polished/ported headers or equal length
 

which is better :brickwall i hear alot of people saying u get good power gains but u lose the burble with equal length but u gain a superbike sound which is good but everyone must agree thats what a scooby is about u know when ones coming down the road without seeing how many cars/bike do that

Depends what you want!
But for TD04 or a hybrid thereof, or even another turbo perhaps, the ported OE ones are bloody good. Loads on here had it done by Harvey so they will post soon i have no doubt!
I have bought some other headers when i had my work done, purely as that is what was recommended for my particular job and what i wanted out of the car.
Ported OE ones will keep your scooby burble exactly the same, i believe mine are slightly unequal length ones and so i still have a slight burble at tickover, but i love how it has changed the tone when i floor it! And another good side effect for me was i have now lost all drone at motorway speeds, so i am well happy with that. I get the best of both worlds, loads of noise when i floor it, and bugger all noise on long journeys.
But again, ported OE ones are more than good enough. And of course are so much cheaper its unreal.
I had mine ceramic coated and that and the cost of the headers makes for an expensive bill, in fact, bloody expensive.
What are you hoping to achieve torque and power wise? May be you only need ported ones?

:thumb: :thumb: i went to cornwall in it the other week and noticed that motorway drone/torque more than anythin but at same time like u just said noise when u floor it but keep the burble that noise is what scoobys are about:thumb:

MaDaSS ~ how much did it cost to get your OE Headers ported and cermaic coated ? Who did it and did you get it done to improve low end torque when going for a bigger turbo ?

I didn't get my OE ones ported.
I bought some new headers/up pipe that were then sent away by Tracktive to be ceramic coated.
I dont know where they got sent, but it was around the £300 mark to have it done.
For me that was fine, as the expense of buying wrap, and the time to do it for it to last a year or so and start to come off, not to mention if you get oil on it, it could be a hazard, i didnt want that.
And yes i changed them to get more torque as well as the turbo.
Really the ported OE ones will give you lower revs when the turbo spools up too, this is proven many times by a lot of folk on here, and hence the reason they have them ported as opposed to buying new different ones.
Just a bit of testing but i have no gauges in my car yet, my VF34 comes on song around 3500 - 3600 revs, and pulls well, but by 4000 it is pulling like a train all the way to the red line.
I do miss the lower down turbo threshold, but i am getting used to my new set up now and obviously prefer the torque i now have from this setup.

Cheers for the info MaDaSS ! :thumb:

Harvey Smith will port the oem ones for you mate. Email him for info although he's quite busy at the moment.
Worthwhile cheap mod IMHO.

I have the slightly unequal length headers from RCMS, these are prob' the best mod ive made to my classic, still got enough burble on idle, much quieter and smoother on the motorway and best of all the noise on boost is unbelievable:norty:

The burble comes from the fact that the headers are unequal. Several people have commented that the burble is deeper on headers that I have ported.
Ceramic coating on OE cast headers is not a viable proposition.
Ported OE headers and the proper uppipe will spool far earlier than tubular headers as a general rule, by 200-400 rpm.
Providing the porting is done properly with a suitable after market uppipe power outputs well over 400 bhp are not uncommon providing the car has the appropriate supporting mods.

Harvey, I understand what effect porting has, but what exactly is it that you do to the exhaust manifold ? How much does it cost and who does it in Scotland-shire?

Any time :)
We are all here to pass on what we know (which in my case fits on a postage stamp!) lol.

:lol1: :thumb:

thats what its all about i know just as much then:thumb: mate