I have been told that changing out the exhaust from the cat back does not increase power. What happens when just the header is replaced? Also what happens if the header and from the cat back is changed out. I was thinking about a DC header.

 

It would seem that the DC does very little (or nothing), as is the case with a cat back. So, "very little" + "very little" = very little X 2. The header might be of some use if you are S/C'd. But you would loose some weight and tailor the sound.

 

xviper,
Is there any header that would help with gains, or is changing out the exhaust more for sound?

 

Search the forum data base for the Spoon or Mugen header. Some have said these produced some measureable gains (but $$$$$$$). If you want more HP from an exhaust, you'll need to go with a single outlet system but the noise might give you a headache and draw attention to yourself (from police).

 

Thanks,

I will look at both of them, and no I don't want more noise or draw any more attention from the police that is necessary.

 

I have read many posts about the Mugen header reducing peak power, but the increase in power down low giving more "area under the curve".

As Xviper mentioned, there is a lot of weight that can be saved by upgrading your header and exhaust, which is probably more usefull than the few horsepower you might get.

 

Hopefully this will be my last set of questions on the topic. I have heard that Honda did a good job on the exhaust, so my questions are: Do I gain much in weight reduction and gain anything in hp with doing just a Spoon Header? If I decide to add the exhaust at a later date do I need to change out the cat? As I mentioned I don't care about the sound as much a performance gains. Thanks for all your help.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JimmyB
[B]Hopefully this will be my last set of questions on the topic.

 

what would happen if you removed those two "u-turn" pieces on the back side of the cans, and that dead end pipe under the passenger seat?


What do those do, and will removing them be bad?

 

The dead end piece under the driver's side is a resonator. While I haven't performed the operation myself, I think its safe to say it suppresses the higher notes in the exhaust sound.

The "U-Turn" pieces are integral to the mufflers. The stock mufflers are reverse-flow which means the exhaust path through them goes in one way and reverses direction one or more times to exit. In our case there are two reverse turns. Each of those should go through baffles.

The stock exhaust weight ~52lbs, which means there is a lot of weigth to be saved. But there is no real power to be gained since the stock piece is properly sized for the stock engine's output.