How do exhaust headers work to improve an engine's performance? - podcast episode cover

How do exhaust headers work to improve an engine's performance?

Aug 16, 20133 min
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Episode description

The goal of headers is to make it easier for an engine to push out exhaust gasses. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn how exhaust headers channel exhaust gasses and improve engine efficiency.

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Transcript

Speaker 1

Stuff happens, just don't let it happen to your photos, music, and documents. Protect your important files with Mosey by e m C, the most trusted name and cloud backup. Save ten percent today with promo code brain Stuff at mosey dot com. That's m o z y dot com. Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff works dot com where smart happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, how

do exhaust headers work to improve engine performance? Headers are one of the easiest bolton accessories you can use to improve an engine's performance. The goal of headers is to make it easier for the engine to push exhaust gases out of the cylinders during the exhaust stroke. A good way for an engine to lose power is through back pressure. The exhaust valve opens at the beginning of the exhaust stroke, and then the piston pushes the exhaust gases out of

the cylinder. If there's any out of resistance that the piston has to push against to force the gases out, power is wasted. In a normal engine. Once the exhaust gases exit the cylinder, they end up in the exhaust manifold. In a four cylinder engine, there are four cylinders using that same manifold. From the manifold, the exhaust gases flow into one pipe towards the catalytic converter and the muffler.

It turns out that the manifold can be an important source of back pressure because exhaust gases from one cylinder build up pressure in the manifold that affects the next cylinder that uses that manifold. The idea behind an exhaust header is to eliminate the manifolds back pressure. Instead of a common manifold that all of the cylinders share, each cylinder gets its own exhaust pipe. These pipes come together

into a larger pipe called the collector. The individual pipes are cut and bent so that each one is the same length as all the others. By making them the same length, it guarantees that each cylinder's exhaust gases arrive in the collector spaced out equally, so there's no back pressure generated by cylinders sharing the collector. This causes the least amount of back pressure and gives headers a performance boost. For more on this and thousands of other topics, bevisit

how stuff works dot com. All clouds are not created equal, so back up your photos documents and music with Mosey by E m C, the most trusted name in cloud backup. Get it today at mosey dot com that's m o z y dot com and save ten with promo code brain stuff

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