Properly designed headers (and that doesn't necessiarly mean equal-length) can increase performance with the right tuning, but in most cases it doesn't do much.

Equal length headers do change that subaru sound to be a bit more Honda-ish. It loses that boxer-growl and gets that inline-4 whine.

 

the way i understood it is the "boxter" sound was because of unequal lenght headers.
If that is ture then yest equal lenght headers will lessen the boxter sound.
I dont believe it is true tho because front wheel drive v6 cars dont sound like boxters..
your gains.
again from what i have been told so this could be off.
I was always told the longer your runners the quicker your turbo will spool.

 

The sound is a function of the engine, not necessiarly the headers. The boxer engine has a very unique sound, which can be helped or hurt by the headers. The equal length headers can make a boxer sound like an inline or a v, but putting unequal length headers on an inline or a v motor will not make it sound like a boxer.

Its really two parts, both the engine layout and the headers.

 

I've heard a Subie with equal length headers and it doesn't have that boxer beat to it but it does sound mean, unlike Hondas. It roars like a rally car Subies have a lower, deeper exhaust note than Hondas.

 

the boxer sound definitely comes from the engine. The exhaust only masks/alters the true sound into what you hear out the tail pipe(s)

 

The BOXER BEAT is caused by the Firing order of the cylinders and the flat-4 orientation... Thats why you get that sound... Equal length headers will not ELIMINATE the sound, but make it much less apparent...

 

I agree. Think about the sound of the current crop of boxer engines like the old air-cooled VWs and the Porsche 911 variants (both air and water-cooled), neither of which sound like conventional inline fours or V-6s, respectively, equal length header primaries or not.

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0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

exactly why does the boxer sound like it does? isnt the firing order 1-3-2-4, with 1 and 3 being the pass. bank, and 2 and 4 being the drivers side bank? how many degrees apart are the crank journals? (not sure if thats the correct terminology for the part where the crank meets the con. rod.)

 

I disagee. I have used over 6 different headers on my car and none of them made my WRX sound like a Honda. Afterall, have any of you ever heard the WRC car? Whoever says it sounds like a Honda have never heard a true equal length headered WRX.

 

With whom? The last few posts, or the top post? Back me up.

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

Alex certainly isn't disagreeing with me, I said "-ish," not "exactly".

I've heard some equal length headers that sound great (Cobb, IIRC) and some that I don't like at all. Maybe not Honda-ish, but certainly not as good as the stock headers, at least in my opinion.