redzed

I have a 1990 NA that is completely stock. I'm currently interested in purchasing the stillen header and eventually high flow cats and a B&B exhaust.
Stillen claims their header will add up to 16 rear wheel horsepower on an NA. Has anyone noticed a significant increase in hp after installing a stillen header?

91zxtt

Nobody here is a real big fan of Stillen. I'd keep looking.

DanZ32

AMZperformance has a stainless steel header for about $350. Only it's not ceramic coated. Mitch (at AMZ) claims it's as good or better than Stillen. Of course he should be plugging his old prodcut. Regardless, his product is what I am going with for two reasons...cheaper and not Stillen.

I love the B&B exhaust but haven't jumped the gun. Greg at SpecialtyZ will build a very nice labree exhaust system for a lot less than the B&B. The only thing hoilding me back...he says its quite loud (as is the B&B) on a Z32 N/A. I have heard both systems on a TT but not on an N/A. Loud is a relative term. Anyone on the site have an N/A with either system who could use their poetic imagination to describe the sound? (Sorry for the dumb question, I just haven't been able to find any sound clips for N/As...curse us second class N/Aers).

Z1 ZONLY

It's VERY often speculated that the header does not provide enough power gains to justify the price and difficulty of the installation. I would agree with this if I were not in the situation I happen to be in.

My midpipes are rusted through and have holes. It's so bad, in fact, that I get woozy at stoplights because of the exhaust fumes. However, the bolts that hold the header onto the midpipe are completely rusted through, so I have to replace the header at the same time as the midpipe. So I plan to get the Stillen headers along with either test pipes or high-flow cats and catbacks and do it all at the same time.

DanZ32

Z1 ZONLY welcome. I see your reading through some posts.
I see your driving an NA. I believe good headers on an N/A would give you significant gains. Price justification is another issue all together but keep in mind that it is not as easy to get gains from mods on an N/A as you would on a TT.
AMZperformance's headers are about $200 cheaper than Stillen's. It's your money so you can decide where to spend it but in my view a $200 savings there could cover about 20% of your costs towards your new exhaust or 66% of the cost of an AshSPEC ECU, or more importantly $200 towards maintenance, etc...
That's just my 2 cents worth. Good luck with your mods. How is your Zed running? Apart from the exhaust that is.

Z1 ZONLY

Thanks for the welcome. I've been at www.zcar.com for almost a year now and finally am trying to open up to some new forums.

Pertaining to the headers, the bends in each header greatly affect performance gains. While Stillens prices may be higher, it's for a good reason - excessive research and development. Stillens bends are to the exact specifications that give you the maximum power output possible. The AMZ headers may be a good substitute, but the bends may be modeled after OEM headers, and Stillen has the most money invested into their headers to make them the highest quality header for the Z32. Period. That's why I believe Stillens are worth the money.

In all honesty, I really wouldn't know how my baby runs, because it's the only Z32 I've ever driven. I've played around with my buddy on the highway (1992 NA, HKS catback), and acceleration was unison. My Z's never been to the track, yet, and I sort of don't want to go for a while to try to avoid 100 mph bug-marks in my brand new paint.

I think I just figured the signature out, follow the link there for pics. Again, thanks for the welcome!

DanZ32

Beauti Z!
I love the Jspec wing.

91zxtt

Z1- as you noted, most N/A owners never get as far as changing the headers because quite frankly,....it's a bitch. Since you're in the situation you're in, if it were me, I'd go with headers also. I would not use Stillen though. Many people in this forum feel the same way as I do, and that is that Stillen is a rip-off. I would really look for something besides Stillen. A lot of Stillen's stuff is actually manufactured by other companies. Stillen just slaps their name on it.

Riz Z Speed

i've seen the headers on a car.
Funny...but they look just like the headers I've seen on ebay for half the price of Stillens. Hmmmm.....wonder why that is?

Z1 ZONLY

I think that Stillen is a rip-off as well. But the reason I want their product is that I know that Stillen wouldn't release a product that they didn't have confidence in. I just have a hard time trusting a generic company. I'm afraid that everything from them will be APC quality and not fit right, break soon, etc. etc.

Another reason is the ceramic coating - the new headers need to be able to hold up to high mileage in all conditions, the Z is my daily driver and will be for years to come.

Dorifto

Wow - you lucky son-of-a-gun - you get a Z32 and you're only 16? I'm 17 and have already been through 4 cars though, so ... I'm usually in the '79-'83 forums, but I browse through the other ones occasionally, and I came across these posts about AMZ headers ...
A friend of mine has the AMZperformance headers on his 1991 2+2 NA, and combined with his custom exhaust and HKS GT-spec canisters and no cats, sounds absolutely stunning, and with a couple other mods (new plugs and intake, I think) added about 25-30 hp and I think that much in torque. He's had them on his car for about two years now, and they haven't rusted, discolored, cracked, etc. yet, and he drives it in the snow out here in Utah (we beat his **** with a boat paddle for driving it in winter, but you can only do so much ... ). It's good to see the youngbloods like ourselves intermixed with the older Z-guys - makes for very good conversation, if nothing else .
Have fun with the Z, bro!
-Dave-O

I just realized I really like using this smiley -

lardassdjm

I purchased a 93 NA Z convertible in july that had the wrong r/h exhaust manifold installed. the exhaust system was secured with wire and about 3 inches too far back. i bought the amz headers (they were cheaper than stock manifolds) and was surprised at how much power difference the car had at low rpms. it took me 2 weeks to remove the old manifolds and install the headers though (i only worked on it a couple of hours a night). the hardest part was getting the egr valve started and tightened correctly. what a bitch!

lardassdjm

oops i mean the egr fitting that goes to the left header.

emo236

Brad from SDZ32 had a quick NA, he said other than NOS, the mod that he got the most gains out of was the headers....period. he had stillen headers. I would think that AMZ would have just as good stuff.