have an 032.5rs,curious on the sound from borla headers,thinking of getting some soon,know they will be loud while on the throttle. i'm more curious on sound on cruise.dont want it to be to intrusive into the cabin on long trips.mods are ganzflow cai,spt subaru muffler. future mod in a week is 2.25exhaust from the cat back.also,should i be worrying about check engine lights with this mod if the ecu gets reset?any insight would be greatly appreciated.thanx

 

I put Borla Headers and catback on my Legacy two months ago. I also had a custom 2.5" peice of stainless bent for my cat pipe. I had a Northstar converter placed in the cat pipe to ensure a free flowing exhaust. With the above pieces the Borla is very tolerable at 70+ mph on the highway. Exhaust note gurbles a little more between 55 and 70 while cruising but not much more. Exhaust sounds great at wide open. As an aside regarding Borla quality, I have had a full borla exhaust on my 370hp Ford product for 10 years now and it is as good as new and still sounds great. Good Luck.

 

Unless I installed mine wrong (i checked for any loose ends or leaks, none) I get a very choppy, harley like sound out of the headers. There is also the deep grumble that I love but at WOT you can really hear the "Harley" effect. Takes a while to get used to. But don't get me wrong, I love these headers.

 

Stock, the Borla has a quiet, quiet rumble. You will really have to hear closely to hear the low frequency sounds. Sounds better than stock which is whinny. I believe that if you have high flow cats and a hi flow muffler it should sound a lot louder, but not much at cruising speed. I installed one recently and I believe that it is quieter because note is lower rather than high and whinny. The engine runs suprisingly smoother. Got a bit low end loss, not much. Has more power overall. It's not going to be a big difference unless you change other parts of exhaust also. The intake change was more noticeable, but both mods go hand in hand.

 

what about any cels like a 420,i sholdn't have to worry about that with stock cats should i?

 

No CELs for headers, maybe for the cat change.

 

The Borla is a nice low rumble at cruising speed, and it's fairly loud at WOT, a lot louder than stock, or the brospeed one I had before. I'm impressed with it.

 

I've got the Borla header sitting here waiting to go on. My impressions on it aren't that great from looking at the welds and the porting done on the inside of the pipes. Its welded only on the inside of the flange where it meets the pipe and not on the inside and outside. I would have thought that the things learned from the turbo world would have been passed along like putting the metal tabs on the welds where the piping meets the flange. The metal tabs reduce the amount of stress and flexing that the welds would see which lowers the chances of cracking. The welds on the inside of the flange also were really half assed when grinded down to smooth out air flow. I'll have to give it a touch up myself cause two of the welds look like crap. If you can find a shop to do it get a EGT bung welded on if you plan to go turbo later on as well as a bung for a wide band O2 sensor. Then either get it ceramic coated or wrap it in exhaust wrap to trap in the heat to reduce the chances of a check engine light or heating and cooler too fast. For the price the Borlas are fine but be aware that they might not be the best design out there.

 

I agree...the welds on mine looked like crap.
Everyone seems to say it made their engine more quiet????
Mine is considerably louder...
And am i the only one that gets the "choppy" motorcycle-like sound? It's a loud sound and starting to concern me

 

Do you have a high-flow cat? How about an aftermarket muffler? If you do, then that is why it's louder. If everything else is stock, then maybe your ears are more sensitive than mine or there is a leak. Did you put on new gaskets when you installed the headers?

 

Forestar-No i don't have a high flow cat but I do have a Stromung. And yes I have new gaskets.
My setup: MY02RS Injen CAI->Borla->Stock Cats&Midpipe->Stromung

Kosta-Thanks, the only thing is that I don't think you heard it at WOT. That's where the "different" sound comes from.

So what would an exhaust leak sound like, if you don't mind my asking.

 

When installing anything on the Subies you first have decide what you want from the upgrade. On the the issues of Borla headers, the company has been around a long, long time and I have used them on muscle cars for years with no problems and if there is a problem the company stands behind the product. My first choice when putting headers on my 2000 2.5RS were Borlas. They install in less then an hour, sound like a small V8 and add a smoothness throughout the powerband, without a loss of torque to the low end. Cel problems may occur however, wrapping the headers are not the answer, and may void the guarrantee. The CEl problem should be addressed with a Cel fix kit from Cobb. Comparing Borlas to equal length headers are pointless,because equal length header's strength is usually mid and high powerband with a loss of low end punch, which is Subie's biggest asset. Most Subies from 0 to 30 can keep up with anything and lets face it with just the installation of headers, you are not going to get a high end beast. Also alot of the equal length headers when installed block normal maintenance, ie. oil filter, tranny drain plug etc. At under $ 300.00 and a header that directly bolts to the stock cat, the Borlas are a no brainer.