Review - Buddy Club B Series Header & Buddy Club Spec III Exhaust

[felixR]

1. The pieces of the puzzle.



2. The beautiful tri-y header (sourced from JDMyard).



3. The not so beautiful 4-2 part of the standard header.



4. A restrictive part of the standard b pipe.



5. Axleback on the car (with grease).



6. Middle section of b-pipe bolted onto the zigzag section of the b-pipe.



7. Zigzag section of the b-pipe bolted onto the axleback.



8. Keep out! Welders in action! Hiding...



9. The flywheel cover was removed to fit the header. A B16A flywheel cover needs to be sourced to cover the hole.

[felixR]

10. When Brad tried to bolt on the Buddy Club header to the block, he could not bolt it on because the holes didn't line up. In the below picture you can see what Brad was talking about (some of the holes not lining up with the gasket). Brad hand filed the holes to make them slightly bigger.



11. The header is finally fitted.



12. A closer look at the springs



13. The gasket was spinning loose around the circle bit. Brad used black tape (as you can see) around the circle to make it a tight fit for the gasket.



14. Buddy Club test pipe, SMSP cat & Honda exhaust gasket (in the plastic bag, as above)



15. Brad in action.



16. Test pipe is chopped and awesome welding was performed by Brad.



17. And again.



18. Short cat completed.



19. Brad removed the hanger that holds onto the below bracket because it doesn't line up. I got the car serviced after the install and Dedy from Top One custom bent the hanger so it can bolt onto the bracket. It is strongly recommended that the hanger is bolted onto the header bracket to prevent cracks and exhaust leaks!

[felixR]

20. Bling & power in the engine bay!



21. Bling again!



Things to note:

1. You need to source a B16A flywheel cover.
2. You need to custom bend the block hanger so it can bolt onto bracket (see note 19).
3. Might need to file the holes so it lines up with the block (see note 10).

Is it worth the trouble? Do I like it? I LOVE IT! The car feels so much better with gain throughout the whole range (especially in VTEC attack mode) and the dyno sheet below explains it all! No more asthma attack! The engine revs more freely and the sound from the BC3 is awesome (no more piss weak standard exhaust). The AFR looks much better in the top end too!

Dyno Notes:
- The car has an intake installed (custom injen style).
- The car had a full standard exhaust ("before" power run).
- The "after" power run was done right after the full BC exhaust install (a drive down the M5) from Padstow to Rockdale.



THANKS THANKS THANKS
- JDMyard for the header
- Westside Mufflers for the install
- Top One for the custom bending of the bracket

[3r1k]

Nice pictures there, beautiful products there by Buddy Club.
Very nice review and what a gain!!!!

Awesome

P.S: Just small note regarding the header hanger, when I bought my header (F-series) the shop (ASM) recommended me NOT to use the hanger as it will crack the header in the long run due to the amount of vibration going through the header. It might not apply for B-series header but just letting you know.

Erik

[supernatural]

nice review and definitely a good gain... well done!!

[De_Cruelz]

Now this is what you call a review, plenty of pics and good coverage

Good job Felix, very pro review!

[eg5]

You might be able to run JDM integra header hanger
Nice review

[norma]

Niceeeeeeeeeeee!
What did you have before Felix?
Can I drive it?

Actually, I'm not online a lot these days. I'm only here because you send me the link showoff! :P
Next mod: headwork.

[SPL_K]

great review and definitely awesome gains (Y)!

[lovesil]

Don't know about you guys, but the amount of custom work required to fit the mod, seems abit.......hmmm.....isn't Jap parts meant to be straight direct bolt on??

Either way, good to see you gain quite abit of HP, although i'm shocked to see your original 98 fwkw....??

[hebe]

Stock DC2Rs usually dyno around that figure Ryan....closer to the 100 mark...

Nice review Felix...

I want a spin

[Jim80y]

Nice review Felix...so have you dragged Di to test it out properly yet?? LOL jk

Di will probably still win haha

Very good gains, all you need now is more mid-range.

*cough* Spec Bs *cough*

[markR]

awesome review felix!
very nice gain too!
although, picture no. 6, is that a scratch on your resinator?

[kavehman]

I would have been a bit dissapointed with that, the buddyclub header should have fit just as well as an authentic hytech.

The replica headers which you pick up for a lot less, fit the same. All probably made in the same factory.

I am just wondering why the ITR tranny brace was built the way it was and if any long term damage would result from goign without it... That was my reason for getting rid of the hytech replica I had.

Did you end up getting your cat from smsp ?

[RichyR]

Nice review felix. As I said to you before, awesome gain.... Now it's time to tune it