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Understanding Your Car's Exhaust System


Understanding Your Car's Exhaust System

Michelle Crimson
August 4, 2006

Vehicles nowadays are equipped with advanced features compared to other models developed years ago. Like the human body, vehicles are also composed of different systems. These automotive systems include the electrical system, engine system, electrical system, steering and suspension, and the exhaust system. All of these components perform different roles that enable an automobile to function properly.

One of the substantial components of a certain vehicle is the exhaust system. Exhaust systems transmit burnt gases coming from the internal combustion engine to the exhaust pipe. Today, most of the modern vehicle’s exhaust system is designed to make the gases flow through a catalytic converter reducing the air pollution. A device called the muffler is also utilized to minimize the noise produced by exhaust system. Like the other automotive system, the exhaust system also contains several components.

One of the components of the exhaust system is the manifold or header. The main purpose of the manifold is to gather the burnt gases from multiple cylinders in the internal combustion engine and place it into a single pipe. Header is an alternative name for manifold and these are especially designed to enhance the performance.

Header-back is the portion of the exhaust system that allows gases to flow from the outlet of the header to the exhaust pipe. Turbo-back is the part of the exhaust system that is located between the outlet of the turbocharger and the exhaust pipe. Some of the exhaust systems eliminate catalytic converters because the turbo-back performs the same function as the catalytic converter. The last component of the exhaust system is the catback. Catbacks are also refereed as axle back, which is the part of the exhaust system that is located in between the exhaust pipe and the outlet of the catalytic converter. The catback also includes the muffler and the whole length of the exhaust pipe.

There are a lot of exhaust systems available in the market today like the Jaguar XKR exhaust system.




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