Are you going to the driver meet and dinner at VIR on Sunday? I'd like to ride in your car and hear what you are talking about.

 

Have you checked the header bolts? How about your engine mount? I had my engine mount replaced a few weeks ago under warranty as it was making a rattle, and I've only got 16k miles on the car!

Do you get a buzz above 6k?

 

After installing my street header coupled with my one-ball mod I was getting a big drone and vibration around 2750-2900rpm, no rattles. This past weekend I installed an Alta 2.5" sport tone exhaust and now my drone and vibration are gone altogether! I'm guessing that the resonator in the Alta exhaust helped.

However, in both cases with the one-ball and alta exhausts, it sounds like there's a leak when I give it some gas at idle because I can hear the engine internals or something more. I've double checked the gasket and bolt connections on both the head & the flange connection to the exhaust and everything seems secure. I'm guessing here that the thin walls of the street header make the engine seem louder.

I must say though that the RMW street header with the Alta 2.5" exhaust sound great! Sounds a lot better than the RMW street header with the one-ball mod. The one-ball mod sounded great with the stock header, but once I installed the RMW street header, the one-ball exhaust sounded like there was a tin can rattling in the muffler when I revved it and the vibration and drone at 2750-2900rpm was not cool...therefore I ordered the Alta exhaust and now all is good :D.

 

Nah - I'm just planning to come up early Monday AM - but I'm confident we'll have an opportunity to demo...

Mounts and bolts are all good... again, I know EXACTLY where the sound is coming from. I've held my ear up to every part of the exhaust.... the whole sound is emanating from the middle of the run of pipe between the front exhaust hanger and the muffler.... at 2050RPM, that thing vibrates harmonically....

I have a few assorted little rattles and buzzes at different places - none of which concern me... it's a cabrio. It's noisy. Comes with the territory.

As much as I was hoping to NOT buy an aftermarket exhaust, that may be my ultimate solution. The 2.5" Alta is exactly what I'll do, if I do it. Nice exhaust, and one-sided, so I can keep my horn (though I'll need to move it to the other side...)

One must keep one's priorities straight.

Glad to hear it sounds good with the street header!

I AM a *little* paranoid, though... because the stories that are surfacing about drone/vibration aren't consistent.... some folks have it, others don't, with several different exhaust configs... would hate to buy a nice exhaust and *still* have it, just at a different RPM...

 

I'm gonna start a separate thread to try to collect some data on the drone/vibration issue - to see if any patterns emerge (e.g. specific exhausts where there are issues sometimes or most of the time).

 

Currently I am running a megan header which is nearing its flex joint end of life and I felt I need something that really shows its results on an untuned car so it will be replaced by an RMW Street. In addition to the megan I have the Alta 2.5" and it does a pretty dam good job of keeping the drone down on the catless header I am running. There is a drone but its nothing that will drive you insane but it may put your passengers to sleep . Here is what my older brother experienced " This car has the bumpiest ride(coilovers set to full stiff) I can't imagine trying to sleep"........5 minutes later he was out for the count.

 

I think the Alta exhaust will solve your issues :D...my drone/vibration was really bad that I couldn't take it anymore and had to order a new exhaust.

The only downside of the Alta that I've read is that some people get rattles due to the large resonator placed within the exhaust channel. The resonator is centimeters away from hitting the heat shields within the channel. I don't get any rattles but I took a VERY long time aligning and ensuring that everything was mated up perfectly .

 

jw, i know its somewhere, but ive searched and turned up nothing, either that or im probably just blind, but how much is the street header?

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...0&postcount=64

$850 street
$1250 race no centerpipe

 

Has anyone thought of using "old fashioned" header wrap along the length of the exhaust? This might deaden the "rattle" or slightly alter the harmonic frequency of the system... which also might silence the issue...a byproduct is keeping more heat in the system and acting as a heat shield on the exterior...

Just a thought.
S.

 

Yep - I thought about that... but am going to see if adding a resonator fixes it for me...

 

I've heard bad things about header wraps, in fact I preferred ceramic coating both interior and exterior on the custom header I have, but hey, all those things about headers falling apart sooner when wrapped and such might be all rubbish, especially if the headers are as well made as RMW's.

 

Note that Jan's shorty and competition headers are stainless steel (304 I believe). While I have also seen posts about headers corroding and failing when wrapped in other forums, they have always been plain steel, and not stainless. The corrosion problems may have something to do with the wrapping process itself, which calls for soaking the header wrap in water prior to application, so that the wrap conforms tightly to the tubes. Heat and residual moisture on plain painted steel seem like an excellent way to get the rust monster started.

MINIdriver mentioned ceramic coating, and I have had excellent experiences with that on several vehicles (no corrosion on plain steel headers for many years), but I wouldn't expect it to help dampen a rattle.

 

I'm new to the forum and owning a mini...so hey

Some background for my question...I use my mini to drive to work every day, but I also enjoy spirited driving on windy roads on the weekends...and it is addictive to mod your car to make it faster

I was wondering what is the big difference between one of Jan's street headers and one of the less expensive headers, like an OBX header (modified for street use with a magnaflow cat for example). How drastic is the difference in performance gains over stock? or is it more of a longevity thing like checkmate mentioned above about his megan header nearing the end of its flex joint's life?

I'm sure the design is better with Jan's, but is the price difference warranted for someone on a budget looking to get 200+ whp out of their mini?

Thanks!

 

I've read and heard from my installer that the OBX has very bad build quality. Other than that, I'll have to let Jan chine in to talk about design differences and performance.

 

Welcome to NAM!

My '05 MCS is my daily driver--i cover 100 miles a day. I've got 222.1whp with Jan's parts. I'd say a very strong motivation to buy his parts would be if you plan to have him tune your car, obviously you will get the best results using things he recommends and is familiar with the performance of to squeeve every last bit of power from.

Richard

 

Yeah, that's what I meant when I said that with well built headers like Jan's this was probably not going to be an issue

 

I got some interesting info jan... with your bolt ons your are neck and neck with the nissan gtr in your fwd economy car bolted with a supercharger... 1.6L fwd supercharger vs. AWD twin turbo electronically sophisticated monster! Too bad you are gunna absolutely rape them with your tvs stroker and or other goodies!

2009 Nissan GT-R
As-tested price: $75,925
Mountain road time: 2:04.35; Rank: 1st
Streets of Willow lap time: 1:25.68; Rank: 1st
0-60 mph: 3.5 seconds (3.2 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip)
Quarter-mile: 11.7 seconds at 116.8 mph
60-0 braking: 98 feet
Slalom: 74.0 mph
Skid pad: 0.96g

 

I don't concur - build quality is good.

 

Quite amazing really that the drag time doesnt mean the car goes round the track any quicker.

I suppose we have to presume that the GT-R didn't go around SOW on slicks.

 

you are right, but stock tires are not crap by any stretch... Still not a bad feat IMHO... I believe with more bracing the mini can improve, I believe all that jan has was cross coilovers... the rears on the mini need more support IMO which will definitely help it keep planted on a corner...

 

It's physics. That car is almost 4000lbs. Getting it moving one direction fast for the 1/4 mile is one thing, getting that pig to stop and turn as well a dozen or so times in a lap is a whole different story.

 

i must protest big howe
and here is the justification-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqBBL7WYWIs
remember- watch is high quality

 

Thank you for that link. The GTr is an amazing car. In my latest Modified mag they had their yearly tuner challenge. 12 of the best tuners in the US were asked to compete. Here are the cars.

The cars:

Scion tC: HP 713 TQ 702
EVO IX: HP 471 TQ 424
08 STI: HP 549 TQ 496
96 imprereza: HP 526 TQ 497
Honda S2000: HP 439 TQ 273
Honda NSX: HP 557 TQ 461
04 STI: HP 457 TQ 442
Nissan G35: HP 594 TQ 647
07 STI: HP 415 TQ 390
Nissan GT-R: HP 502 TQ 485
95 civic: HP 307 TQ 213
88 CRX: HP 295 TQ 228

The GT-R was stock except for a tune from COBB tuning. The rest were pure gutted light weight race cars. The competition was made up of three four disciplines.

Dyno
X-cross
Track
1/4 mile

The 4000 lb Nissan basically stock GT-R ended up third overall .

One amazing car.

Longboard

 

Don't protest to me, protest to the sap that drove it 1:25 around SOW.