Good Air, Bad Air – Exhaust Modifications


Exhaust systems serve to reduce noise and restrict emission by redirecting exhaust gas to the rear of the car. Standard exhaust systems are restrictive and made with cheap materials. Large exhaust systems provide bigger space to accommodate burnt mixture, freeing the cylinder, thereby allowing more oxygen and fuel mixture to go inside the cylinder, creating more engine power. Large exhausts require less pressure to push burnt gases out and get them out quicker.

Car Exhaust

Exhaust headers are attached to the engines to give each cylinder a pipe of its own instead of a sharing one manifold. The number of pipes depends on the number of cylinders an engine have. These pipes are formed and cut to converge into one large pipe or collector. Headers are used to reduce backpressure, which will result to power loss. You can shorten or lengthen the primary tubes and collector of adjustable or tunable headers, according to your car’s needs.

Expelled gas travel to exhaust pipe then passes through the catalytic converter, which processes the gas making it less harmful to the environment, and out to another exhaust pipe, then to the muffler. Some companies produce specialty exhaust pipes promoting smoother gas flow, and adding to fuel efficiency. Hi-flow catalytic converters are also available to aid in the flow of exhaust gas.

Car Exhaust with light

You can use flexi-joints to connect exhaust pipes together. With flexi-joints, you don’t have to weld the pipes together. Pipes are connected together with the help of a spanner.

From the catalytic converter, another exhaust pipe leads to the muffler. Mufflers function as sound absorbers or noise reducers. Resonators in the muffler reduce noise by canceling sounds when they hit each other.

Race mufflers or silencers offer moderate sound control. They are usually designed in small sizes to fit tight places. Some are built using aluminum to make them last longer.

Race silencers normally give out a deep roaring sound. People who are not inclined toward racecars usually associate this deep roaring sound with a large and powerful engine. When they hear this deep roar, they readily assume that the car is equipped and modified for race purposes. Because race silencers are safe to be used on ordinary cars, some car owners attach race silencers to their exhaust system to make it sound intimidating, though race enthusiasts can easily tell the difference.

The quality of fumes that come out of your car’s pipes can tell you the condition your engine is running. Black and oily emission could mean your air and fuel mixture is too rich. A rich mixture means that there is more fuel than air, leaving some amount of unburned fuel evident in the oily emission. In this case, you may have to check your carburetor settings. A clean or grayish emission is always ideal.

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