are they really worth it? if so whats the best brand to buy that gives you best bang for your buck? i have a 99 xj and im tossing a new engine in it, and slightly building the new one and figure this is a good spot to look into. any opinions/thoughts would be great! thanks

 

if you can find one an APN cheapest bang for the buck if not a rugged ridge one or a drake offroad next cheapest and if combined with intake, injectors, tb, cat back, etc...yes they do make a difference and wont crack like stockies

 

x2 for the APN. Best price you can find.





APN left vs stock on right.
Sorry for the crappy pic.

 

never heard of APN? i found the rugged ridge one on ebay for around 155 plus shipping. will apn be considerably cheaper?

 

http://www.ineedparts.com/apn-jeep-e...-manifold.html

As far as I know, they could be made by the same folks.. seems a lot of parts are. About the same price, comes with gaskets and decent instructions for torque values and tightening order.

 

is that an apn intake mani on the left? whered you get it and how much was that? i was thinking that would be a good investment, but anything over 160-170 for it is eh worthy. ill just go pick n pull a lesser miled one and clean it.

 

Why is the apn so much cheaper than some other big name brands? I was looking into headers to replace the stock manifold but I'm also looking for power gains and some exhaust sound improvement. I was comparing these with Gibson stainless headers, which are about $200 more. I'm a firm believer in "you get what you pay for" but I've never heard anything bad about the apn headers and its hard to justify spending more than double on the shiny headers

 

I agree with the "you get what you pay for" idea with pretty much everything important. But I could not find any reason not to buy the APN. Every review I could find made it sound like a quality part. Not sure why this is different, may just be that it does not have the same brand name, therefore no real costs associated with it like national companies... best guess.

And yes, the APN is on the left. Stock on right.
Edit: the website for it is in my above post.

 

so what would you guys say is a better brand for the price? APN? or rugged ridge? both in the 180 range shipped, so if one is actually better then the other im willing to spend the extra cash

 

Tough call without knowing more about the RR. I would say read as many reviews as you can for each. I don't think there will be any significant differences that you will notice. Just try to make the best educated decision you can and go with it.

 

The APN header is a great deal. I almost bought that one but decided to go with a Borla because they send a mandrel bent back pipe with the header. Even though it cost a substantial amount more than the APN, it has a great warranty and IMO is worth the extra money spent to have the quality and replace the crushed xj back pipe!
But if you don't mind the stock system, from the header back, go with the APN!

Here are some pics of the Borla that I got, just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Stock (crushed) down pipe:

 

Oowee those look good. How much did you pick those up for? With the down pipe and warranty I could deal. How do they sound?

 

Picked them up for just around $500

Sounds like a lot compared to the APN... Because it is haha. But it replaces the ENTIRE system before the cat. IMO worth the extra money.

Before I put the cat and muffler back on, it sounded SOO mean!
And even with a muffler, HOLY *****! I would never dream of going back to stock!

 

I definitely debated going with Borla before discovering the APN. If money isn't a huge thing, I'd suggest doing that considering it comes with a downpipe with it. IIRC summitracing.com had the best price I could find on the Borla header if that's the route you want to go

 

Yeah that was the lowest price I found as well... However, a lot of dealers will beat competitors lowest prices. So what you can do is get another dealer to beat that price and then you really come out on top!!