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Exhaust and exhaust systems - performance

There are lots of claims for exhausts...

  • More power! Well its true in some cases!  With some explanation needed. Bigger bore pipes and tubular manifolds are easier to push exhaust gas out of.  The engine has to do this so less power is wasted and more waste gas gets removed from the cylinder allowing room for more air to come in!  On standard cars there is not much to be gained usually here though other than noise...  On tuned engines, especially ones using "wild" camshafts, there is however lots of power to be gained!  In fact there is little point in heavily tuning an engine, with big carbs, cams, bigger valves etc, unless you DO fit a very free flowing exhaust system.


 

  • Better sound!  Well they are louder, so if this is what you want then yes they sound better!  Remember though that a engine actually makes the sound, so an angry highly tuned engine will always sound much better than a stock motor ever could.  Don't expect a front wheel drive 4 cylinder stock engine to sound like a well tuned V8!
     

  • Longer lasting!  Well stainless steel exhausts do not rust so could be longer lasting, but build quality makes as big difference too.  Well designed ones will not crack or fail.  Stainless steel ones sound tinny at first due to the harder metal ringing on some systems.
     

  • Catalyst removal (or adding a bit of tube where your catatonic diverter used to be!) These things cost little power on a stock engine, but serious problems on a tuned engine. Best to remove it if you plan on doing any real engine tuning later on.

   
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