Can someone tell me if there is an easy way to tell if a 240Z has a header or not? I looked at a car the other day and the seller said that no modifications have been made but the exaust is pretty loud and it looked like it may have a header, but then again I'm not sure how to tell the difference.

Open the hood and look at the exhaust exiting the head. A stock unit is a heavy one piece cast iron assembly and a header will have six separate tubes that converge into a collector. Two types of headers are available, 6 into 1 or 6 into 2 into 1. Hope this helps you out TEXASZ

if it's aftermarket.... look in your engine bay much like 240ZX was saying and simply look towards the exhuast manifold and see if you see a bunch of long tubes which connect to the exhuast.

If its kinda bundled in sort of a small piece with 6 tubes running to teh engine, its stock otherwise aftermarket headers will usually be brighter and more attractive, since they are newer, and are longer with different designs.

Tell us what you found

Also, the stock manifold mates to the stock exhaust with a flange. Many headers come down and are just clamped to an exhaust pipe with no flange. I think the stock flange has three bolts if I remember correctly.

It is very easy to tell.

If you see a one piece unit coming off the engine going to 2 exhaust lines that is the Stock setup.

If you remember my car had 6 pipes coming off the engine and they went to one big outlet.

A Header will have individual piping off each exhaust port.

These are some of the things I was trying to do, compare what I remembered seeing on the car to what I saw on yours Ernie, and also the pic in the MSA catalog. I'm pretty sure that it had a header. If all goes well I will be buying it this weekend! I have put a couple conditions on the sale that the seller must meet first (i.e. car must pass inspection as it expired in Feb and he has been driving it anyhow).

PrOxLaMuS©, it does have a header! And I now own the car too! :classic: