Quote:
Originally Posted by ZLRob
Burning plug wires and burning harnesses are not only expensive errors but unnecessary errors that could be avoided entirely by sticking with the OE stuff which were designed to factor that stuff in mind. It might not be the best for performance so I'm not trying to talk anyone out of it, but it's one of those things that's a preference to some who are in the know- how of general mods.
I've owned an OHV engine car with headers before (they came with it) and had to deal with that stuff. No matter what I did or put on them the plug wires would burn and all harnesses/ connectors around the headers became brittle and weak due to the increased heat radiation in the engine bay despite not even coming into contact with them. Yes they were ceramic coated. Eventually I got so sick of messing with the car because of that and other engine related reasons that I just sold it and cut my losses.
That being said, I do appreciate them for what they do and how much flow they open up, but I don't like all the inherent issues that they can and do present, so the reaction has some warrant to it.
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Yeah, I've worked on a lot of cars and have to agree, headers often cause issues and ceramic coatings don't block enough heat when the car's driven hard. If a vehicle is a ground-up project then you can plan on locating everything properly but when installed in otherwise stock vehicles the heat is always an issue and you typically have to protect a lot of stuff from heat damage. Without experience it's very easy to overlook something. And typically, you have to spend $ on new sparkplug wires, fabricate heat shields, move stuff, etc. It's an expensive PITA.
TBH, I have no idea why so many people mess with the OEM exhaust on modern cars. In the not so distant past headers used to be worth a TON of power and also better fuel economy, and of course older cars typically also had very restrictive mufflers so it made sense to do a full exhaust. With a 6th gen Camaro you're voiding your warranty, destroying your emissions compliance and spending big-$ for maybe 25hp. IMO, there's a TON of better things to spend your money on, but to each their own.