Anybody running a PaceSetter header?

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Dom Pirinchinci

New member
Anybody running the Pacesetter header for the 3G Civic Si? I need a replacement for our mangled 4-1 header, and the price is right ($130) on the PaceSetter tri-Y.

Actually, we run in ITC with the CVCC head, so my plan is to swap the flanges from my current header over to the new one, and bend primaries as needed...unless somebody knows where to get a good header for the CVCC version.... I don't have OPM-type $$$ right now!
 
If you want to run the Pacesetter I don't think you have to change anything with the flanges. I have a Si and a CVCC head sitting on my workbench at home and a Pacesetter sitting in my junk parts pile so if need be I can check this tonight.

If you do not wrap the header with header tape and you spend a lot of time cleaning up the crappy welds and ports on the Pacesetter it might be alright to run. The Pacesetter is generally very poorly built and rust through in no time. I had a bunch of splatter and welding material clogging up the ports and a big clump of welding "junk" with a 1 1/2" long piece of MIG wire hanging off the inside of the O2 bung on the one I bought. I was really disapointed but for $100 what do you expect.

Now DC and Chikana (sp?) have a header that is somewhere in price between the Pacesetter and the OPM header. Form what I hear they are also somewhere in between in quality as well. I have not seen the OPM unit but I tossed my Pacesetter in favor of the DC Unit and it is 50 times better than the Pacesetter. As with almost any header for the Si you will have to do some bending or just replace the DX pan with an Si oil pan to get it to fit.

Jason F.
 
As far as the head ports are concerned, a header for a Carb'd CRX/Civic (ITC) is the same as the first generation CRX/Civic Si. The problem with most mass produced headers (I know the DC header is this way) is that they are designed for the Si which requires a different oil pan for clearance if used on the carb'd engine. The good news is that you can get an Si oil pan from a bone yard and it will fit just fine. Morosso makes a beautiful 5.5 qt aluminum fully baffled oil pan that fits either engine, and provides the clearence required to run the Si header.
Per the GCR any oil pan can be used.
The OPM header is designed to fit the carb'd engine with the stock oil pan so it can be used with the carb'd or Si engine. This applies to first gen only!!!
 
I have not treid these ones yet but the AIRMASS blue headers look interesting? The price seems good on them too. Like I said I haven't tried them or no much about them other than they have blue ceramic coating on them???
 
If I swap over to an Si pan, do I need the Si oil pick-up as well? I have an Si parts car, but it's not here at my house, so I don't know how different the two pans are....
 
No, the stock pick-up will work just fine. The difference is in the design of the narrow end of the pan. The Si pan is much shallower, so the exhaust runs closer. The deep end of the pan is the same. Don't know why Honda made two different designs. While you have the pan off, it is a good idea to lock-tite the bolts that hold the pick-up in place. A friend of mine (and fellow ITC racer) had one of the bolts back-out and get picked up by the crank. Wiped out the block. I made sure mine were lock-tited after that.
 
The 85-87 Si oil pan is a better design for road racing since the sump area is smaller than the 84-87 CVCC oil pan. The other thing that's nice about using the Si pan is that a header can be built with the collector centered in the tunnel to where the tubing can be straight and still not get in the way of the shift linkage. So, even if you get a header that will work with the CVCC pan use the Si pan.
 
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