long tube vs. shorty headers

James Kanteraki

Registered User
what i want to know is how each type affects the power band.

Ie. does one give greater low end power and the other top end or what???

Also whats your comments on owning each. I have the shorty's on my car so i know what they are like but what about the long tubes??? can you actually change the sparkplugs with the long tubes on??

any and all info welcome thanks

jim
 
headers

They say that you will make more horsepower with long tubes than with shorties. That being said, is it a big difference? Probably not in our cars. The long tube headers have better scavenging effect. That's when the velocity of the air has momentum as it's traveling through the tube and when the exhaust valve shuts, the momentum of the air creates a vacuum at the opening of the valve so when the valve opens, it sucks air out. This effect can scavenge the air that is in the chamber (54cc's if it gets all of it). That acts as if it's increasing your displacement by 54cc's per cyl. So.... the longer the tubes, the more mass of air, the more mass of air the greater the momentum, that helps with the scavenging. Once the exhaust gasses from the other cylinders are mixed, the momentum gets reduced cause the other cylinders are pumping air when the other isn't.

Other factors that help is that long tubes (good ones) generally have longer collectors. Longer is better for HP.
 
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