I just got my RMW street header with a Milltec exhaust. It seemed to 'open' up my engine and resulted in much more balanced power. At least according to my 'butt' dyno.
Honestly, with your mods either would work, if you think you may do more engine work in the future, get the RMW and you'll never have to worry about an upgrade, otherwise just do what your wallet says is best for you. As for wrap, I wouldn't. The only time I'd wrap something is if it was very exposed and easy to get on and off. Wrap collects oil, oil catches fire, so unless you have no leaks and never will have, or can easily get to the wrapped item to carefully watch it and re-wrap when needed, go with ceramic coating or nothing.
Thanks all. Went with the tried and true RMW and non-res Milltek. Any tips on additional parts before I dive in and create a mess in the garage.
Use Remflex exhaust gaskets. (Amazon) They are thick, compressible and do not leak. https://www.amazon.com/Remflex-6006-Exhaust-Collector-Gasket/dp/B00B2HMFJ4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1537926776&sr=8-4&keywords=remflex+exhaust+gasket
I bought those gaskets for my Milltek - don't fit, had to throw them out after trying to cut to proper size. I ended up using what came with the Milltek. The holes are too far apart to fit on the stock header at least, and that graphite cannot easily be cut to fit. Need a punch like tool for that. Maybe this fits on RMW stuff.
Agreed - Ceramic coating is the best way to go. I did this to my 88M5 Euro Headers and the temp difference was pretty significant. I plan to do that to the GP when I get to actually tuning it verses working on the site.
So, getting ready to tackle the installation. My first time doing this. Used to see guys using a spray on copper gasket to help with assembly, good or bad on the manifold gasket? Head bolts? Car has 70K miles, new O2 sensors? Any other tips for me? Thanks
As far as the Copper Spray it's one of those "shouldn't need it" items, but won't hurt if you do. Most of the brands of gaskets hold up really well and can be reused, then I'd spray it for extra sealing, but it's not necessarily on a new one.
Thinking that Jan went to ceramic coating on his headers. I looked into all that when I put my mine on and decided to just put it on right out of the box. If tracking the heat may be of issue but for street and the occasional mountain run could not justify the cost. From what I researched the best stuff is the white heat coating from somebody like Swan Tech.
Thanks. I think the copper spray was more to hold the gasket in place than for additional sealing properties, but what do I know..... Been watching some videos of the procedure and not sure I will have enough room under the car on the jack stands......no lift so I may end up going to my exhaust shop to have it done.
I did mine on jack stands but I used some solid 4" blocks to put the jack stands on so that the car sat even higher up. I had to remove the heat shields that travel up toward the power steering and coolant reservoirs. Would think my 4-2-1 is a little bigger than Jan's 4-1 as well. A few chosen curse words and then some prayers got the sucker up in there.
I did mine on jack stands also. It was a major pain. It was like a puzzle. I think if I do it agin I would drop the sub fram a little