Inliners International Forums General Discussion Hi Performance 180 degree headers

Wondering if any one has any experience with 180 degree headers, when they were able to be mail ordered for muscle cars I was not born yet and it seems the only vehicles that have them now are high end exotics. I have to scratch build a header for my L8 Packard and thought it might give me a couple more horses but is it worth the trouble?

Don't bother is my opinion.
It would be good to see some dyno data on 180 vs non-180, Ive never seen any but in any case, 180 equal-length is designed to get the absolute max power at one given RPM. Great idea if you're just curcling the high banks at the Packard Proving Ground (we've actually done that!).

But for street, dragracing, roadracing, even short track, the engine sees a range of RPM, so putting all the peaks at one RPM is of little use. The typical 90-180-270 unequal length headers are fine IMHO, they will just give smaller peaks but spread over a larger RPM range.
I think avoiding restrictions and sharp bends/turns, especially right at the exhaust port, matters a lot more. I HAVE seen dyno data to support that (though not on a Packard!)

Don't bother is my opinion.
It would be good to see some dyno data on 180 vs non-180, Ive never seen any but in any case, 180 equal-length is designed to get the absolute max power at one given RPM. Great idea if you're just curcling the high banks at the Packard Proving Ground (we've actually done that!).

But for street, dragracing, roadracing, even short track, the engine sees a range of RPM, so putting all the peaks at one RPM is of little use. The typical 90-180-270 unequal length headers are fine IMHO, they will just give smaller peaks but spread over a larger RPM range.
I think avoiding restrictions and sharp bends/turns, especially right at the exhaust port, matters a lot more. I HAVE seen dyno data to support that (though not on a Packard!)

So if i am following you correctly 180 is similar in a way to ram tuning the intake you get a little bump in power in a very narrow RPM band? Sadly I don't think any dyno data is available for an L8 Packard lol. But seeing as how I have to pretty much scratch build almost everything everything for the car/ engine, figured I would see if anyone thought it would be a good idea to go 180.

I think a tri-Y design will yield the best and broadest RPM range of power than the 180° design will. As mentioned, it has a very narrow range that it targets, and you could miss it completely with your engine, where as the tri-Y can reach down into the lower RPM and extend on into the mid-range and beyond.

Thanks for the input. With a tri-y design which cylinders do you mate together to achieve the best result?