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Will open headers damage a truck engine?
I have a 1979 Ford Bronco and I am considering running a straight pipe without a catalytic converter or a muffler. When I bought the Bronco, it only had a factory muffler with no catalytic converter. Since then, I have driven it with a Cherry Bomb catalytic converter with no muffler, and then with a 12" Cherry Bomb glasspack with no catalytic converter. I'm pretty sure it has exhaust manifolds rather than exhaust headers because there isn't a single pipe for each cylinder; there's a bracket connected to each side of the engine that is connected to the 4 cylinders on each side, which then runs into one pipe. So, will running a straight pipe from the exhaust manifold damage anything? I figured it wouldn't because I ran it with just a 12" glasspack and I wouldn't think that a muffler that short would provide much backpressure, but I'm not sure.
4 Answers
- Anonymous10 years agoFavorite Answer
sure you can, but its probably going to sound ridiculously loud for a street driven vehicle and depending on what state you like in your more then likely to get pulled over.
I ran my 99 lightning with alot of different exhaust, first stock with bassani cat back. then bassani headers with not cats and bassani catback. Then installed some kooks stainless steel headers with no cats at first and the bassani catback and it was just to loud for the street so I put the cats back on and that was perfect!
if sound is what your looking for, cherry bombs are pretty old school and might not be what your looking for. Check out bassani exhaust, borla, magnaflow. They will carry alot of the popular options for that ford and if not you can just get a muffler and fab it up yourself. Even if you can't weld, good old pipe clamps will do the job just fine if you fit everything right.
as for your manifolds, long tubes would be the way to go but a good set is going to cost you some cash unless you can find them used. I don't know how much your looking to spend for an exhuast but it can be thosands for some of the premium stuff.
Source(s): been racing and building cars for years - ?Lv 710 years ago
What you're referring to will not hurt anything. However, if you had actual headers, and just uncorked them right at the flange, you could end up with burnt/cracked exhaust valves. The reason for that is, because of the camshaft timing and such, if the exhaust is too short and unrestricted, it works both ways. What works well to get the exhaust out, can also suck cold air in just as easily. And the engine will suck cold air in. If you're running a straight pipe, you NEED to have it long enough so that the engine can't suck any cold air in at the end of the exhaust stroke and have it get to the cylinder head. If it does get to the head, that's when things crack. I've only seen it twice, but I've seen it.
- Anonymous10 years ago
Open headers will hurt anything unless you have a Turbocharger on your exhaust.
(yes, dragsters have open headers, but your engine is not even close to them, so no compare please)
