beese

Hey tc'ers, I've got an 09' tc1, and I'm trying to figure out what the best catless headers are. I'm running the TRD axleback exhaust, which sounds wonderful by itself, and is nice and quiet and has an oem+ feel. Recently, my buddy gave me catless headers off of his totaled tc, and when I put them on, it made it crazy loud and awfully raspy and tinny. I get that catless headers are gonna make it louder regardless, but does limited flow with an oem midpipe change the tone? And does anybody have recommendations for catless headers that sound good with the TRD exhaust? I have no clue what brand my current headers are, there are no markings at all.

drizzoh

So off the bat, your car isn't going to be fast because of exhaust mods. Just get whatever sounds the best to your ears. Catless headers rasp BAD.

The best (for performance) catless header was the Dezod red, but they're long gone. Dezod green was the best header I'd recommend - being that it's the same as the red but with a high flow cat (absolutely worth -2hp to not have the rasp).

The TRD Axleback sounds nice by itself but rasps with a midpipe, with a header it will rasp also. I think even a catless header w/ full stock exhaust after it will rasp. If you change the midpipe get one with as many resonators as will fit on it. That will be your best bet if you want to keep the catless header. IMO, ditch the catless header, the minimal performance gain is not worth the noise.

beese

Thank you for the advice!! I understand that catless headers aren’t gonna push much more horsepower, but I heard that they’re helpful with increasing the power added from a cold air intake (which I have). Also, I plan on getting a tune relatively soon… how does all of that play in?

drizzoh

They reduce restriction, so yes power potential increases, but the power difference you get from catless vs catted does not make the catless noise worthwhile. I'd run stock exhaust over a catless setup any day of the week on these cars. I hate sounding like a Honda.

A tune.. tunes it - alters the ECU parameters to be optimized to the new setup. Often times you can get more power with just a tune on a stock car than you can with bolt-ons, but the most power when they're tuned to work together. The big thing before with tunes was that they would eliminate the CEL from running catless setups but that is generally not the case anymore since the EPA got involved (at least with off-the-shelf tunes). Tunes aren't just for power though if they do it right. Peak numbers don't really mean anything on a street car outside of conversation, what you want is drivability and if the tuner does a thorough tune the car will drive much better than it does currently.

beese

Awesome. And yeah I’d much prefer a quieter daily as opposed to sounding like the average honda, was just curious if there’s a good in between. Thanks for your help.

drizzoh

As far as a good dd setup, you can't really beat what I'm running. tC2's rasp pretty bad too, but my set has none. Dezod Green header > Megan S pipe > stock midpipe > Tanabe Medalion axleback. Great tone when you're getting on it, otherwise pretty tame with very minimal drone. A custom midpipe is all I'd consider as the only availalable offering (Megan) rasps uncontrollably, but for the minimal hp gain I'd have (likely 2-whp), the $ isn't worth it just to say I changed it.

If you want to keep that header, I'd start with swapping out that TRD axleback for something with a much bigger muffler, pretty much the biggest you can get. That should help cut down on some of the noise. The TRD has a really slim muffler though, which doesn't do anything but amplify the noise that header generates.