell much of a difference from the stock headers + FI cat back. Above however is much louder and much higher pitched. For normal driving I don't think it's too much louder.
Second, the RASP. Its there, it can be heard outside of the car. It is NOT noticeable inside the car HOWEVER, when going through some areas with high walls on both sides of the car it is noticable inside the car with the windows down. Is it bad? No. Is it there? Yes. If you have never had a race header or a cat deleted exhaust, then you need to be expecting some rasp. I have yet to see a race header than doesn't have some rasp. I haven't really heard it from outside the vehicle but I will hopefully get videos up soon
Third, the famous "VQ Hiss". Yeah, its loud. I only hear it when going above 3000rpms and letting off the throttle and when throwing the car into neutral above 2500rpms. It kind of sounds like a turbine unspooling at times. EDIT Okay, after the 150 miles, the hiss is there and you can't escape it. There is no other way to describe it than what I first posted. People look at the car scratching their heads it is kind of funny actually!

Performance 9/10
EDIT Okay so after about 150 miles of normal driving I decided to start pushing the car. I can definitely FEEL the torque in every gear. When I look at the RPM gauge however it seems like its still pulling the same at higher speeds. What I mean by this is usually when I go from 60-100 in 3rd gear it takes about 5 seconds. Well it still feels like 5 seconds but I can feel it pulling much harder. It seems the claims that Fast Intentions has made are true. Especially in 1st and 2nd gear. The car struggles to get grip when going from 0-100% throttle in 1st gear above 4000rpm and it pulls HARD. In 2nd gear you can kick the rear end out around corners easily at 3000rpms and before I couldn't do under 4500. Also I want to add that crusing gas mileage seems to ahev improved. I can cruise at 80mph with MUCH less throttle input than before and when the freeway becomes inclined it also takes less throttle to stay at 80mph going up. I am solely gauging this by the Current Gas Mileage gauge that the car has. The city mpg seems the same.

I want to add that the OEM Header quality is complete SH*T!!! At the time I didn't take pictures, but the stock o2 sensors' thread MELTED (yes MELTED!!!!) inside of the stock header!!!! BOTH SIDES! I nearly shat myself when I saw this. Luckily my friend is very veyr experienced and he filed new threading. I didn't take pictures of the dam sensors but I can take more pictures tomorrow of the threading on the stock header to show you all of the nerve wrecking damage. My buddy thinks it happened because the stock o2 sensor is too close to the engine. Also the ports of the headers are SH*t!!! here are crappy pics to show you.
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...r/CIMG0720.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...r/CIMG0715.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...r/CIMG0719.jpg

nice read, thanks for the review

sounds like another satisfied FI user

nice post. thanks

good initial review :tup:

What size resonators do you have?
Good review. :tup:

Man those look so nice. Great Review.

good stuff man. does this mean all of our o2 sensors are jacked up?

With the way the cAr is designed there is a good 40 percent chance atleast one of your o2 sensors are jacked up. One of mine was and i had less than 10k miles on the car at the time. Percentage will obviously go up with more miles how much? Who knows. You shouldn't be getting any rasp out the back of the exhaust if you have resonators. The hiss and rasp that you mostly hear is when the exhaust gases collide in the xpipe it will cause a rasp/hissing sound even at wot. Unavoidable the exhaust is just too free flowing.

Quick noob question... Should one get LTH first before getting CBE or does it not matter which one gets installed first?

^ get them at the same time FTW

Congratulation on the install.

Was your car tuned before you install the headers?

To see the most gains youll probably want to upgrade your exhaust from back to front meaning Catback first and then LTH. If you get the LTH you probably wont see much gains because the stock exhaust is so restrictive.

Most of the restriction is in the Cats, you will see more gains with those being replaced first.

Thanks.