That thread hurt my brain to read.erikv11 wrote:This recent discussion about exhaust manifolds is informative http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/topic/17 ... ison-test/
There's a huge amount of folk science in automotive performance tuning, and as a collective audience we, the enthusiast community, are embarrassingly gullible. Someone reads something in a fluids textbook about minor losses and writes on a car forum about it, then everyone's falling over himself to spend $400 on a part with "less bends" because "bends restrict flow". Meanwhile, nobody does real analysis, with math, of the actual application, nobody does a dyno test, everyone's got an opinion, and the world is a little dumber. Examples: "reverse intercooler piping" kits, the obsession with mandrel bends in exhausts.
A flow bench test could demonstrate that one can put more gas through a manifold, but it would not demonstrate that that capacity is being used to any benefit in an exhaust system. I don't think anyone could conclusively put the question of whether a particular manifold helps performance without doing two dyno tests. But I don't doubt that people will continue to have strong opinions about which is best.







