The shop told me that simply having the header ported (half the price of the performance header) will give me just as much horses and torque overall.....is he telling me the truth....dollar wise it is half the price, getting me thinking, please help!! Thanks!!

 

what shop?

 

Hey acotam,

That's a tough one to answer. Although I'm certainly no expert, I have heard here and seen pictures that the holes (ports) in the stock header don't line up exactly with the holes (ports) on the engine. So, making that lineup more truer or better should increase exhaust flow.

However, I'm not for certain, but isn't the diameter of the stock header tubes two and a quarter inches wide, while aftermarket headers are 2 and one half inches. So, even if your mechanic helps with matching up the ports and widens the ports on the stock header, that header will still be smaller than an aftermarket header, although that is still an improvement, and should provide more HP.

However, torque is another matter, as the MINI engine (and probably any engine) needs back pressure to keep the torque higher. It may be that the more back pressure the more torque, but I don't know enough to go that far. But the more back pressure, the more restrictive the exhaust flow is and then HP will be reduced.

 

I've compared the stock MCS header and the Milltek header and both look almost identical. The only difference is the Milltek header has larger tubing by maybe 1/4" od. The exhaust ports do not seem to line up as there are marks on the stock header that "shows" it's location. I keep thinking if the header is port matched to the head, the exhaust flow would be scavenged more efficiently as there is reduced turbulence.