V8 exhaust question.

[mark.yellow.series.3]

iam nearly ready for making an exhaust for the swb V8,
some people tell me i will need to join both exhaust headers together( in a 'y' piece) to balance the engine, but i have seen american cars where there is an exhaust comes out of each side of the car ( thats what i want to do).
and ive also seen on telly a V8 with 8 seperate pipes coming off the engine.

can any one shed any light on the matter.

[dew1911]

The Usual method for a V8 (and Audi 1.8T) is to have to seperate outlets, and I presume it'll work with Land Rovers, if anything they'd be more balanced.

I think it would work either way, but I know I'd agree with you and go for a pair of them.

[Range Rover Blues]

Er, no.  some V8s have a different firing order that allows separate headers, but the rover does not, you need to join the 2 sides.  Even systems that do have handed exhaust will often have a balancer pipe between the 2 sides, or they run into 1 and separate further back, this is what you need to do otherwise it will chug badly and the different cylinders will run, well, differently.

[datalas]

the rover V8 requires the Y pipe system for cross compression, it was designed to have one and will run like a bag of spanners without...

of course you could fit two I suppose :?

[mark.yellow.series.3]

cheers guys i thought it would need a y pipe. might just have one side exit exhaust.

[Manicminer]

The Rover SD1 that I had years ago had for each manifold :- 4 into 2, 2 into 1 and then *both* outlet manifilds into 1.

[rollazuki]

Ran my (tuned) v8 series with each side not connected together. Ran like a nail under 3000 rpm.
Ran fine flat out, but the 'Y' piece helps evacuate the other cylinders as each exhaust pulse passes thru it.
Keep the 'Y' piece, or run a connecting pipe between both branches.

[mark.yellow.series.3]

thanks for the advise, any suggestions on the bore of the connecting pipe, or should it just be same diameter as rest of the exhaust.