What's the difference between the 5.4L and Lightning's 5.4L headers?
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 57
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From: Western Ma
What's the difference between the 5.4L and Lightning's 5.4L headers?
Was curious if anyone knows what the difference is between the long tube headers made for the normal 5.4L and the ones made for the lightning?
Hooker makes a nice set of Super Comps for the 5.4L and want to know why they wouldn't work on the L's?
Thanks,
Nathan
Hooker makes a nice set of Super Comps for the 5.4L and want to know why they wouldn't work on the L's?
Thanks,
Nathan
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 5,097
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From: DETROIT, (formerly Eaton County, Michigan)
I read an article once regarding headers.
basically in a nut shell it said something like this.
you can't buy headers off the shelf that will effectively work on a built motor.
reason being is that EVER engine is different.
the headers actually create a vacuum that "suck" the exhaust out of the combustion chamber.
when the exhaust valve opens and the piston starts moving up, the exhaust is pushed into the header, the header creates a "force" and keeps the exhaust moving, so when the piston nears the top and the exhaust valve starts to close, a suction is created by the header and actually sucks a little bit of the burnt a/f mixture from the combustion chamber BEFORE the exhaust valvue closes all the way.
once the valve is closed all the a vacuum is created on the exhaust side of the valve, so the next time is opens, the burnt af mixxture is sucked out and then pushed out by the piston and then sucked out again by the header before the valve closes.
That is one reason that I have NEVER bought headers.
Some aftermarket ones come close and effectively remove heat, however, the true use of them doesn't become aparrant until you;ve spent thousands of dollars having the engine diagnosed and custom headers built, by someone who knows what they are doing.
(OK I read the article a LONG LONG time ago and there is NO way I could find it again, but that is the article in a nutshell)
basically in a nut shell it said something like this.
you can't buy headers off the shelf that will effectively work on a built motor.
reason being is that EVER engine is different.
the headers actually create a vacuum that "suck" the exhaust out of the combustion chamber.
when the exhaust valve opens and the piston starts moving up, the exhaust is pushed into the header, the header creates a "force" and keeps the exhaust moving, so when the piston nears the top and the exhaust valve starts to close, a suction is created by the header and actually sucks a little bit of the burnt a/f mixture from the combustion chamber BEFORE the exhaust valvue closes all the way.
once the valve is closed all the a vacuum is created on the exhaust side of the valve, so the next time is opens, the burnt af mixxture is sucked out and then pushed out by the piston and then sucked out again by the header before the valve closes.
That is one reason that I have NEVER bought headers.
Some aftermarket ones come close and effectively remove heat, however, the true use of them doesn't become aparrant until you;ve spent thousands of dollars having the engine diagnosed and custom headers built, by someone who knows what they are doing.
(OK I read the article a LONG LONG time ago and there is NO way I could find it again, but that is the article in a nutshell)
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 1,294
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From: Colorado,
Nice job of explaining it. Just substitute the word scavenge for your suck and vacum
Actualy its the length of the collector pipe that influences where the flow is most efficient. You can make it work with your camshaft profile to pull harder at different RPMs.
It can realy effect you mileage to.
I wonder if the problem is the type of transmision we have and the room to run the pipes around it.
Here is another old tunning tip from Smokey Unick. He used drill a small 1/8 hole in the exhaust header just a inch or two away from each cylinder. He could see the color of the flame change while running it on a dyno and sort out your jetting problems.
Now if I could just learn how to spell maybe folks would be able to understand me better.
Actualy its the length of the collector pipe that influences where the flow is most efficient. You can make it work with your camshaft profile to pull harder at different RPMs.
It can realy effect you mileage to.
I wonder if the problem is the type of transmision we have and the room to run the pipes around it.
Here is another old tunning tip from Smokey Unick. He used drill a small 1/8 hole in the exhaust header just a inch or two away from each cylinder. He could see the color of the flame change while running it on a dyno and sort out your jetting problems.
Now if I could just learn how to spell maybe folks would be able to understand me better.