What is an exhaust manifold and what is a header

I looked in the engine bay of my car and on each side I have a set of four pipes that come off of the ... engine ... and go to the back of the car. Are these headers or manifolds?

Can someone post a pic of what a manifold looks like or would it be easier if I just took a pic of what I am talking about and posted it?

 

Sounds to me like you have headers. Here is one example of a set of headers (Dynomax)
Another example of a header is this kind (Hooker)


Here is an example of a manifold (corvette)


Headers typically will give you more horse power because they allow the exahust gasses to flow out freely with minimal restrictions.

 

Manifolds are a cast iron casting (1 piece) and headers are made out of individual pieces of tubing that are fabricated to meet each exhaust port. Headers flow tons better and increase overally exahust flow a lot. They however do not have the same thermal retention that manifolds have. That is why you see ceramic coated headers. Here is a pic of coated headers on my car.

 

Here is a shot with the stock manifolds. You can clearly tell the difference.

 

Man Shifty, that was awfull nice of you to reinstall your manifolds just to answer a tech question.

 

Sweet..then I have headers...Thanks for the clarification on my question and thanks for the pics.

I wonder what else this car has that I don't know of. the previous owner didn't know much about it.

Here is the story. The car belonged to the guys daughter but the car was driven by the daughters husband. Well stuff happened and they got a divorce and with the car being in her name "cuz she bought it" she kept the car and decided to sell it as its not much of a familly car. The father bought it drove it last summer but he decided he would rather a truck so he bought his Dodge Ram crazy turbo diesel truck...and now I have the Trans Am.

I am going to have to find out more about this car...gonna have to get it inspected, maybe even dyno'd.

Off topic question...Shifty Capone...where did you get that strut brace? That is awesome looking, and goes right around an open air element allowing the best of both worlds (Chassie reinforcements and unrestricted air intake). I must get me one of those.

 

Yea it was tuff but I got through it. A header swap is the devil. It is funny how much easier a cam swap is.


That is the Edelborck TBI brace for TBI applications. It is about $130 and is sold by jegs and summit.

 

lol, I was thinking the same thing when I saw the order in which the pictures were posted.
That STB is Edelbrocks carb/TBI 3-point brace. It's been out for years now (4 I believe). I can tell you that the brace makes a big difference in how the car feels all around. When I hit a bump in the road the car feels a lot stiffer with it. Without the bump is hardly felt but you know for a fact that the car is flexing. I also have SFC's in and a front steering "wonder" bar so I can honestly say now with complete confidence that the brace does a great job of keeping things stiff.
Manifolds are just that, they're a manifold, a part that accepts multiple ins and may or may not have multiple outs but has at least one in and never an equal amount of ins and outs. The headers... well I would definatly like to know where the word came from. Was it because they're attached to the heads? So they're head...ers...?!?!

 

i like your engine bay, its pretty.

This is kind of off topic, but what you said about the cam swap got me thinking.

Does anyone have a link on how to do a cam swap? i cant seem to find a good one.
-thanks

 

Well I am currently working on one because I too have been looking for one over the years. Once I get the car up and runing and tuned I think it will still be fresh in my head to do a good write up on it.

Yea I should have posted those pics in a different order. I was trying to answer his "is this a header" and than thought a stock pic would help as well. I am lying, I actually went to the garage and put them on real quick for you guys. You know how easy of a job it is.

 

heh, give me 2 weeks, I'll be getting my 2055's from ACS, we'll see how easy it really is.

Think you'll have the cam article done by mid summer? that'd be great. I found a few on yahoo, but they all sucked, and werent for thirdgens. so yea...

 

Yea my goal is to have it done within the next few weeks. When i have a few breaks in the day I will add a bit here and there before I eddit it. I want to make it dummy proff and use all the info that i leanred on this site to disprove or dispell any myths about such a swap. I want to make it so that a novice can do it since most of us learn how to wrench on our 3rd gens.

Oh and good luck with the headers. Get your swear jar ready....

 

Did all 305TBI L03's come with manifolds? I am wondering if these headers on my car are aftermarket as I looked closely at them last night and I can't see any markings of company names.

 

They all cam with manifolds. Not all manufacturers put thier logo and or brand name on the headers. My flowtechs don't have anything on them. I think only Hooker, SLP, and maybe heaman do but most do not. Do you have a pic. That would hlep us identify them for you. Even the fastest cars GM has made over the years come with exhaust manifolds including every LS1 and Z06.

 

I will have to get the pics tomorrow. I am stuck at work right now and by the time I get home it will be too dark to get a decent pic. I will snag one tomorrow durring the day and post.

 

That'd be great im looking forward to it. I'm one of those newbs (its my first car!) My dad and i did a shift kit which took about 10 hours longer than expected (stupid B&M, 2 hours w/ basic hand tools my @$$). I plan on building a set of heads over the summer and think that if im pulling my old heads off i might as well swap out the cam while im at it.

ThraxXx, they are probally the summit headers or the flowtechs, they seem to be very popular for our cars because of their in-expencieve price.

 

I like shifty's girlfriend, she's pretty too

 

Pics?...hehe just kidding

 

will that brace fit on an lg4 car, with an open element?

 

I'd have to imagine that brace would fit ant 3rd gen w/ an open element.
-chuck

 

I think so. The only thing that can interfere is the accessory bracket difference between the two. I think the AC condnesor may be in the way on the LG4 cars but not positive.

 

i plan on ripping the ac out eventually anyways..so if thats the only interference i ight have to grab one

 

...happen to have the model number handy?

 

It is jegs part number 350-5227

Here is a link to the page with the Edelbrock STB's.

http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...72&prmenbr=361

 

Sorry for the lateness. Here is a pic of my exhaust headers. They are a bit rusted so I am guessing they weren't ceramic coated. Any info would be greatly apreciated.

Also I did a chalk test as another member told me to do..my back end is showing a 3.43 gear ratio. Is this ok?

 

yeah those are definetly headers that are non-coated.

 

Yes they are headers and the gear ratio would be 3.42. Did you check if you have a POSI or not with those gears? Do both tires spin when you launch? You are lucky because your car now has two expensive performace things that you didn't have to pay for or bust any nuckles on. Oh an Yes those headers are uncoated. You could always pull them out and send them off to get coated. They will look brand new when they are done.

 

Well while we were spinning one tire, the other one was spinning with it..

I haven't even had a chance to drive the car yet. Its killing me cuz I really want to drive it but its not going nowheres in this cold winter weather. Trans Am is gonna be the summer car and the Tempo is my daily Driver.

 

Heh, wanna sell me that 3.42 posi? I'm in the process of adding headers and the rest of my exhaust to my car. Headers should arrive some time next week, I'm soooo excited!!!

What kind of cat-back do you have? that'd be the next thing to check.

 

Those are the Edelbrock headers, I think.

 

I love seeing pics :lala:

 

that car has alot of work done it seems... headers...ac delete, looks like the edlebrock intake performer manifold as well.. and 342 is really good... you say when you spin the tire the other one spins... does it in the same direction? or does it spin opisite or backwards if you spin the tire foward... you can also check your rpo codes in your center console unless the previous owner was a dip shlt and took off the sticker... the code is g82 i believe