Headers vs. Manifolds?!!!!

[dvine69]

What are the advantages of headers versus manifolds?

Rob
'69 Chevy C-10 Baby Caca Green
Huntsville, TX

[Hooter]

better gas milage, up to 15 % increase in horsepower. Plus they sound cool. They also create a lot of heat and are prone to leaking and warping. The painted headers look good until you start up the truck for the first time and all the paint flakes off. They are a bit more higher maintence then manifolds but the benefits, as far as I am conserned, out weigh the losses. You can just wrap an asbestos mit around the starter to keep it from getting too hot

[mikep]

You'll sum this whole discussion up by saying the people who have manifolds will say their the greatest thing since sliced bread. The Header guys will do the same.

Manifolds are nominally quieter and the gaskets last longer. If you are using crap gaskets with the headers and never tighten your bolts they will have exhaust leaks. Manifolds will cost you about 20+ horsepower compared to headers and you'll use more gas. Headers wear out over several years.

Personally I cant see any good reason to use manifolds. Use decent copper or aluminum gaskets with headers and their collectors and tighten the bolts every few months for a year and the headers will pay for themselves in gas savings and the added power they deliver. Even the "good" corvette rams horn manifolds perform poorly compared to decent or even non decent headers that are properly maintained.

This is also a sore point to some but avoid shorty or block hugger headers . They dont flow much better than cast iron manifolds and they cost an innordinate amount of money. Good for custom street rods wheere clearance is a problem but not for cavernous truck engine bays where theres plenty of room for good full collector power building tube headers.

[crazy longhorn]

Im a "header nut", & like Mike p posted.....I think they are the best thing since sliced bread! as a rule, you will pick up around 15-20hp on a mild engine with a good set of headers.......but if the eng is really built up those figures can go up drastically! I saw an article on headers vs manifolds on a dyno......it showed that a 425-450 hp eng with headers lost 70-80 hp by swapping to the stock restrictive manifolds........thats a bunch! I think the article was in Super chevy, or hotrod mag......

[PICKMUP]

Headers belong on a race car/truck and perform better at wide open throttle & over 5,000 rpm. If you aren't racing & you are driving in the normal 2-3 K range the manifolds are so much more trouble free. The last expensive set of headers I had burned two plug boots continuously (and they were hidden under the tubes) and the cerma chrome coating ($200) burned off the last half of the headers, just after the warranty expired.
If you are racing=headers.
If you are driving=ramhorns.

[bigjimzlll]

"If you are racing=headers.
If you are driving=ramhorns"
I like to say:
performance=headers
non-performance= no headers
If you have a basic 200-250 hp sbc(bolt ons.. cam..carb) and you like to drive easy, than stock manifolds are the way to go..you have to think of an engine as a air pump..the more air in..the more air has to go out..headers will scavange exhaust gases at low rpms as well as hi rpms..also..to each there own...