Burnt gases in the car’s combustion chamber need to be pushed out via the exhaust cylinder in order to allow fresh air from outside to replace it. To make this process of scavenging easier, a bolt-on accessory known as headers are used.
This guide takes a look at four important aspects:
- What headers do for your car
- Main types of car header and differences between them
- Main differences between headers and exhaust
- Pros and cons of car headers
How Car Headers Work?
The purpose of a car header is to eliminate back pressure which is created in the manifold. Instead of a single pipe shared by all of the cylinders, each cylinder has its own exhaust pipe which connects to form a bigger pipe known as the collector. The individual pipes are bent so that they are of the same length. Same length ensures that the exhaust gases from each cylinder arrive at the collector evenly spaced out, resulting in no back pressure.
Normally, the exhaust gases exit the cylinder and enter the exhaust manifold. Whether it is a four-cylinder or eight-cylinder engine, the cylinders use the same manifold. Since exhaust gases from one cylinder build up pressure in the manifold, the manifold turns out to be a source of back pressure.
Main Types of Headers
There are four main types of headers for cars: Long-tube headers, Shorty headers, Lakester headers and Tri-Y headers. In this section, we discuss the characteristics of each type of header.
Long-tube Headers
They have four primary tubes in an 8-cylinder engine, which merge into one collector. They are suitable for low end and mid-range torque.
Shorty Headers
They are less noisy than long tube headers. They merge into a single exhaust pipe at a shorter distance as compared to long tube headers. They are suitable for the upper rpm range.
Lakester Headers
They are used in dry lake racing. They have short primary tubes and are mostly popular in old hot rod cars.
Tri-Y Headers
They have a “Y” shape which enables the exhaust from one tube flowing through the “Y” to scavenge air from the other tube. They generate the highest horsepower than any other design and more low-end torque than similar 4-1 headers.
Pros and Cons of Installing Headers
Installing a car header improves the rate of exhaust flow out of your engine. Other advantages of installing a header include:
- A 5% or 10-20 units of increase in horsepower
- Marginal improvement in the sound of your car.
- No creation of back pressure in your car’s exhaust system which happens in the case of an exhaust manifold
Installing headers has some cons as well. For example, if the header is noisy and also alters the air-to-fuel ratio which can harm the components of your car engine.
This concludes our guide in which we discussed the car headers definition, the purpose of car headers and different types of car headers. You can check out different components of the engine for sale in the UAE on dubizzle. In addition to this, dubizzle also has a diverse collection of used cars for sale in the UAE.
To learn more about automobiles and the automotive industry, stay tuned to UAE’s leading auto blog.
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