Does Aftermarket Exhaust Add Horsepower?

Car enthusiasts are often very intrigued by the idea of aftermarket exhausts. The reason is that it is said to increase horsepower, but does it do that?

Well, to answer it in the simplest of terms, then yes! It does add horsepower to a car's engine. They enable an enhanced airflow in the combustion chamber, removing exhaust gases. More fresh air means better combustion followed by the previous one.

Let's have a detailed look at these exhausts and how they increase horsepower.

What Does an Exhaust Do?

Combustion happens in an engine's combustion chamber by mixing air & fuel, which generates power. The amounts of air and fuel are balanced to keep the engine running.

All know that hazardous gases and toxins are produced after combustion. Removing these gases instantly from the combustion chamber is of paramount importance. Because only with the elimination of these gases will be made room for more fresh air to mix with the fuel. So, here comes the need for an exhaust, which sucks and pulls the extra gases out from the engine.

An exhaust system is made up of three following components:

• exhaust header (entry point of exhaust)
• a catalytic converter (CAT; converts hazardous gases into non-hazardous ones)
• muffler (controls the overall noise of the system)

How Can Aftermarket Exhaust Increase Horsepower?

If one wants to increase the horsepower, one simply needs to let more fresh air in. This new air would ensure powerful combustion and more power to the wheels. The same goal is achieved by several other modifications like cold air intakes or performance air filters.

The aftermarket exhaust is no different. It also works by enhancing the airflow in the engine. But the catch is that exhaust sucks the by-product gases almost instantly. This creates a vacuum only to be filled by a gush of fresh air for combustion.

The following processes do this:

Decrease Exhaust Back Pressure

There is air outside the combustion chamber which exerts pressure known as backpressure. For a smooth emission of toxic gases, this back pressure should remain as low as possible for a simple scientific reason - diffusion.

So, by simply increasing the exhaust pipe diameter, backpressure gets decreased. The increased diameter lets the gases pass through the pipe quickly. This ultimately enables an enhanced airflow.

Increase Exhaust Velocity

The speed of gases leaving the car is termed exhaust velocity. The higher the exhaust velocity, the quicker the emission of gases.

Thus, a narrower exhaust pipe is the solution for a quick flow of gases. But wouldn't that affect the backpressure? It naturally would, but that's the real catch. One has to reach a midway so that the diameter neither gets too wide nor gets too narrow.

So, they have already developed advanced mechanisms to prevent this problem by designing specialized aftermarket exhausts.

How Much Horsepower Does Aftermarket Exhaust Add?

Well, to be completely honest about it, the amount of extra horsepower is not too much. The inbuilt exhaust system takes care of much of the work to generate most horsepower. Aftermarket exhausts are simply add-ons to get an extra kick unless the stock exhaust systems are too limiting.

But that happens rarely. So, experts suggest that before making a purchase, one must always study the impact of aftermarket exhausts over the internet. The research should be model-specific so that one can make an informed decision.

That is all you need to know about aftermarket exhausts and how they increase horsepower.