Open headers = engine damage?

[yellow1995Cobra]

Did you get a hood that fits? You should check out young 347's hood. I think it might clear your massive intake.

BTW I ran open headers for a while too and no burnt valves.

No hood yet I even added a 1 inch spacer to the intake since i dont have a hood anyways

Someone is supposed to buy my old hood this weekend, if they take it, ill be buying a new one soon (5inch cowl), or i may just wait till fun ford weekend.

I dont think ive seen his hood yet, ill look for it.

 

[HazMat404]

-i dunno bout the LT's leading to burnt vavles 1/2 as much as shorties but shorties for sure.

-the LT's dumped is definately going to lose you some power in our cars.

-many big motor guys that run drag only rebuild their engines often. ive seen as many times as 8 times a year for a cousin and my sis's fiance with a 10 second 93 camaro and a 71 gsx.



there are also big motor guys that only do it once every season. i dont think they LT's will "burn" the valves but i dont think it is best for them and they could slowly wear over time due to the quick rush of cold air but i really dont think the cold air makes it all the way back up to the heads after the release of the throttle so open LT's shoudl be ok minus the power.....just what i think tho

 

[ShiftTheDrift]

Jeez, if performance is what you're trying to gain by running open headers, whatever, you won't get it. If it's about sound and driving around town regardless of noise abatement laws, then go for it.

I believe I speak for a couple guys here by saying, it won't be long before your cars are parked one way or another, either from valve damage or police impound. Good luck.

 

[cb18201]

I have had my car running with just longtubes for a little while. I just put the rest of the exhaust on. I have no burnt valves.



Yes that is exactly what i think.

well running LTs dumped isnt as bad but you do have a big motored car right, i thought i saw you had a 418 in your sig, so im sure you have enough horse to do this without really hurting much quickly

 

[VibrantRedGT]

With your mods you may have 200HP. Now with open headers you may gain 5HP. So I ask at this HP level is it worth it? I'm not sure if you want to do this or your just trying to find an answer to the myth.

 

[VIPERn94Five-0]

With your mods you may have 200HP. Now with open headers you may gain 5HP. So I ask at this HP level is it worth it? I'm not sure if you want to do this or your just trying to find an answer to the myth.

but he will lose LOTS of low end grunt.....it will still be slower correct???


Anthony

 

[Scot_94GT]

I am mostly just trying to find an answer to the myth. I may put motorised cutouts on my car, or any one of my funutre cars, so that is why I am asking. I could not care less about losing a little power when I open them up, since it is just for show/sounding cool.

Does anyonr here have definitive proof one way or another? So far, a few have stated impirical evidence of thier own car having dumped headers with no problems.

I really dont see how it can BURN an exhaust valve anyway....the exhaust gas is the same temp no matter hoe much backpressure there is

 

[jacob9]

ok...so it's the cold air that comes back in that hurts your valves?

I am not thinking about doing it for power. I just want to ba able to flip a switch and make my car loud as hell when I want, and then back to normal for regualr driving.

Right now, i have the stock 4-cat h-pipe, but after that, it is just 2.5" pipe with no muffs all the way out the back. It has a nice rumble and i'm pretty satisfied with it, but the cat's take alot of sound away, and having a remote cutout would just be really fun/cool.

SO how do the drag guys not get burned valves with dumped headers?

unless you have a built motor it's gonna sound like a$$ at anything other than full throttle. i ran open pipes and it only sounded good from 4750rpm and up. it killed my low end and the noise gets old after about 2-3 hours.

instead of listening to people who know what they are talking about, maybe you should run open pipes on the street for a month and report back to us what happened.

i drove the car 100 miles a day for 1 week with open pipes with no engine damage. once i put some dumps on the stang i got my low end back, and the motor sounds great from idle to redline.

do what you want, its your $hit. but don't expect anyone here to think that you came up with a cool idea by thinking about running open headers on a stock stang.

 

[Scot_94GT]

unless you have a built motor it's gonna sound like a$$ at anything other than full throttle. i ran open pipes and it only sounded good from 4750rpm and up. it killed my low end and the noise gets old after about 2-3 hours.

That's why I want to have cutouts...so I can make it sound normal for most of the time.

instead of listening to people who know what they are talking about, maybe you should run open pipes on the street for a month and report back to us what happened.

geeze....thanks for the insight

do what you want, its your $hit. but don't expect anyone here to think that you came up with a cool idea by thinking about running open headers on a stock stang.

I was just asking a for an answer to an old myth...who said I was trying to impress anyone?!?

 

[jacob9]

I was just asking a for an answer to an old myth...who said I was trying to impress anyone?!?

the reason you came across as trying to "impress" people is this post from you:
"and having a remote cutout would just be really fun/cool."

the easiest way to accomplish what you want is to buy two warlock mufflers. i have had them on my stang since 1999. also buy an offroad h-pipe with no cats. you can uncap the mufflers in 2 minutes and drive around making all the open pipe noise that you want. then when you get tired of how much slower your car is, you can take 2 minutes and cap the mufflers back up.

buy the stuff, install it and report back to us. there is no reason to waste bandwidth on arguing about a myth that you can physically test out tomorrow. btw, the warlock mufflers are from summitracing.com and they are only $65.88 each so you have no excuse not to buy them today. you can post your results on wednesday when you get them installed.

 

[Scot_94GT]

the reason you came across as trying to "impress" people is this post from you:
"and having a remote cutout would just be really fun/cool."

the easiest way to accomplish what you want is to buy two warlock mufflers. i have had them on my stang since 1999. also buy an offroad h-pipe with no cats. you can uncap the mufflers in 2 minutes and drive around making all the open pipe noise that you want. then when you get tired of how much slower your car is, you can take 2 minutes and cap the mufflers back up.

I've seen those a long time ago, but I think it is a PITA to have to get under the car and unbolt them. That is why electric cutouts interested me...I can go from loud to quite with the flick of a switch....and besides...how is welding up a set of warlock mufflers any easier than welding in electric cutouts?

buy the stuff, install it and report back to us. there is no reason to waste bandwidth on arguing about a myth that you can physically test out tomorrow.

oh yeah...I'm taking up sooo much bandwith
It's called a messageboard...people discuss things....get used to it. And this isn't some trivial matter either...if I "just go out an try it" as you suggested" one of either two results will come:
1) The myth is busted and no damamge will result to my engine.
2) The myth turns out to be true, and I have damaged/warped/whatever exhaust valves.

 

[jacob9]

there is no reason to beat this dead horse any longer. summit has dual electric cutouts. buy them today and install it this week. then come back and report your results. the price is cheap so you can't use the excuse that they co$t too much.

everyone has given you their opinion. some say its bad for the valves. others have had no problems.(like me) many have said you will lose torque or that the car will not sound that great. all the facts point to one obvious answer......stop being a candya$$ and order the parts! if you burn a valve that is good because it will give you an excuse to buy a decent set of heads!

here is the summit part number, part description and price. you should only come back to this thread once you have installed the parts and have some info to post.

DMH-20025-2 ELECTRIC CUT OUT 2.5" DUAL $349.95

 

[jacob9]

oh yeah...I'm taking up sooo much bandwith
It's called a messageboard...people discuss things....get used to it. And this isn't some trivial matter either...if I "just go out an try it" as you suggested" one of either two results will come:
1) The myth is busted and no damamge will result to my engine.
2) The myth turns out to be true, and I have damaged/warped/whatever exhaust valves.

at this point nobody is discussing anything. everyone has given you their opinions about what will happen. there are 2 pages of discussion which is great, but now you are at a point where it is "put up" or "shut up". which means either go out and buy the freakin parts and see what happens or don't buy them and admit that you weren't serious about doing this mod to your car.

 

[JJPA]

ok i dont know how old this thread is but i want an answer to my question. Im not running open headers, but i am running long tubes with a catless H pipe dumped under the car. Sounds awesome, just want to make sure im not hurting anythihn which it seems im not.

 

[final5-0]

I just skimmed through all this stuff and I can tell you some facts about some of the things i briefly saw in this thread.

Not only me, but several of my old time gear head buds used to go to the 1/4 mile strip when we were kids just about every weekend and sometimes on Wednesday evenings as well.

All of our cars had lt's which were open at the track. We did that for about 3 years and none of us had any probs with burning valves.

Later
Grady

 

[18mustangs]

If he just wants loud exhaust he can get LTs, o\r h-pipe, and 2 chamber flows. Of course he can't turn that off for "regular" driving like he wants to. Just my $0.02.
--Tim