Theres something on my car that looks like a header cover but it's rusty and looks ugly. Is it ok to take it off or would my header start getting rusty too?

 

That's the heat shield for your exhaust manifold. You don't have a header. If you take it off, your engine bay will be hotter. Leave it on unless you put a header on.

 

If you take it off, you will see the exhaust manifold and how rusty that is compared to the heat shield. Unless you get a header, I reccomend painting the heat shield. I did mine silver. Looks good until this day.

 

Is there a difference between a header and an exhaust manifold? I thought they were the same thing?

Anyhoo you can take it off. It won't raise the engine bay temp any more than headers would. The shield is to protect you from burning your hands on the headers when working on your car. I had mine off for quite awhile before I found my headers. The exhaust manifold/stock headers will be rusty.

 

header, exhaust manifold = same damn thing

 

Perform the same function, not same damn thing. Isn't an exhaust manifold one opening for all exhaust ports while a header (or headers, whatever) are 4 seperate pipes, in the case of a 4 banger? The theory being that these pipes are designed in a way in which the exhaust gases from each exhaust port will enter the main exhaust system at different times. While in an exhaust manifold all the ports are dumping gases into one large pipe which causes the gases to become disturbed and ends up restricting the air flow.

 

4-1 header does this exact thing. Exhaust manifold = header. Same thing yo.

 

a manifold is typically a single piece of cast iron, while headers are made of a flange and 4 seperate pipes that collect into one. Header pipes have a less porus surface inside, allowing the gasses to flow easier, they are also all the same length i believe.

If and when you take the shield off, run the car for a minute to heat the manifold, expanding it slightly... this will make the bolts easier to remove, with less chance of breaking them off.

I painted my head shield in my 94 to match the valve cover... used the black "wrinkle" paint... came out really nice. Now when I remove the valve cover to adjust the valves, i'm gonna re-paint that too because there is some corosion starting. Also, replaced the 3 bolts with new stainless steel bolts, didnt want to ruin all that work with rusty old bolts.

 

What i would do is take it off and repaint it with some high temp paint color of your choosing of course

 

a header and a manifold are definitely not the same thing....even the h22a manifold which is designed like a header, yet is still a manifold, is inferior.....most manifolds are better for emissions while headers make better power, and headers scavenge a LOT better than manifolds.....that might not sound like lot, but read up on scavenging....poor scavenging means your old, burnt mixture is staying in the cylinder and mixing with the new mixture, therefore hurting power a lot....headers help get all that shit out and allow each cylinder to work more individually as opposed to the manifold setup....same goes for turbo setups....small power works well with manifolds, but to make big efficient power, you'll need an equal length tube header