Euro headers

Any benefit to using Euro exhaust headers on an early carb car? I have an opportunity to get in on a pair, and I might consider it if the difference is a noteable one.

 

I believe there's no functional difference -- US headers are just euro headers with the added external insulation and aluminum-skin wrapping. If your air injection is working and you have cats, you should stay with the (insulated) US headers; if your air injection and cats have been removed, you can run the euro headers, and save (by removing), or sell, your US headers.

 

They sound cool...

 

I also think this is right. For the early cars, the only difference was the emissions mods/heat shielding - the primary, secondary and general arrangement of the pipes is the same. The actual flow pattern and pipes did not differ until the 3.2 US single cat as best I can tell.

Still, it feels so groovy to say.

 

Thanks for the info. Sounds like the US headers are the way to go for all early cars due to the insulation.

 

Yes, and no......it is the early version of a cat convertor, if functioning with air pumps to complete combustion of unburned CO, but most pumps are gone or not working by now except CA.....

In my case they hid cracking until the unit blew completely to pieces catching car on fire....oh the joy!

New units would therefore be a safety upgrade IMO, and could be Jet Hot coated or even wrapped with cladding tape if you wanted to retain the heat trap function..


Original material is asbestos inside aluminum, 91TR????
Mmmmmmmm..good! Throw that stuff in the dumpster at night, after checking over your shoulder!

 

Yes, it probably is asbestos.

Assuming that your 308 is running well (unlike Bubba's was ), and if you are sans air injection (assuming your '76 is catless), the insulation is a plus for lowering underhood temps, but the insulation and aluminum case itself take a beating over time. If you can get the euro set for a good price (and are running sans air injection), I'd buy them and use them just to keep the US set in as good a shape as possible (i.e., the $ value of a 308 without air injection and without US headers + a set of US headers to sell separately is greater than a 308 without air injection with US headers) -- JMO.

 

Hi,
My 1978 308 gt4 came to me with the european headers. It was without the heat shields, however, these were available from superperformance.

I am pretty shure that because of the cat. converters, aftermarket exhaust systems for the USA and eurpoean cars are different. With these european headers, the european aftermarket exhaust will connect right to the header, without needing 'test pipes' or the cats.

Front european heat shield and header on USA car

Rear european heat shield and header on USA car

 

That's not the same part although mine did have the shield below alternator belt like that...

The ones we are discussing were around the individual tubes from the head, capturing them in packed fiber and clad in aluminum making it a 'big lump' for lack of a technical term......

91tr is right I had ignition failure that blew them up....

They glow hot enough that the aluminum was dripping off! Splattering on the road at night.....

 

I thought that by the QV the headers and muffler were differernt. The US Spec cars have a single inlet, through the cat, into the muffler. The EURO spec has 2 inlets and no cats.

 

I also thought that the mounting points were differnt between Euro and the US models.

Cheers!

DT

 

This is an "early carb car" thread.....LOL!

Euros were NON CAT thru '80......

 

yes, you're correct -- the late us qv's did have the single cat as well when they started using the o2 sensor feedback (euros did not have this).

 

I cut off the heatshields on my US headers and am having them tripple ceramic coated currently, inside and out. I am hoping to get at as good of a heatshield as before as well as more space in the engine compartment and a prettier engine compartment.
Do you guys think that the value of my car is now less due to the missing original asbestos/aluminium heatshield?

Helmut

 

What is "triple ceramic coating"?

For the most part, I do not think doing the headers will affect resale one way or another - at least not much as long as it is done well.

I am putting a set of headers without heat shields on mine and will be ceramic coating - am very interested to see how yours turns out.

Best

rt

 

Tripple coating means they do three coats of the ceramic, the more layers the better. On the inside they float it, which means they seal off one end of it and fill the tubes with the ceramic liquid to make sure all the inside walls are covered as well.
This is just one step in my complete remodel of my 308 so it will be a while before I can actually try it out. I am having it done by specialised coatings in Huntington Beach.

Helmut