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PAT 3 > Issue 5: HotShot Headers
Written By: David Pitlyuk
You can never get enough performance, right? Of course not, so that's why as soon as HotShot Performance released their headers for the 3.5 Altima, we placed our orders. Not only did we get the headers for this car, but we also picked them up for Project ActiveTuning Version 1, which is an 02 3.5 Altima.
HotShot Performance offers two varieties of the headers. One is essentialy emissions legal, while the other is not. The difference? One includes a race pipe, while the other includes a high-flow cat. The way the stock setup works is the both the front and rear manifolds have pre-cats on them, and then there is the main cat. Both versions remove the pre-cats from the headers. The one difference is that there is still a main cat in one of them, and because it's a high-flow cat, we can only expect a 1-3hp loss. The headers we are putting on this car are the "legal" versions, while the ones we are putting on PAT 1 is the "illegal" version.
You may be worried about setting off the SES (Service Engine Soon) light, but luckily that didn't happen. There are 2 o2 sensors that stay on the headers. The other 2 are re-located after the cat on the high-flow cat, that way the sensors read clean air. HotShot includes 2 extensions so you can extend the 2 stock o2 sensors to reach the end of the high-flow cat.
In terms of installation, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do, so if you are an amatuer, I would highly recommend taking these to a shop to get installed. Not having the correct tools will stop you in your track anyway. It took us about 6-8 hours of straight labor to get these in. The main thing that makes it so hard is that all the bolts on the rear headers are on the rear part of the engine obviously. There is only a few inches of space to work with in-between the bolts and the firewall...not to mention all of the wires in the way.
After all is said and done, the main thing that really matters is what the performance gain was. So let's go ahead and take a look a the dyno results. Keep in mind that the car had a racepipe before, and that was changed to a high-flow cat...so the difference is all in the headers. Also, keep in mind that the original dyno was done where the temperature was 87 degrees, while this time around it's 60 degrees:
A quick thanks to eipTuning for providing the dyno.
As you can see we gained about 14hp and about 6ft/lbs tq, which is pretty impressive from solely the headers. Again, you must keep in mind the weather differences, but overall, we were very impressed by the results. You can take a look at the first dyno here.
We took the radiator out to make it easier to get the front manifold out...even though HotShot says we didn't have to
As for the sound...let's just say it's loud! We will be switching the exhaust system to the Greddy cat back, which includes a resonator. This should tone things down a bit, so look for that in a future article.
I've compiled a video of the dyno run so you can see how the car sounds. Check out the video here. Keep in mind, it is in Windows Media format, so you'll need Windows Media Player in order to view it.
In our next issue expect new wheels to be on the car, and possibly even the Greddy exhaust system.
Once again, thanks to eipTuning for providing the dynos. If you are interested in doing a dyno run on your car, check them out online or give them a call at 1-800-784-8100 and ask to speak to Rich. Make sure to tell them you heard about them from ActiveTuning!
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