Honda Horsepower

I found this interesting article online which gives a bit on an insight as to the components of a basic exhaust system. It's not specifically for Honda Exhaust Systems but I thought it might interest some of you.

Components of exhaust system and their functions

To understand the workings of an exhaust system, it is important to understand the functions of individual components and their interaction with each other. An exhaust system, in basic terms removes the burnt gases produced in the engine into the atmosphere. But for an efficient working of the engine, the air flow through the engine needs to be smooth. Since pumping the gases out of the system itself consumes some amount of total horsepower, better outward air flow leads to more efficient engine working and better mileage. So an effective exhaust system not only has to serve the purpose of removing gases, but also doing it efficiently to improve engine’s performance.

In a typical exhaust system, gases flow out through the following components in order: exhaust manifold, catalytic convertor, resonator and muffler. The exhaust manifold is pipe arrangement with its ends tightly attached to the exhaust port of cylinder heads. Usually gaskets are used between the attachments to avoid leakage of gas. An exhaust pipe, usually made of stainless steel, connects the exhaust manifold to the catalytic convertor.

The Catalytic convertor plays a vital role in reducing environmental pollution by filtering pollutants like carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and unburned hydrocarbons, which if left untreated can prove to be dangerous to the environment as well as us. There are many variations in catalytic convertors, but most are available as pellet-type or monolithic-types. A Pellet type convertor has a bed of hundreds of small beads over which exhaust gas passes. In the case of monolithic convertor, gases pass through a ceramic honey comb. In both types, beads and ceramic block are coated with a layer of platinum, palladium or rhodium. In the end, the harmful gases are converted to carbon dioxide and water.

Attached the catalytic convertor is a setup of resonator and muffler connected via exhaust piping. Both resonator and muffler basically perform the same function; reducing the noise produced by the engine’s outgoing gases. The resonator essentially helps the muffler in working much more effectively. Removing a resonator can increase sound by around twenty five percent. The Muffler has an arrangement of perforated tubes and tuning chambers which convert sound energy into heat energy. A tail pipe connected at the end of muffler takes the gases to rear of the vehicle and expels it into the atmosphere.

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One of the most overlooked things when modifying a car is the wheel alignment. A bad alignment has the ability to cause handling losses much greater than any fancy coilovers or swaybars can possible correct. It is therefore vital that a decent wheel alignment be had every time you change something on the suspension. To get your head around it here are the basic terms you need to know

Camber – This refers to the angle of the wheels if are looking straight down at the car from above. If the bottom of the wheel sticks out further than the top then you have negative camber. It is quite common for factory cars to run a small amount of negative camber. Positive camber is where the top of the wheel sticks out further than the bottom, it is unlikely that any factory car will run more than 1 degree of positive camber. It is also unlikely in any application that you will want to gain positive camber.

Toe – If, from the drivers perspective, the front wheels are angled inwards, and if you extended a line from each of them the lines would eventually meet in front of the car, then the car has toe in. Toe out is where the wheels point away from each other. Toe in and out is often used to change the amount of turn in or high stability a car has.

Castor – This refers to the angle the suspension geometry is on. Generally we only see positive castor and not negative. If the front suspension is angled towards the driver then we have positive caster. Positive castor essentially means that the car will gain negative camber when the steering heel is turned. If you don’t understand (it can be tricky) go and turn the front wheels on a car and watch how the camber changes.

In terms of Honda alignments we generally see people add negative camber to the front of the cars. This will generally increase the handling capacity of the car (to a point) as there is a greater tire contact patch when turning. The downside to negative camber is that it promotes camber wear on your tires. Toe is generally only adjusted to suit a driver’s individual style, or corrected to +/- 1 degree when suspension parts are changed. One thing that is often overlooked in a Honda alignment is the castor, most probably as it is not easily adjustable on most Honda models. It can however offer a considerable handling advantage as negative camber is gained through the corners yet in the straights the car can run almost no camber increasing stability and decreasing tire wear.