Justin Fox: Today I got some XForce headers and an XForce high flow cat installed at Kirrawee Mufflers on my NA8C Mazda MX5. Driving the car back to work after installation was hilarious, mainly because my engine bay was pouring out smoke from the heat wrap bedding in (definitely turned a few heads!!!).
Old headers came out and oh my… just look at them! They’re so ugly, and obviously a lot more restrictive than the XForce headers.
Pete decided to re-use the steel gasket (after cleaning it up) rather than a fibre gasket. The way he sees it, nothing can go wrong with the steel gasket (whereas a fibre gasket could deteriorate/fall apart).
Headers sitting pretty in the engine bay.
The XForce cat was very short and the guys had to weld on angled tubes to get it to match up with the header’s flange and the exhaust flange too. Such finicky work, so awesome to watch them get there.
Cat all done. Power wise I definitely feel a noticeable difference. Amazingly the car feels punchier down low at around 3000rpm and when I hit 7,000rpm in first and shift into 2nd it gives off an awesome pop out the back (love it!).
Sound wise I can hear a difference, it’s not noisier, it’s just a little different. I can’t quite hear the ‘rustling’ header noise I’m used to on past cars I’ve updated the headers on, but then again I was driving top down (and when I’m top down I can’t hear my intake either).
Read more http://blog.xforce.com.au.tmp.anchor.net.au/?p=717
