Ported stock header

[Boosted2.0]

Hi there!

Jay (Choi0706) asked me to post here regarding my header (exhaust manifold) porting services that I offer for the 2ZZ-GE engine.

I welcome any questions or feedback about the ported header.


Technical info:
So - What is a ported header? Why is it a good thing.

Easy answer - here are some pictures of the stock header:

Stock Header Inlets:



Here is a closeup of the inlet to one of the runners:



Here is another closeup of the inlet:



Some pictures of the stock collector:





Because this process uses the stock header as the basis, it will NOT affect emissions and will pass any CARB or other visual inspection.

Cheating is wrong and morally incorrect - its a shallow voctory if you win by cheating - some would say you have already lost. This being said, this modification will pass an EXTERNAL visual inspection for a bone stock spec race class in SCCA, NASA, etc. It is also legal in SOME classes that specify modifications are legal within a certain distance from the engine, etc. The odds of getting caught even on a teardown are very slim, but I make no gaurantees - you can always take the stance that this is a stock part that was simply repaired to correct a factory defect. If you would simply like the glaringly horrible parts of the weld in the collector addressed and no chnages made that would counts as an illegal modification I am certainly capable of doing that at a greatly reduced price. To stay proper with the rules be sure to check with the sanctioning body you race with to see if this modification is allowed before performing it. I will be happy to talk to them to answer any questions they may have.


The ported headers retain all factory mounting points, heat shield mounting points, and retain use of the stock support bracket. (unless removal of mounts is requested)

Flowbench Testing on GTS headers to date indicates over a 10% gain in flow from this operation. Increases may be slightly larger or smaller in some cases depending on the quality of the initial factory welds at the collector and the alignment at the inlets.

Total Header Increases were tested at (stock) 750 CFM average at 28" vacuum to (ported) 796 CFM average at 28" vacuum.
Individual runner flow increase is equally significant - from (stock) 205 CFM average at 28" vacuum to (ported) 236 CFM average at 28" Vacuum



2ZZ-GE header porting (I don't want to give away all my secrets so I am not showing the current gen finished product, but heres enough to give you the gist of what I do - I will say that the knife edging in the collector had to be backed down a little as tube alignment issues make it impossible in some cases. There is still a taper but not so extreme)

Ported Inlet


Ported Collector:


Dyno gains will vary in accordance with other mods to your vehicle. The only dynos available so far are on a 2003 GTS with stock ECU, AEM CAI, and TRD Exhaust. And a 2003 Celica GTS with a Injen CAI and a HKS hiper exhaust. As you will see below there were gains of over 10 WHP and 10 WTQ at various points in the power band. om the first and about 5 WHP peak on the second. It is my belief that the gains from this modification vary largely depending on other mods on the vehicle.

Jay and Buz will both be providing before and after dynos shortly.

Click Here to view Swing Fixer's comparison Dyno

Click Here to view Klutch's comparison Dyno

Here are some of the initial reviews:

Originally Posted by Swing Fixer

Right now all I can saw was that i felt a noticable difference in power driving it home. Car definitely pulled much harder than with the stock manifold.

Originally Posted by Swing Fixer

great product and service!

My car was the test car of the dyno numbers that Boosted linked to. The very first time I drove it home after we installed the ported header I felt a HUGE difference. The car is much more fun to drive around since the gains we saw were in the RPM range of daily use. The dyno runs were on a Dyno-Dynamic dyno which is stingy when it comes to peak HP and TQ readings compared to a Dyno Jet.

Those numbers were with an unmodified and untuned stock 2003 ECU with AEM CAI and TRD Exhaust.

Turn around time is usually 2 weeks, although it is often less, and can be more depending on circumstances

Heres the price breakdown:
The total price will be Labor and supplies + shipping, with a refundable core charge if you do not send me a header to port. If you send me a header there will be no core charge.

Labor and supplies:
2ZZ Header - $155

Aftermarket header (DC, Hotshot, Trial etc) - Porting fees will be billed at a rate of $50 / hour.

Shipping & handling:
I ship Fed-Ex Ground unless expidited shipping is required. Cost is $20 for a Lotus 2ZZ manifold.


Core charges:
The big benefit of the core system is that you can order a header and get the ported header ready to go without having to have your car out of comission for a week or more. The new header arrives fully ported and you send your old header "the core" back to me after it has been replaced. I am going to try and find some used manifolds of all styles so I can bring the core charges down, but on a lot of these I am going to have to buy new manifolds to get the ball rolling. As such you will be requred to pay a refundable core charge that is equal to my purchase cost for a new manifold. If you keep the manifold I send you and don't send me yours back I keep the core charge to replace the manifold. You are responsible to pay shipping on the core. The core must be returned within 2 weeks of receipt of the Ported manifold, or $40 / week will be deducted from the core refund for weeks after 2 weeks.

April 2003 and newer GTS or Lotus Elise - $230 (has air injection system tube)

Follow the link below to a guide to help you determine which manifold you have. You will have to register to view it but its free to register so no worries:
Celica Header Idetification - NewCelica.org Forum


Additional Services:


Ceramic Coat for Header - $170 for the air injection style headers
It adds 2-4 weeks to the process
Here is an example of a Silver Ceramic Coated air injection header. VERY sexy.


Here are some pictures of a gold/bronze header with the mounting points removed (the color that is supposed to be the most thermally efficient)




Heat shield mounting point removal - $100

Air injection tube removal and welding - $30

Use of new air injection blockoff style header as core (no core return required) $250

Flowbenching -
$50 per header for numbers after porting.
$90 for before and after numbers on the same header.
$90 / Hour for flowbenching other components

Manifold and donut Gaskets:
I canl provide pricing on stock gaskets upon request

Payment and shipping information:
I take payment through paypal only.
The Price is the $155 porting fee + $20 shipping + the cost of any additional services you require (such as core exchange or ceramic coating)


Availability:
At this time the headers are built to order. I usually have Lotus cores in stock, but I only have 3 so a sudden surge in business or a couple people slacking on returning cores will cause a delay. Obviously sending in your manifold is the best wat to ensure there will be no core related delays

I will update this thread as more info becomes available.

So let me know what you think, and if you have any questions. Just don't ask me how much power it makes on the Lotus or how well it stacks up to XXX header on a lotus, as we haven't completed any testing yet

References and more info:
Theres a long thread but if you want to see input from tons of happy customers and answers to lots of questions other folks have asked just follow the link:
Ported Headers by Boosted2.0 - NewCelica.org Forum

[Boosted2.0]

Oh - heres a recent review from a Lotus customer:

Originally Posted by Amahoser

Got my header back from Boosted's magic hands and I am very happy!

Great job on the porting and his professionalism and timely responses to my e-mails is second to none. Done and delivered on time, quality job, great price... what more could I want!

Thanks Boosted!
Jose Soriano

Originally Posted by Amahoser

You did actually quote me 1 to 2 weeks. So you lived up to your promise and then some!
Its surprising to me that a performance mod actually came when quoted. If you had actually taken two weeks, I would have been happy as well. My point is most of my experience with performance mods is that the vendor usually quotes a shorter time than realistically possible just to get your bussiness. You kept me informed of your schedule and gave me a realistic delivery quote. That *should* be the norm but in the real world it is exceptional.

I have been driving my car around quite a bit since the header port. (This is on a Lotus, btw) Now as far as wide open throttle... I'm not sure if I can feel a whole lot of difference. Then again, only a 10 hp gain would be a mild difference. But, throught the rev range, the car does feel a bit stronger and "free-er". Is it worth it... a resounding YES! I couldn't be any happier.

Boosted, if you plan on doing any other tweaks, let me know... I'll be first in line.

Jose Soriano

[RacyTracy]

Originally Posted by Boosted2.0

It will also pass an EXTERNAL visual inspection for a bone stock spec race class in SCCA, NASA, etc. (The odds of getting caught even on a teardown are very slim, but I make no gaurantees - you can always take the stance that this is a stock part that was simply repaired to correct a factory defect)

First let me say I am not an autocrosser. Maybe rampant cheating goes on, I have no idea. But what I have seen on this forum in the past are posts from autocrossers who won't even change the slightest cosmetic part, because they would no longer be legal. Can you feel good about a winning time, knowing you cheated? Does saying 'everyone else is doing it' make it right?

I'm not going to write a long post on ethics and honesty. Everyone has their own line they won't cross, myself included. Everyone has to get up every day and look at themselves in the mirror. Is 'doing what you can get away with' worth it?

[turbo2nr]

In every form of racing I've ever seen or participated in, Cheating is everywhere! There is a fine art to cheating and not getting caught. That's 50% of the game right there. You pretty much HAVE to cheat to expect a win. Moto-X....people bored their motors out, swapped parts, porting, etc..Same thing all the way up to the pros. Same thing in NASCAR. Same thing in Formula 1. If you can't live with yourself for cheating, you probably won't see the podium often. Just my opinion....

I had my stock manifold ported to match a new set of heads in my Buick. That required extra welding on the outside of the main flange to beef up the connection. Then inside the ports were opened up ALOT. Any car could benifit from this, as I doubt any production car is port matched.

Scott

[RacyTracy]

Originally Posted by turbo2nr

In every form of racing I've ever seen or participated in, Cheating is everywhere! There is a fine art to cheating and not getting caught. That's 50% of the game right there. You pretty much HAVE to cheat to expect a win. Moto-X....people bored their motors out, swapped parts, porting, etc..Same thing all the way up to the pros. Same thing in NASCAR. Same thing in Formula 1. If you can't live with yourself for cheating, you probably won't see the podium often. Just my opinion...

Anyone who has 'won' by cheating is a loser. Just my opinion...

[turbo2nr]

(Insert your favorite racer here) is a cheater! Believe me.

[JnC]

Thx Boosted for offering your services. Welcome to the board. (Out of fairness to the OP, let's take the cheating topic to a new thread.)

A couple of novice questions....

Do you use the flowbench data to balance the header? (I guess you'd have to port, flowbench, port the offending runners, and flowbench to verify again.)

Are ceramic coatings applied internally to the header? I take it if that's the case, working on a new header would be the preferred way to go. (I don't see how all of the carbon could be removed prior to coating.)

[turbo2nr]

You can't get the carbon and grease out of a used exhaust manifold. Only would be able to coat a brand new header on the inside.

2nd question....I highly doubt it. (yes, I'm high)

[jim-clayton]

Thanks for posting. $150.00 is quite reasonable. I have used the "hot" coating in the past, nice finish.

[fishguy]

Originally Posted by turbo2nr

In every form of racing I've ever seen or participated in, Cheating is everywhere! There is a fine art to cheating and not getting caught. That's 50% of the game right there. You pretty much HAVE to cheat to expect a win. Moto-X....people bored their motors out, swapped parts, porting, etc..Same thing all the way up to the pros. Same thing in NASCAR. Same thing in Formula 1. If you can't live with yourself for cheating, you probably won't see the podium often. Just my opinion....

Scott

I have some experience with this also. its been a while since i ran competitively, but FWIW. I roadraced motorcycles 750s at the time, and my freind, a mechanic, could just walk away from everyone on the straights, it was frustrating as this was the stock class. I could make up ground in the twisties on him , but then he would just move out on the straights again with nearly same postion on last turn, so it wasnt his drive was so much better than everyone elses. while it did make me a better rider being determined to catch him, it was hard to believe. he never fessed up , always said he spent lots of time jetting the carbs..etc.... 15 years later, he "broke" he admitted to doing "stuff" ;what it was, he wouldnt say. "thats racing" i guess we could have protested, but thats not my style.
another example was gokart roadracing. A guy could just leave us on the starts, and in straights. he is now a pro car racer (see him on TV). when the teardowns required for the winner came up, he declined and forfietted. that sucked, as us amatuers spent allot of effort to make the events. what sucked even more was they only wanted to see the skirts on the pistons, which is litterally removing 4 bolts on the head( takes 3 minutes max). the only reason someone would decline is they were not in specs, or they just didnt care about the 1st place trophy. I now did say something to the race director, but the guy was a "big name" so next time out they did a manditory tech on something else, specific gravity on fuel, or crap like that, but refused to check the skirts, where you really can make a ton of power(like that). rather than get pissed, i just stop going to the events. granted it could have been he was much better than all of us out there, but leaving us on the starts also??? i wont "cheat" in a competive event, never have, never will, BUT, for HPDE days, this sounds like a winner, also for any classes that allows for mods to the car, again, sounds like a winner. going to consider this one for myself.

[RacyTracy]

Originally Posted by turbo2nr

(Insert your favorite racer here) is a cheater! Believe me.

I won't argue with that....still doesn't make it right.

Originally Posted by JnC

(Out of fairness to the OP, let's take the cheating topic to a new thread.)

No problem, but please note the OP is the one that brought up cheating.

[Randy Chase]

Originally Posted by RacyTracy

First let me say I am not an autocrosser. Maybe rampant cheating goes on,

I don't think it does that often. But I think more "projection" about what others do happens a lot. And it is human nature to want to think that the winner "cheated" as compared to your not driving as well.

[Boosted2.0]

Originally Posted by JnC

Thx Boosted for offering your services. Welcome to the board. (Out of fairness to the OP, let's take the cheating topic to a new thread.)

A couple of novice questions....

Do you use the flowbench data to balance the header? (I guess you'd have to port, flowbench, port the offending runners, and flowbench to verify again.)

Are ceramic coatings applied internally to the header? I take it if that's the case, working on a new header would be the preferred way to go. (I don't see how all of the carbon could be removed prior to coating.)

I am not using a flowbench to ballance the headers at this time. I did for like the first 6 and I found out that once optimized the runners for the various cylinders always wind up within a couple CFM of a certain point. The reason I stopped is just that the flowbench i was using is across town and its a PITA to go there and rent it for every header. I am however building a flowbench with a friend at the moment - it should be done and calibrated ina coupe of weeks) and I intend to go back to checking them on a bench once it is conveniently nesteled in my garage

Yes the ceramic is applied internally and externally. A sufficient amount of metal is remove at the inlet and collector that there is a great exposed surface, and then on top of that Polydyn does a very thorough media blast on them after I get done with them. If they can get the ceramic to stick inside and out on a 1960s domestic header, I would imagine our little header is cake.

FWIW I've noticed that the rus doesn't really penetrate the piping or collector at all, cast the inlet flance is really the only peice that seems to take any rust intrusion, and even on cars with well into the 100,000 miles its minimal

[Boosted2.0]

Originally Posted by jim-clayton

Thanks for posting. $150.00 is quite reasonable. I have used the "hot" coating in the past, nice finish.

This is supposed to be better stuff than the jet hot coating - it has a high ceramic content and is applied very thick - it supposedly provides a very nice insulative barrier to keep your heat in the exhaust where it belongs. If you have lots of questions give Polydyn a call - they actually offer a huge variety of low friction and oil dispersant coatings and whatnot as well - lots of cool stuff. From talking to them I get the impression that a lot of their business is actually with industrial turbine manufactuers

[Boosted2.0]

Originally Posted by RacyTracy

First let me say I am not an autocrosser. Maybe rampant cheating goes on, I have no idea. But what I have seen on this forum in the past are posts from autocrossers who won't even change the slightest cosmetic part, because they would no longer be legal. Can you feel good about a winning time, knowing you cheated? Does saying 'everyone else is doing it' make it right?

I'm not going to write a long post on ethics and honesty. Everyone has their own line they won't cross, myself included. Everyone has to get up every day and look at themselves in the mirror. Is 'doing what you can get away with' worth it?

I appologize if it seems like I am promoting cheating, that is not my goal - that question was moved into the thread on Newcelica a long time ago because I had a lot of people ask. I don't really like answering the same quesiton 10 times so I tend to move the frequently asked ones into the product description thread.

FWIW I don't personally approve of cheating, nor do I cheat - I pretty much drag race and do some autocrossing, and when I autocross I pretty much wind up in SM2 and its hard to do things to your car that aren't legal in that class.

I'll go ahead and modify the original post with a strick moral reprimand against it if you like

[Boosted2.0]

Originally Posted by turbo2nr

You can't get the carbon and grease out of a used exhaust manifold. Only would be able to coat a brand new header on the inside.

I respectfully disagree with this statement utterly we have had no problems whatsoever and neither has Polydyn. Again I do go to great lengths to ensure proper surface preperation though - its part of why the cost is so high. There are places that do a ceramic coat for less than Polydyn, but they aren't as thorough.

[Boosted2.0]

Originally Posted by RacyTracy

No problem, but please note the OP is the one that brought up cheating.

Yup - I take the blame on this one. But I really would appreciate it if the debate can be moved to another thread.

An interesting difference between the average Celica owner and you Lotus guys - No-one on Newcelica has ever mentioned that cheating would be bad - there is probably a commentary on youth or society buried in there somewhere...

One thing that may be food for thought though - there is a huge variance in stock headers as well - some of them (they are very rare) the welds in the collector are not hideous, and some the inlets are in better alignment and have less weld intrusion into the pipes than others. Would it also be cheating to buy 100 factory headers and install one that had as few defects as you could find? It would not net the same gains as the full treatment I give, but I have seen up to 30 CFM variance in individual unmodified stock runners

[fishguy]

FWIW,
boosted2.0 is making this service available, and i for one really appreiciate it, thanks!!!! racytracy, how the user of the product applies it, is their preogative: what class they enter etc, there are classes for mods or stock. ragging on the producers of stuff like this, makes people well, less likely to offer their services to us. @ $150 a pop, I think this is good for us all to have available. I am thinking i need to send in my stuff boosted2.0...........

[Buz]

Removing the heat shields and air injection saves 8 pounds and looks great coated.

[Randy Chase]

Originally Posted by fishguyAZ

FWIW,
boosted2.0 is making this service available, and i for one really appreiciate it, thanks!!!! racytracy, how the user of the product applies it, is their preogative:

Of course, but since the OP mentioned you can cheat and not get caught, that does invite comment. And just like he has the freedom to say that, I think it makes sense that some people would feel that it opens the door for a reply. It seems he understands that and has handled it well. Criticism of the cheating angle, does not negate appreciation of his service.

Perhaps the OP should have mentioned that this would be a legal mod in certain SCCA classes?