Headers! To do? Or not to do?

[Rowanoak88]

So i am in the process of transmoglifying my 1993 4.0l v6 4x4 from an auto to a manual and I'm woundering if I should do the headers while I'm at it. If so what ones do you guys recommend? Thanks

 

[RonD]

Depends on what you are after

Ranger's Factory exhaust manifolds are "headers", meaning they are tuned to get best scavenged power in the mid RPM range which is 2,300-2,900 on the 4.0l, which is why 4.0l OHV generates the best torque at 2,600rpm

3rd party headers are usually designed/tuned to move scavenged power lower in the RPM band, more "off the line" torque
But there are Racing headers, that move the scavenged power to higher RPM band
You lose the mid-RPM power but gain it back in the low or high range, respectively

And then there is "the look", lol, which is one of the reasons people want "headers", they simply look better than factory exhaust manifolds

 

[Rowanoak88]

Depends on what you are after

Ranger's Factory exhaust manifolds are "headers", meaning they are tuned to get best scavenged power in the mid RPM range which is 2,300-2,900 on the 4.0l, which is why 4.0l OHV generates the best torque at 2,600rpm

3rd party headers are usually designed/tuned to move scavenged power lower in the RPM band, more "off the line" torque
But there are Racing headers, that move the scavenged power to higher RPM band
You lose the mid-RPM power but gain it back in the low or high range, respectively

And then there is "the look", lol, which is one of the reasons people want "headers", they simply look better than factory exhaust manifolds

Well Im just gonna leave it factory then cuz I dont want a race truck. I want a beefy above average ranger I can take off road without problems but also be my daily in town driver. Not commuter vehicle. Look don't matter. I can high heat powder coat oem headers if I want it to look good.

 

[gw33gp]

The only times I've had success with headers is on full race engines. Otherwise, there seems to be some kind of drawback with the use of headers on a basically stock engine.