Banks vs. Borla

1997XJ, 4.0L, 231J, AW-4, 3" Lift, 30x9.5 MTR's, daily driver, some offroad.

I need to order a header today, stock manifold is cracked badly.

I need to decide between a Borla and a Banks.

I need opinions and experiences.

Borla and Banks use different grades of Stainless- does this matter?
Borla provides the downpipe too. Does this matter?
I am looking for low end torque and hopefully improved gas mileage.
(My tachometer at 75MPH is only about 2500 RPM)

Any opinions are appreciated.
(I will be ordering a high-flow cat too but haven't decided which one)
(After all this is installed I'll look into the Cat-Back choices.)

Thanks,

Jeff-97XJ

I'm very pleased with my borla header and downpipe. The quality of the welds look excellent as well. I couldn't tell you if it made any differences to torque or mileage as I replaced everything from the mechanical fan to the very tips of the exhaust all at once with a 4.6 liter stroker, borla, hi flow cat, and 2.5" stainless exhaust.

The head flange fit on the borla was supberb. the downpipe sits a little lower than stock, and the front drive shaft universal can interfere with it. In my application a 1990 MJ, a slight tweak at the end of the downpipe was required to get the cat flange to mount up with the bracket attached to the transmission mount.

It should be noted that Borla does not list a header for either an XJ or MJ for 1990 with an Automatic, this may be the reason for the slight tweak required at the end of the downpipe.

Here is a pic of my stroker being built with the borla installed.



Be prepared for a louder exhaust system when you are done!

I have a Borla header and downpipe in my 88XJ along with a K@N. Runs really smooth and sounds good. Plenty of low end, I wouldnt bet on getting better mileage though. I think I get about 14 combined.

Banks prides themself on the super thick flange that should never warp or crack.
When I bought mine the down pipe was not available. If the down pipe is still unavailable get the Borla.

Got my Banks last week, and the down pipe was still unavailable. Last year, I replaced everything down pipe to tail pipe so, the Banks seemed like a good deal at $365 from 4x4GroupBuy as opposed to about $500 for the Borla. Trying to keep money in the regearing fund. . .

tetsulo said:

I'm very pleased with my borla header and downpipe. The quality of the welds look excellent as well.

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Really? How long ago did you get it?
I looked at a Borla the other day and the welds looked like pure seagull turds.

Jes said:

Really? How long ago did you get it?
I looked at a Borla the other day and the welds looked like pure seagull turds.

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I have owned the header for 3 months and have been driving it for about a month. I researched options for renix engine headers and found the options limited (Not that that applies to this fellow). I searched Naxja extensively for information regarding the Borla prior to purchasing. I was hard pressed to find anything negative. Sure some people said Banks, or Pacesetter, or whatever, but I couldn't seem to find conclusive info on the Borla being of poor quality or workmanship.

Inspection of the welds looked good to me. But I am not a weld expert. But they appear smooth and uniform and well joined to the tubes to my eye. Next to the stock exhaust manifold/header the welds look like precision surgery.

Here is a high resolution pic of my header on the engine. Lighting was less than ideal and I had to crank up the ISO to get any contrast at all with my Nikon. Are these welds the same or better as the borla that you saw?

I have a Borla that I've had on my 91 4.0L for about a year now and I've had descent luck so far. Good sounds, some power but nothing really on the gas mileage end. I will concure with one of the earlier posts that I was fairly unimpressed with the Borla welds but it seems to be holding up so far. I had a friend with a set of Borla headers on his Subaru and they kept cracking on him. Banks I know makes a good product but if you don't have a way to get a downpipe, I can see it as a problem. If you can take care of that inconvience I'd go with the Banks, but the Borla is still a nice system.

Borla....5+years....NO ISSUES.

Rev

I had a major issue with the borla. After trying just about everything to fix my exaust leak it turns out they sent me the wrong gasket. I searched the internet and found many other people with the same problem. They sometimes send the 4.2l gasket by mistake somehow even if you order for the 4.0. Once I installed the new gasket the exaust has been great, just make sure you line up the gasket to the intake before you install and waste 2 hrs of install time and 5 in diagnostics.

jeep1947 said:

I had a major issue with the borla. After trying just about everything to fix my exaust leak it turns out they sent me the wrong gasket. I searched the internet and found many other people with the same problem. They sometimes send the 4.2l gasket by mistake somehow even if you order for the 4.0. Once I installed the new gasket the exaust has been great, just make sure you line up the gasket to the intake before you install and waste 2 hrs of install time and 5 in diagnostics.

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My borla shipped with two gaskets -- one with raised intake ports, and one which worked with my renix head. I assumed the other one was for a HO setup?

Matthew