Are the Exige S/240/Elise Supercharged header equipped with bigger piping than NA's?

[Trendy Exige]

The question I have is whether the Exige S/240/Elise Supercharged header already come in a bigger piping than the naturally aspirated Lotus vehicles? If the short headers are all the same on NA vs. the FI Lotus and nothing has changed since 2005, then it would make sense to go with an aftermarket header that has bigger piping.

Many of us who looked underneath our cars are already aware that these Lotus cars are already equipped with headers along with its own heat shield. However, if these headers were the same as the naturally aspirated cars, the efficiency of the flow must be increased since the car is now a completely different animal. Thus, bigger pipping will help increase more flow as long as the inlet (piping of the header) and the exit (exhaust) are the same diameter in piping.

I looked into the thread about porting the stock headers and it seems that it would be trivial to see a significant amount of performance gain by taking that route. Porting the headers would only make sense, whether its the stock headers or the aftermarket headers if my goal was to squeeze out every single amount horsepower as I can get out of it.

Are the stock headers are made out of iron cast metal? If that is the case, then the weight is a concern and perhaps going with a lighter weight stainless steel can help in the weight reduction department as well.

Insights anyone? Feel free to chime in....

-Andy

[fpitas]

To my knowledge the stock cast iron header is the same, NA or SC. I agree that it may not be optimal for SC service, and that it and its heat shields weigh a ton, so I've ordered the 2bular 4-1 header.

[Noel]

The exhaust manifold on the SC models running the 2ZZ-GE is a standard OEM Toyota header, I'm sure the 1ZZ-GE on the Elise S will also be a standard OEM Toyota item. It's so standard, that the EGR valve on the Toyota is not used that Lotus simply plugged it as a non-functional valve.

It is cast iron, and the pipes are definitely too small for optimal SC application. However, since heat is a big concern, make sure when running aftermarket exhaust manifolds, you either have the option of (a) running at least the top half of the OEM heatshield to not dissipate the heat into an already unoptimum temperature engine bay, or (b) ceramic coat the new exhaust manifolds before using or (c) at a minimum, use exhaust heat wrap to contain the heat. Last thing you want is adding more heat into the engine bay whilst gaining power.

[Trendy Exige]

Thats very disappointing to hear. I was really hoping to hear from the forum members that Lotus would have been smart enough to prefabricate a new piping size for the header that goes on the forced induction Lotus vehicles. Argh!!!

Does anyone know what the diameter (mm) of the piping is on our OEM header?

[Trendy Exige]

What do most forced induction Lotus owners choose when purchasing an aftermarket header for their car?

For instance, I contacted Trial, and they gave too little info on their header.
For example, what is the significant difference between the Trial headers from the Stock Exige S headers that is already equipped on the car? Is the piping of the headers bigger? If so, by how much? Does it weigh less than the stock headers that already on the 2007 Lotus Exige S?

I have a hunch that the dyno chart they provided on their website are slightly skewed. The dynorun was in Jan 31, 2005, therefore the header must have been tested on a naturally aspirated Exige. If the the numbers are accurate, the delta portion of the curve shows a huge significant gain on a NA Exige. If this dynograph does represent the Trial header, then I would assume that installing these Trial header will in fact increase tremendously on my Exige S since now I am incorporating it with a forced fed motor.


If anyone can offer more information about aftermarket header, I believe that would benefits anyone who plans to throw down on $1280+ for a car part.

[FLuXeXigeS]

i think there is a company that will be releasing headers specifically for FI cars soon, i forgot who and when, but im thinking once it gets released we wont miss it

[Trendy Exige]

Are you referring to Casey's Forcefed Shorty Blower Header?

ForcedFed shorty blower header prototype...

Originally Posted by FLuXeXigeS

i think there is a company that will be releasing headers specifically for FI cars soon, i forgot who and when, but im thinking once it gets released we wont miss it

[FLuXeXigeS]

maybe shay2nak told me...but i honestly forgot

[Trendy Exige]

Yeah Ara is thinking about getting the ForceFed one in a couple months according to his post on that thread.

Its definitely a great option to have. I was hoping some reputable company based in Japan would make one since the Exige S is also very popular over there as well. Like a Full titanium header

Originally Posted by FLuXeXigeS

maybe shay2nak told me...but i honestly forgot

[fpitas]

Originally Posted by FLuXeXigeS

i think there is a company that will be releasing headers specifically for FI cars soon, i forgot who and when, but im thinking once it gets released we wont miss it

2bular is one: 2Bular - Performance Exhausts

about 1/3 down the page. I was waiting for the ForcedFed shorty, but I gave up.

[Noel]

I will have access to the OEM exhaust manifold tomorrow, will measure up the diameter. Having compared the OEM exhaust manifold to my Komo-Tec S280 one, it's chalk and cheese in everything.

OEM - Cast iron, small diameter, non-equal length primaries, in short, crap.
Komo-Tec S280 - Full stainless, large diameter, equal length primaries, engineered for high SC power output.

While titanium exhaust manifolds are not common among tuners simply because of the need to complicate and weld pipe designs together, full stainless achieves a more consistent result and is still significantly cheaper.

Have a look at this thread on current available full exhaust systems for the SC Exige from the land of the rising sun.

[andrewgotanelise]

Originally Posted by Trendy Exige

What do most forced induction Lotus owners choose when purchasing an aftermarket header for their car?

For instance, I contacted Trial, and they gave too little info on their header.
For example, what is the significant difference between the Trial headers from the Stock Exige S headers that is already equipped on the car? Is the piping of the headers bigger? If so, by how much? Does it weigh less than the stock headers that already on the 2007 Lotus Exige S?

I have a hunch that the dyno chart they provided on their website are slightly skewed. The dynorun was in Jan 31, 2005, therefore the header must have been tested on a naturally aspirated Exige. If the the numbers are accurate, the delta portion of the curve shows a huge significant gain on a NA Exige. If this dynograph does represent the Trial header, then I would assume that installing these Trial header will in fact increase tremendously on my Exige S since now I am incorporating it with a forced fed motor.


If anyone can offer more information about aftermarket header, I believe that would benefits anyone who plans to throw down on $1280+ for a car part.

Looks like the cam changeover is at like 2400rpms...

[FLuXeXigeS]

Originally Posted by Noel

I will have access to the OEM exhaust manifold tomorrow, will measure up the diameter. Having compared the OEM exhaust manifold to my Komo-Tec S280 one, it's chalk and cheese in everything.

OEM - Cast iron, small diameter, non-equal length primaries, in short, crap.
Komo-Tec S280 - Full stainless, large diameter, equal length primaries, engineered for high SC power output.

While titanium exhaust manifolds are not common among tuners simply because of the need to complicate and weld pipe designs together, full stainless achieves a more consistent result and is still significantly cheaper.

Have a look at this thread on current available full exhaust systems for the SC Exige from the land of the rising sun.

yo man how much for that entire exhaust set up, and would it work for US cars? if so whats the HP/TQ numbers?

that ish is nice!!!

[Bane]

Originally Posted by FLuXeXigeS

i think there is a company that will be releasing headers specifically for FI cars soon, i forgot who and when, but im thinking once it gets released we wont miss it

We've offered our FI version of the race header for quite some time now.

I've sold quite a few of them to S/C owners (that's all the orders I've been getting except for Bavarian Motorist...) so I think that most owners of the SC cars aren't happy with what Lotus put on there from the factory.

The SC cars I've seen have had the same header as the NA ones. I haven't personally seen an S240 car in person nor have I measured it's exhaust manifold with a caliper but I'm guessing it's the same as the rest.

[FLuXeXigeS]

Originally Posted by Bane

We've offered our FI version of the race header for quite some time now.

I've sold quite a few of them to S/C owners (that's all the orders I've been getting except for Bavarian Motorist...) so I think that most owners of the SC cars aren't happy with what Lotus put on there from the factory.

The SC cars I've seen have had the same header as the NA ones. I haven't personally seen an S240 car in person nor have I measured it's exhaust manifold with a caliper but I'm guessing it's the same as the rest.

doih, mah bad...links?

[Icedog_16]

Originally Posted by Bane

We've offered our FI version of the race header for quite some time now.

I've sold quite a few of them to S/C owners (that's all the orders I've been getting except for Bavarian Motorist...) so I think that most owners of the SC cars aren't happy with what Lotus put on there from the factory.

The SC cars I've seen have had the same header as the NA ones. I haven't personally seen an S240 car in person nor have I measured it's exhaust manifold with a caliper but I'm guessing it's the same as the rest.

I thought you were the one doing the PPE. I was going to mention yours in another thread, Bane. But I was afraid I may have gotten my wires crossed.

[shay2nak]

Originally Posted by Trendy Exige

Yeah Ara is thinking about getting the ForceFed one in a couple months according to his post on that thread.

Its definitely a great option to have. I was hoping some reputable company based in Japan would make one since the Exige S is also very popular over there as well. Like a Full titanium header

I think I may have mentioned to Coi the FF header. But there's also the 2bular and PPE.

No one has a dyno of the 2b or PPE on an Exige S. So I still don't know which one to get. I do like how the 2b header looks though.

Originally Posted by fpitas

2bular is one: 2Bular - Performance Exhausts

about 1/3 down the page. I was waiting for the ForcedFed shorty, but I gave up.

You'll have to have your car dyno'd once you install the 2b header!

[Bane]

Originally Posted by Icedog_16

I thought you were the one doing the PPE. I was going to mention yours in another thread, Bane. But I was afraid I may have gotten my wires crossed.

You're correct! The PPE header is the one I tout as "mine"

shay2nak: PPE header group buy

I need to clean that thread up and get it all in one easy to understand place.

[zuoom]

Originally Posted by Trendy Exige

What do most forced induction Lotus owners choose when purchasing an aftermarket header for their car?

For instance, I contacted Trial, and they gave too little info on their header.
For example, what is the significant difference between the Trial headers from the Stock Exige S headers that is already equipped on the car? Is the piping of the headers bigger? If so, by how much? Does it weigh less than the stock headers that already on the 2007 Lotus Exige S?

I have a hunch that the dyno chart they provided on their website are slightly skewed. The dynorun was in Jan 31, 2005, therefore the header must have been tested on a naturally aspirated Exige. If the the numbers are accurate, the delta portion of the curve shows a huge significant gain on a NA Exige. If this dynograph does represent the Trial header, then I would assume that installing these Trial header will in fact increase tremendously on my Exige S since now I am incorporating it with a forced fed motor.


If anyone can offer more information about aftermarket header, I believe that would benefits anyone who plans to throw down on $1280+ for a car part.

the Trial header primaries are about 2-3mm larger. design wise very similar.
bolts right on and off with provision for the stock heatshield to be installed back on.

this is from a celica user P.O.V.

[GTsRasta]

Don't waste your money on the overpriced Trial header from kinwaymotorsports. For the gains you can get with the money:

$155 Boosted2.0 Ported Stock Header Service (keeps stock cat)
$505 shipped Weapon R Race Header (cat delete)
$1100+ PPE Race Header (High Flow Cat Optional)

Pick how much gains you want to see for your price range, and if you want to be green or not.