woops double post

 

that cleared up a couple of things but I'm still a little confused... the heat exchanger does the same thing as a cat except it needs air(from the air pump) to kill the co2. now if I put in the header it will get rid of the air pump so that means no more air will be brought to the heat exchanger? but I heard some people say the left their ACV and Air Pump on while they got the header? when you say the header gets rid of the thermal reactor,, what exactly does it get rid of?

 

Ok, I cant add pictures to posts with the edit feature, so I have to make a new one. Do visual aids help? This is a picture of the RB exhaust from the engine to the bumper. I divided it up and labeled each piece to show what it replaces on the 79-80 cars. Maybe this will help?

~T.J.

 

Now Im not to familiar with the 79-80 type exhaust, but as far as I know, the thremal reactor and the heat exchanger both require air from the air pump to work. The thermal reactor is more of the "catalytic converter" than the heat exchanger is. So by taking that off to put the header on, your basically removing the "cat" from the car. So by removing the "cat", there is no real reason to have the air pump or ACV anymore. Basically, you dont have to take the air pump or ACV off. They wont be in the way or anything, its just why have them if they dont do anything anymore? Does that help?

~T.J.

PS - I had many questions very similar to this before I bought my system. In the end its all so simple I laugh at how confused I was .

 

wow thanks a lot! oh well I guess I'm going to have to get the RB Full Exhaust system(sniff sniff!) lol.. your rx-7 is your daily driver right? no feeling dizzy? that's the only thing that still scares me

 

I think the heat exchanger is exactly that - uses the hot exhaust to heat the air (via a jacket around a short section of the hot exhaust pipe) from the air pump, to inject into the exhaust ports at the thermal reactor. (the thermal reactor needs air from the air pump to cool it also)

If you can dig up a Haynes manual, check out the diagram. If not, I can try to scan it and attach it tomorrow.

 

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That's it!

And I forgot, the header saves a lot of weight - the thermal reactor and pipe leading from it to the heat exchanger are heavy bastards! And you won't be needing the cooling air pipe (the smaller pipe running alongside the exhaust) either!

 

so I can just take off that long and ugly pipe next to the exhaust that is getting air when I get my header right?

 

Yes. It vents the cooling air from the former thermal reactor to the back.

I scanned a couple of things, hope they help. (photo is one of few existing of my long since departed '79) Note block-off plate where acv was.