Pacesetter Header Review

With most vehicles the exhaust manifold is a bottle neck that restricts the motor from pushing exhaust gases out the exhaust. This restriction is causing possible horsepower to be lost. To fix this people install header(s). A header will make it easier for the engine to push exhaust gases out of the cylinders and into the exhaust system.

A four stroke motor, which is what is in most of the vehicles people drive, produces all of its power during the power stroke. The gasoline in the cylinder burns and expands during this stroke, generating power. The other three strokes are necessary evils required to make the power stroke possible. If these three strokes consume power, they are a drain on the engine.

During the exhaust stroke, a good way for an engine to lose power is through back pressure. The exhaust valve opens at the beginning of the exhaust stroke, and then the piston pushes the exhaust gases out of the cylinder. If there is any amount of resistance that the piston has to push against to force the exhaust gases out, power is wasted.

An stock exhaust manifold has a lot of back pressure that makes the motor work harder to push exhaust gases out the exhaust. The idea behind an exhaust header is to eliminate the manifold's back pressure. Instead of a common manifold that all of the cylinders share, each cylinder gets its own exhaust pipe. These pipes come together in a larger pipe called the collector. The individual pipes are cut and bent so that each one is the same length as the others. By making them the same length, it guarantees that each cylinder's exhaust gases arrive in the collector spaced out equally so there is no back pressure generated by the cylinders sharing the collector.

Because of the motor being able to push exhaust gases out easier and faster, you regain lost horsepower and will even gain a better gas mileage. In my case I gained around 4-6 horsepower and 1-2 mpg. The header also changes the exhaust tone because of the higher flow rate of the gases making your car sound meaner and more sporty.

Likes:
I choose Pacesetter because of good reviews it was getting on car forums and you can buy that on about any car performance website which means you can shop around for deals and find the lowest price.

The header comes with all the hardware you'll need to install the product and has a 10 step install sheet that goes through how to install the header.

For the most part the header was easy to install. I installed it in about a hour, using only wrenches, a jack and two jack stands. You'll need to jack the car up so you can get under it and have enough room to work but will also still need to be able to access the engine from above. After removing the stock manifold, all you need to do is bolt the header to the block following the bolting diagram that comes with the header. And then you'll need to bolt up the down tube to the header and then to the catalytic converter. This is as easy as tightening a few bolts and clamps.

Dislikes:
The only thing I didn't like about this header was that over time the paint faded a little and it looks a little dull looking. But if you send a little more money and get the ceramic coated header that pacesetter offers, it will stay nice and shiny and really stand out in your engine bay.