soo i was out driving yesterday. and i took my muffler off, i also have my cat hollowed out. and it sounds like a fukin nascar. i pulled up to a red light. some guy in his little riced out civic. bodykit flares scoops ect. pulles up and smiles. his gf is in the passanger seat. my car is odoling rough and loud. like a muscle car with flowmasters. his is idoling like a wind up toy. i look at him and ask him is his car is quick. he says yah. i bet its faster than urs. i laugh. and say ok lets find out. he revvs his .. ziiiinnng ziiiiing vrroom.. and he smiles. i look and laugh.. i revv mine ROOORORROARRR RROAR. my whole car was shakin from the motor revving. the light turns green and i droppped the clutch. i didnt even move for a second or 2 my tires were just squeeeeeling outa control and smole was billowing from my rear end and he looks at me and just stops jumpin on it. i got him to stop and i didnt even get outa 1st gear

 

sweet. them ricer's will learn one day. But becarefull. There's alway's some one faster then you!!!. oh ya, did you have to cut cat off, then weld back on? or what. I really have not looked at them to see if there are any bolt's or weld.

 

actually mines a 79 my friend fast240z and i took it off. it has a honeycomb crap inside we took a jack handle beat the inside out and slapped it back on. its 4 bolts for mine it made a huge sound differnce. and maybe just a little bit more pull

 

Actually, you might feel like it has more pull because it sounds really cool, but it probably did your performance more harm than good. Remember, N/A cars need a certain amount of back pressure or you're losing initial torque...

Rod.

 

it has been said... "headers = more hp & less torque" meaning... free'r flowing exhaust lets the engine breathe, but less backpressure for the needed "umph."

 

It's also been said that "Torque Get's you going, Horsepower Keeps you going".

Less torque=not good for launch times.

Rod.

 

spraying a pressure washer in your tailpipe will rip that **** out too...

 

Won't that do damage to your emissions??? I live in AZ and need to know!!

 

Headers don't mean less torque. Certain headers can cause less torque, but that doesn't mean that having headers is going to give you less torque. It's all in the length of the primaries. And as far as less back pressure meaning less oomph: Thats really only going to affect low end. If he drops the hammer at a higher RPM then he's not losing anything. probably grabbed a couple horses. Of course around town the affects are probably more negative then positive though. Trade offs.

Oh and Carl. Unless you've got a ULEV motor in your car, you're probably not going to be able to pass emissions without a cat Not worth hollowing out if you got the money to get a test pipe made (really not that expensive anyways).

Oh and Therm, I ran my car once with just straight exhaust manifold. It was the meanest thing I've ever heard. Sounded like a Top Fuel Dragster. I had to drive it across town like that to the parts store cause I didn't feel like bolting the exhaust back on (I still had to weld up a crack on the head pipe). I got a lot of attention that day and not one offer to race

 

from what i understand, having headers with longer primaries pretty much negates any torque losses due to reduced backpressure. question is, which headers made for the Zs have the longest primaries?

 

You're talking about equal length headers I think. I have no idea what they do to torque but those are supposed to produce the best peak horsepower over the smaller header designs. Differences are about 5% power or less.

 

The BEST header is always a custom one. Period. A mass produced header is designed to work perfectly on one certain engine setup and to meet one type of driving need. If you want the best header for your car, get one built. Unfortunately, that's not cost effective and most people dont want to spend that much money for a few extra horses unless they have no choice.

007 the longest primary I've personally come across was 32in, and the shortest (long tube header) was 22in for the Z's (240-280zx). It's not just length though, you also have to look at the diameter of the primaries as well. If they're too big then you lose velocity and, in a nut shell, some bottom end cause they stop scavenging the exhaust. If they're too small well, you know the deal with too small, RESTRICTION Did you know a great deal of the aftermarket headers sold today for various cars actually use larger diameter primaries than NASCAR builders use on their engines? How's that for overkill If a 600HP Stock car can get by with a smaller diameter primary and still put out 600HP then by all means it's good enough for me