Thursday, November 21, 2013
What Is the Difference Between a Front Pipe a Header Pipe
The exhaust pipes on your car, truck or motorcycle carry the gasses expelled from the engine during the combustion process safely to the rear of the vehicle. This is usually accomplished with pieces of steel tubing that are suspended to the underside of the vehicle. Since the exhaust usually has to wind over, under or around the vehicle undercarriage to get to the rearmost part of the vehicle, it is manufactured in several different pieces and either welded, bolted or clamped together to form a continuous flow. Each manufacturer may have different names for the various exhaust pieces, but may include the header pipe, front pipe, exhaust pipe, catalytic converter, muffler, resonator and tailpipe.
Exhaust Manifold
Converting the exhaust from each cylinder on your engine to a single outlet is usually accomplished with an exhaust manifold. An exhaust manifold is usually constructed of cast iron and is bolted to the cylinder head. V-type or boxer engines have two banks of cylinders -- one on each side of the block. In these cases, there should be an exhaust manifold bolted to each cylinder head. The exhaust manifold is usually not considered part of the exhaust system, but it gives the exhaust pipe a place to attach to.
Header Pipe
When referring to exhaust pipes, the header pipe sometimes refers to the part of the exhaust system that attaches directly to the exhaust manifold of the engine. If your vehicle is a single cylinder motorcycle or a vehicle that has an inline engine, a single header pipe would connect directly to the exhaust manifold or engine. Header pipes used on V-type or boxer engines can sometimes be referred to as a Y pipe, as it connects to both sides of the engine and comes together to form one pipe. Some vehicles use a dual exhaust system. These types of vehicles may a have a separate, single header pipe for each exhaust header.
Headers
Some vehicles may use factory or aftermarket exhaust headers in place of a cast iron exhaust manifold and header pipe. Headers are usually constructed of several pipes welded together and take the place of both the exhaust manifold and the header pipe. Headers are usually tuned, meaning the length of the tube that attaches to each exhaust port on the engine is engineered in such a way to extract maximum power and efficiency from the engine. Headers are factory-installed on some performance engines, but are usually an aftermarket accessory that is owner-installed.
Front Pipe
Depending on the manufacturer, the front pipe on an exhaust system can refer to pipe that bolts to the engine -- the header pipe -- or the pipe that connects the header pipe to the remainder of the exhaust system. The exhaust system on vehicles that have transverse-mounted engines may need to compensate for the back-and-forth rocking motion of the engine when accelerating or decelerating. Whereas the header pipe may be a solid, fixed pipe, a flexible pipe -- sometimes referred to as the front pipe -- connects the header pipe to the rear of the exhaust system. On some vehicles, the exhaust pipe that connects to the rear of the flexible pipe may be referred to as the front pipe.
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