Car questions
Car questions
Here's another question from a guy who doesn't know anything about cars. What is the difference between headers and side pipes? Which ads more horse power? What options are there for increasing the HP of a car without installing a super or turbo charger? I can't help but wonder if Mel Gibson has ever glanced at pages such as this. I'm surprised he never had a interceptor replica made, just for the heck of it. Its not like he can't afford it. Lastly, have a nice day.
Re: Car questions
In Reply to: Car questions posted by Loki on July 21, 1999 at 20:19:40:
Sidepipes and headers are two different things. Sidepipes are mererly exhausts pipe(s) (and sometimes mufflers) that are mounted on the SIDES of a car, usually just under the doors. The act of mounting the pipes "outboard" really has so significance with respect to power, however most sidepipes tend to be on higher performance cars and/or are made to present less restriction in exhaust flow (usually with more noise) which will give you a little (5%)more power because the engine is doing less work to push out the exhaust. Sidepipes also have a performance image because it is a lot easier to simply run you exhaust out in the open rather than perform lost of tricky bend under the car and around suspension bits. Many hot-rodders and racers in the early day found that the easiest way to go, so the performance image remain. It is definitely more of an "old school" approach to performance.
Headers are a term loosely applied to higher performance exhaust manifold. An exhaust manifold is the exhaust component that gets the exhaust from each individual cylinder to the main exhaust pipe. In the majority of cars the design of the Exh man. is a compromise between cost, power, and space, I don't know what kind of car you have, but on most Front wheel drive cars it can be hard to see one, on a RWD car, especially a pickup truck, you can usually see the exhaust manifold alongside the engine . It will look sort of like a cast iron pipe or log with little side branches going to each cylinder exhaust port. It works, its cheap, it is reliable, but it doensn;t let the engine do its best work because it "strangles" the motor a little bit and each cylinder "sees" a differing amount of resistance. Headers are typicall made of tubular steel and consist on equal lenght tubes with minimum constrictions going to each cylinder port. They improve performance by 1) offering less resistance to exhaust flow, 2) letting each cylinder exhale equally 3) and in some case, the design of the header actually lets the exhaust "pulse" of one branch assist in the "pulling" of exhaust from another. Go to summitracing.com and you can see plenty of headers, you will probably note how much more smooth the headers look than the std. exh manifold.
Which adds more power? I hope it is obvious. (the headers). Probably up to 15% or so. PS more noise does not mean more power. Test of some cars with straight pipe (no mufflers) vs low-restriction mufflers have shown LESS hp without mufflers. It is too bad the a-holes riding Harleys with straight pipes didn't realize this.
Re your question, well "how fast do you want to go"? easy fixups to get more power involve better breathing and exhaust. Low restriction air filter (K&N very popular), headers (yes) and low restriction exhaust give pretty good bang-for-buck. And they usually sound pretty good. Plus, good state of tune, plugs wires.
May you also have a nice day.
Sidepipes and headers are two different things. Sidepipes are mererly exhausts pipe(s) (and sometimes mufflers) that are mounted on the SIDES of a car, usually just under the doors. The act of mounting the pipes "outboard" really has so significance with respect to power, however most sidepipes tend to be on higher performance cars and/or are made to present less restriction in exhaust flow (usually with more noise) which will give you a little (5%)more power because the engine is doing less work to push out the exhaust. Sidepipes also have a performance image because it is a lot easier to simply run you exhaust out in the open rather than perform lost of tricky bend under the car and around suspension bits. Many hot-rodders and racers in the early day found that the easiest way to go, so the performance image remain. It is definitely more of an "old school" approach to performance.
Headers are a term loosely applied to higher performance exhaust manifold. An exhaust manifold is the exhaust component that gets the exhaust from each individual cylinder to the main exhaust pipe. In the majority of cars the design of the Exh man. is a compromise between cost, power, and space, I don't know what kind of car you have, but on most Front wheel drive cars it can be hard to see one, on a RWD car, especially a pickup truck, you can usually see the exhaust manifold alongside the engine . It will look sort of like a cast iron pipe or log with little side branches going to each cylinder exhaust port. It works, its cheap, it is reliable, but it doensn;t let the engine do its best work because it "strangles" the motor a little bit and each cylinder "sees" a differing amount of resistance. Headers are typicall made of tubular steel and consist on equal lenght tubes with minimum constrictions going to each cylinder port. They improve performance by 1) offering less resistance to exhaust flow, 2) letting each cylinder exhale equally 3) and in some case, the design of the header actually lets the exhaust "pulse" of one branch assist in the "pulling" of exhaust from another. Go to summitracing.com and you can see plenty of headers, you will probably note how much more smooth the headers look than the std. exh manifold.
Which adds more power? I hope it is obvious. (the headers). Probably up to 15% or so. PS more noise does not mean more power. Test of some cars with straight pipe (no mufflers) vs low-restriction mufflers have shown LESS hp without mufflers. It is too bad the a-holes riding Harleys with straight pipes didn't realize this.
Re your question, well "how fast do you want to go"? easy fixups to get more power involve better breathing and exhaust. Low restriction air filter (K&N very popular), headers (yes) and low restriction exhaust give pretty good bang-for-buck. And they usually sound pretty good. Plus, good state of tune, plugs wires.
May you also have a nice day.
Thanks for the information
In Reply to: Re: Car questions posted by AN on July 21, 1999 at 21:38:49:
Thanks for the info, you certainly know your stuff.
: Sidepipes and headers are two different things. Sidepipes are mererly exhausts pipe(s) (and sometimes mufflers) that are mounted on the SIDES of a car, usually just under the doors. The act of mounting the pipes "outboard" really has so significance with respect to power, however most sidepipes tend to be on higher performance cars and/or are made to present less restriction in exhaust flow (usually with more noise) which will give you a little (5%)more power because the engine is doing less work to push out the exhaust. Sidepipes also have a performance image because it is a lot easier to simply run you exhaust out in the open rather than perform lost of tricky bend under the car and around suspension bits. Many hot-rodders and racers in the early day found that the easiest way to go, so the performance image remain. It is definitely more of an "old school" approach to performance.
: Headers are a term loosely applied to higher performance exhaust manifold. An exhaust manifold is the exhaust component that gets the exhaust from each individual cylinder to the main exhaust pipe. In the majority of cars the design of the Exh man. is a compromise between cost, power, and space, I don't know what kind of car you have, but on most Front wheel drive cars it can be hard to see one, on a RWD car, especially a pickup truck, you can usually see the exhaust manifold alongside the engine . It will look sort of like a cast iron pipe or log with little side branches going to each cylinder exhaust port. It works, its cheap, it is reliable, but it doensn;t let the engine do its best work because it "strangles" the motor a little bit and each cylinder "sees" a differing amount of resistance. Headers are typicall made of tubular steel and consist on equal lenght tubes with minimum constrictions going to each cylinder port. They improve performance by 1) offering less resistance to exhaust flow, 2) letting each cylinder exhale equally 3) and in some case, the design of the header actually lets the exhaust "pulse" of one branch assist in the "pulling" of exhaust from another. Go to summitracing.com and you can see plenty of headers, you will probably note how much more smooth the headers look than the std. exh manifold.
:
: Which adds more power? I hope it is obvious. (the headers). Probably up to 15% or so. PS more noise does not mean more power. Test of some cars with straight pipe (no mufflers) vs low-restriction mufflers have shown LESS hp without mufflers. It is too bad the a-holes riding Harleys with straight pipes didn't realize this.
: Re your question, well "how fast do you want to go"? easy fixups to get more power involve better breathing and exhaust. Low restriction air filter (K&N very popular), headers (yes) and low restriction exhaust give pretty good bang-for-buck. And they usually sound pretty good. Plus, good state of tune, plugs wires.
: May you also have a nice day.
Thanks for the info, you certainly know your stuff.
: Sidepipes and headers are two different things. Sidepipes are mererly exhausts pipe(s) (and sometimes mufflers) that are mounted on the SIDES of a car, usually just under the doors. The act of mounting the pipes "outboard" really has so significance with respect to power, however most sidepipes tend to be on higher performance cars and/or are made to present less restriction in exhaust flow (usually with more noise) which will give you a little (5%)more power because the engine is doing less work to push out the exhaust. Sidepipes also have a performance image because it is a lot easier to simply run you exhaust out in the open rather than perform lost of tricky bend under the car and around suspension bits. Many hot-rodders and racers in the early day found that the easiest way to go, so the performance image remain. It is definitely more of an "old school" approach to performance.
: Headers are a term loosely applied to higher performance exhaust manifold. An exhaust manifold is the exhaust component that gets the exhaust from each individual cylinder to the main exhaust pipe. In the majority of cars the design of the Exh man. is a compromise between cost, power, and space, I don't know what kind of car you have, but on most Front wheel drive cars it can be hard to see one, on a RWD car, especially a pickup truck, you can usually see the exhaust manifold alongside the engine . It will look sort of like a cast iron pipe or log with little side branches going to each cylinder exhaust port. It works, its cheap, it is reliable, but it doensn;t let the engine do its best work because it "strangles" the motor a little bit and each cylinder "sees" a differing amount of resistance. Headers are typicall made of tubular steel and consist on equal lenght tubes with minimum constrictions going to each cylinder port. They improve performance by 1) offering less resistance to exhaust flow, 2) letting each cylinder exhale equally 3) and in some case, the design of the header actually lets the exhaust "pulse" of one branch assist in the "pulling" of exhaust from another. Go to summitracing.com and you can see plenty of headers, you will probably note how much more smooth the headers look than the std. exh manifold.
:
: Which adds more power? I hope it is obvious. (the headers). Probably up to 15% or so. PS more noise does not mean more power. Test of some cars with straight pipe (no mufflers) vs low-restriction mufflers have shown LESS hp without mufflers. It is too bad the a-holes riding Harleys with straight pipes didn't realize this.
: Re your question, well "how fast do you want to go"? easy fixups to get more power involve better breathing and exhaust. Low restriction air filter (K&N very popular), headers (yes) and low restriction exhaust give pretty good bang-for-buck. And they usually sound pretty good. Plus, good state of tune, plugs wires.
: May you also have a nice day.
-
TheDarkOne
- Posts: 331
- Joined: Tue Jun 29, 1999 4:47 am
Re: Car questions
In Reply to: Re: Car questions posted by AN on July 21, 1999 at 21:38:49:
Man, you do know your stuff, I was going to answer this question, but my answer would have sucked compered to this. I am impressed.
As for the car, what kind do you have, there are lots of options to make it heartier. K&N air filter is a nice start, if you want more performance you can get the car lowered (I personally don't like this), or you can get spoilers (front rear and side skirts). A new exhaust system gives some more balls to your car, but that is getting up in price. Engine balencing will optimize your ride, but you have to make sure you get it tuned all of the time. Many cars offer performance chips, (BMW for instance) that can add between 15-30 horse power and (I don't know how much) more torque. I don't know how serious you are about upgrading your car, but there are lots of options depending on how much you have to spend. I hope you also have a nice day.
Man, you do know your stuff, I was going to answer this question, but my answer would have sucked compered to this. I am impressed.
As for the car, what kind do you have, there are lots of options to make it heartier. K&N air filter is a nice start, if you want more performance you can get the car lowered (I personally don't like this), or you can get spoilers (front rear and side skirts). A new exhaust system gives some more balls to your car, but that is getting up in price. Engine balencing will optimize your ride, but you have to make sure you get it tuned all of the time. Many cars offer performance chips, (BMW for instance) that can add between 15-30 horse power and (I don't know how much) more torque. I don't know how serious you are about upgrading your car, but there are lots of options depending on how much you have to spend. I hope you also have a nice day.