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| Header Installation
on the #702 Rabbit GTI (Stephen Jones) |
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What
is a header? "Something that makes a lot of noise and improves
the breathing of the engine" is a sound answer. Getting the correct
size header is just as important as getting a header of good quality
and design. Bigger is not better! Your exhaust manifold was designed
to balance out the pressures between your engine and the outside world.
The back pressure (this balance) assists the engine with pulling the
exhaust gases out of the engine. When you are selecting a header you
need to keep in mind the purpose of this performance product. The purpose
is to increase the flow of exhaust from your engine while maintaining
a proper balance of inside and outside pressures. Essentially, get a
header that is too big and you could lose power. |
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When
it comes to performance parts for Volkswagens I have always relied on
Techtonics Tuning. I was able to procure a 1 5/8" header pipe into
a 2 1/2" collector (4 to 1 race header). While a performance dual-outlet
exhaust manifold with larger downpipe could come close to a race header,
I wanted more breathing at the high RPM's since, during hill climbing
especially, this is where the engine is running most of the time. |
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Out
with the old! Here are some images of what I took out. We used
a Diesel Rabbit manifold (larger ports and output), that we opened up
a little bit with a Dremel (gotta love Dremels). Connected to that was
a piece of 2" stainless steel dairy pipe that we purchased at Queen
City Steel in Burlington, Vermont. The dairy pipe was custom bent to
form the downpipe with 'cup' style connector from a Golf. Add in the
high flow Techtonics Tuning catalytic converter, or the cat-skipper
pipe, and connect it to the TT 2" exhaust system and you have a
great setup for the street.... but, I wanted more for racing. |
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The many views of my old exhaust system. I used all stainless steel nuts and bolts which proved to make taking the system apart a lot easier than it would be with standard (and rusty) hardware. I did not have to remove the engine to remove the exhaust manifold, downpipe or cat. skipper. |
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