Driving With Headers Only - What do I need to know?

[PHOENIX]

I need to get my truck down to the Meineke by my house, its less then 1/2 mile away. I can drive 90% of the way through the neighborhood at any speed.

I will have these headers installed: Edelbrock Headers 6527
These are shorty headers, not your standard shortys either.
They are really short like the stock manifolds.
Is it ok to drive the truck a short distance with only the headers on?
Is there a certain way I should drive it?
What can I hurt by doing this?
Is this stupid? Should I tow it down there?

I would hate to hurt my engine, trying to save time or money towing it down the street.

A guy I work with told me, what can happen is if you get on it and let off, air can be sucked back up through the headers into the engine and that when you do damage. He told me if I drive slow and dont get on it, I will be fine. Yet I have heard others say that you can burn up the exhaust valves.

What do you guys think?

[hotrodhomi]

I drove with my headers to the shop it was about 5 miles away... poelpe look at you funny but you should be fine. If you get pulled over just tell the cop that you are going to the shop and he will 99.9% of the time let you off. Your engine should be ok. Drag cars dont have mufflers.

[bigblock73]

Driving with open headers will not damage your engine...I did it twice with no damage.

First time I did it I was heading to the exhaust shop. My G-pa was pulling me (via tow strap) and the strap came off. I thought he would stop, but he kept going and going and going. After I realized he wasn't goint to figure out I cam unhooked any time soon, I fired up the truck and caught up to him and passed him...you should have seen the look of surprise on his face when he realized what just happened.

Second time I ran with open headers was at the Car Craft burn out contest. I competed in three rounds, no problems there either.

I guess it boils down to how anal the police are in your area. If you get caught by a cop who is "by the book" or one who is having a bad day...you might get a ticket.

[oldraven]

Wouldn't open flame under the hood be a bad thing?

[bigblock73]

Originally Posted by oldraven

Wouldn't open flame under the hood be a bad thing?

Theres no flames involved here.

[hotrodhomi]

I drove my truck with just the eldelbrock TES headers and I was fine. You will be fine man go for it. Worst that could happen is a fix-it ticket and that would be fixed once you reach your exhaust shop.

[oldraven]

Originally Posted by bigblock73

Theres no flames involved here.

Open headers wouldn't cause flames to shoot out? It sure as hell will with manifolds.

[1FaastC10]

it will shoot flames under decelleration, but having run just stock manifolds on many cars, i've never had any underhood fires yet, the cars i ran like that were being beat profusely for long periods of time. you should be fine, only real problem you will run into is Johnny Law.

[76bonanza]

With long tubes it is no problem just really noisey. Yes you can shoot flames out of headers and with shorties the risk of that is worse. But your first comment is right on do not rev it up really high then back off quickly it can pull in cold air and cause problems but it is not likely for such a short trip. Just take it easy and watch all the evil glances you will get. And as far as drag racers doing it there motors are timed and tuned for it also they rebuild after almost every day of runing.

[SanitysBane]

i ran my truck with open headers to a car show, it was loud, expecially sence i just put the transmission in it, and it would shift out of 1st so i was going to the road at 2 grand then i drove it home, it was a good 20 miles atleast, i did get alot of evil stares, and one guy told me to shut the truck down because it was to loud, i didn't though

[1972C10]

HUH? Ive been running open headers latley on my 72 Not cause i want too just cause Im too poor to get my new mufflers put on .. Either that or the muffler shops are too high.

[Destructo]

you'll be fine, you burn valves when you run the engine with too short an exhaust, long as your not running it to redline you will be just fine.