96 Celica headers question

[jr007]

Did the 96 Celica (ST202, 3S-GE) come with factory mandrel-bent headers, or a cast manifold?
My car has fairly nice looking headers, but not sure if they're factory.

Also, the exhust pipe isn't particularly large, but is also mandrel bent. Is that standard? It's looks fairly well done, but is small and quiet, not normal procedure for aftermarket work

[RomanV]

Factory headers.

Of course, people to love to fix what aint broke and swap them for something shittier like a crappy aftermarket 4-1 or something.

[DeeCee]

Pictures would help. The gen3 3sge headers i have on the shelf are bent pipe welded onto a cast flange which go 4 into 2 which feeds into 1. They also have bosses for mounting the headshield on to.

[jr007]

^^That's mine. Thanks guys.

[gt4dude]

no there should be no crush bends in your headers, the *-GE engines of that era all had good factory headers, the only thing to upgrade was 2.25 inches mandrel from the B pipe back

there was no sense upgrading the headers unless it had a port&polish+valve job done to meet the new wider diameter headers, which going that route means building a high-rev 3sge which is a very expensive way of tuning a celica compared to swapping in a beams or 3sgte.

different story if it was a 3sfe though which has rubbish headers

[MilfHunter]

Gen2/3 headers look similar but the gen3 has cast collectors and the exhaust port spacing is different.
The gen2 headers are a direct swap and huge improvement on 3-5-SFE & Gen1 3S-GE motors, gen3 headers do not fit the 3-5S-FE
A little off-topic, but usefull to some