Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods 3.0 Exhaust Manifold Swap Info

What about the Villager/Quest? What the heck engine is in those (I'm surprised I don't know)? Just posing a possible option for a manifold swap. HTH

I've been silently watching this topic over the last few weeks. I like it. I have a family that I need to help support. I really can't afford the cost of a set of headers right now. So, if someone has the time to research this topic and then report back to the rest of us, I can only say on this to them: THANKS!!

With regard to the Villager/Quest engine question: it is a Nissan engine. My wife drives a '95. It was sort of interesting to me to work on the van and find electrical connectors in various parts of the van looking like they were from the same 'family' as the connectors in the Contour, and then find the coinnectors on the engine were definitely from somehwere else. [I found that one out while I was setting the ignition timing.]

Please keep this topic alive.

Thanks.

Mike

Darkhorse-It's very easy to say "nope, that won't work". Myself, I prefer to spend the time figuring out a way IT WILL WORK and I do believe that's the point of this discussion.

My past experience has been that replacing stock exhaust manifolds with headers provides a decent gain. If however, we're talking about replacing one set of headers with another supposedly better set, the gains will be much smaller, likely on the order of 5 HP, depending on the amount of tuning and engineering done by the manufacturer. Are all primary tubes of equal length? Are they tuned for bottom end or high RPM power (pipe length vs. diameter)? Are they a 180 degree design? What about the collectors and the exhaust piping? How's the fabricating work like bends and welds-neat and tidy or sloppy? I've built my own custom headers on a 4 cylinder Formula car and personally, the cost to HP equation for aftermarket headers just doesn't add up on our cars. Not IMHO. If you're going to go to all the trouble of installing headers you'd be much farther ahead cutting up the stockers and reworking them. That way there are no emissions issues/problems for those of us who must go through regular testing.