BHR LongTube Header Install and Review
 

In July of last year I was reached out to by Charles (BHR) in regards to his then prototype designed long tube header. After some brief conversations about my car, setup and his views on the market and desired outputs it was agreed upon that I would be given the chance to get my hands on one of his products before it went to market. Ultimately 3 people including myself where chosen to field test a pre-market edition of this header, I have been in direct contact with the other two field testers (who at this time I will not divulge names, but if they feel to comment below that is their choice). So far to my knowledge this is the second header to be fit onto a S1 chassis, the first being the one Charles dyno tested some months back. Ultimately as my schedule shifts wildly depending on m business requirements I was only able to be home for a quick 4 weeks this December and have been avidly working on this since the start of the month.

Black Halo Long Tube Header, whats in the box?

• BHR Long Tube Header
• BHR Midpipe
• Engine-Header OR Gasket
• Engine-Header Nuts
• Header-Midpipe 2ply gasket
• Header-Midpipe Bolts
• Midpipe-Catback Donut Gasket
• Midpipe-Catback Spring Bolts

Install

My initial perception of the install was like most headers we have, drop the passenger motor mount remove the old install the new. Unfortunately this was not the case. In order to install the header I had to remove both motor mounts and push the engine to the drive side of the engine bay and it was a very tight fit, I did notice that if you remove the header stud from the bottom of the rear iron exhaust port that it frees up a lot of room on the install. Just be sure you install the stud again and sink it into the iron before you try to bolt the header to thee engine. Depending on individual skill level I would give this header a 2-4 hour install time depending if you have a lift or jackstands

Fitment

The header was originally designed on the chassis of a stock S1, then (and I may be wrong) transferred over to a jig to make the 3 pre-market products. As my car is no where near a stock S1 I did run into 2 installation fitment issues which did require some modifications in order to overcome.

The first fitment issue was the downstream O2 sensor would hit the tail of the S2 trans, as this was never tested with the bigger S2 trans, which has much more reinforced ribbing at the tail then the S1 trans this issue is due to this. A simple 15 degree rotation of the bung location can correct this issue, but as I did not have that option I decided to notch the trans ribbing enough to clear the end of the sensor loom.

Res1

Res2

Awesome. Can't wait for dyno results since your engine on the stronger side.

Awesome!

Nice heat shield solution!

nice

Good write up . Carbon ... are the pipe diameters the same between those two headers ? 13/4" ?

BHR supposedly is 1-7/8"

Tubing is usuly referenced as OD though so wall thickness comes into play. 16 Ga. (1/16" thick) is common unless using T321 or Inconel then it can be thinner and still have strength.

Pipe fittings (common for turbo manifolds due to thicker wall and lower cost) are referenced as ID.

Cheers Team . The BHR looks slightly bigger than the other header so I'm guessing the other one is 13/4" OD..........

im assuming that it's just because of a prototype, but interesting that the transitions between the flange and the tubes isn't smoothed out.

Most are 1.75" OD x 16 Ga.

Have seen some JDM that are smaller. Mine is 2" OD x 18 Ga

Nice, I too can't wait for dyno results.

Hopefully, because the subframe modification won't be legal in some racing classes either


.

I never thought about this, do you know what classes?

We think we know why this happened and will confirm after the investigation is complete. I do have visual confirmation that this issue was not present on the original header that was installed and tested.

Stock, Street Touring, Street Prepared come to mind ...

but probably no BFD unless you are competing at the National Level

The BHR long-tube header we tested on my RX8 here in Phoenix did not have that fitment issue at all. We did have to remove both motor mounts for the install, but we did not experience the fitment issue #2 you mentioned above. We did not have to cut/modify the subframe whatsoever. If that was the case, I would have not let Charles proceed any further, LOL.

Perhaps your fitment issue had to do with existing modifications to your car?

Not sure:dunno:

In regards to the tone, I also noticed that it was quieter/smoother than I thought - at least that's what I noticed when we moved the car from the lift to the dyno room next to the shop after the installation was done. But I had my OE exhaust/muffler, so you should take that into account. Once my car was on the dyno it was difficult to evaluate the tone. As usual, you run into a lot of echo into those dyno rooms. So it would be hard for me to offer a fair assessment with the car under high RPMs inside an enclosed room.

We did not get to test the long-tube header on the road, since this was just fitment test and dyno run. So I cannot comment on the tone you might get driving on the road or racing your car. Plus there are other variables such the type of muffler you have, etc. But I suspect the BHR header will produce a pleasant tone regardless.

It has been confirmed, the pre-market headers that went out for testing are different then the one fitted to your car.

The rear iron runner is staggered about 10mm lower than the inside runner causing thee sub-frame issue. The header fit on your car both runners where level and higher up. We are not sure exactly how this came to pass but are looking into it at this time.

They are handbuilt by people...shit happens sometimes :uhh:

The trick is always what happens when there is an issue...something you have always been good at solving

S2 owner here and avid autocrosser. This is definitely not legal for my class, but following this all the same. Looking forward to the results!

I'd love to give this a shot on my car once it's ready for market and, for better or worse, there's no emissions testing where I live. I'd be willing to change classes for this setup.

(And I'll be ordering my BHR ignition kit in the next few weeks)

Has this been tested on a S2? The differences are subtle, but like Carbon mentioned, the transmission being different caused some issues with fitment. Wonder if anything else gets in the way.

I don't see why it would not fit. But if Charles wants to test fit one I have an R3 parts car in my driveway that is pretty much complete except for body panels that it could easily be tested on :)

I wonder, perhaps, if it was damaged in shipping and ended up bent enough to make the fitment messed up like that? Could be something that simple. Just my 2 cents.

Im only going by the transmission/o2 sensor fitment that Carbon ran into.

Was a minor issue and can be fixed using a couple different methods, people running this header at the same time I would not imagine the need for a downstream O2.