How a Car Exhaust System Helps Lower Pollutants and keep Passengers Safe
A vehicleexhaust systemhas three major functions: help the engine run quietly, cut the amount of toxic gases the engine has produced during the combustion process, and guide those gases to the back of the vehicle where they are finally released. To do this, the exhaust system has a few but important parts that include key emission control systems. This car exhaust guide will help you understand how this important system helps operate a vehicle safely.Every vehicle with acombustion-type enginecomes equipped with one or two exhaust manifolds, depending on engine size and configuration. You can find it by looking under the hood of your own vehicle. The exhaust manifold is the unit with a series of pipes-usually iron cast or some steel alloy-that attaches to the cylinder head and runs the length of the engine from one side to the other.During engine operation, the exhaust manifold captures the exhaust gases coming out of the engine cylinders through the exhaust ports on the cylinder head. From there, gases travel down the header pipe, a steel tubing that connects the exhaust manifold to thecatalytic converter. If you were to lift the front of a vehicle, support it safely on jack stands and crawl under it, you'd be able to see the other end of the header pipe connecting to a metal box. This box is the catalytic converter. It is the converter's job to process exhaust gases to eliminate as much pollutants as possible caused by the combustion process during engine operation.Also, to help control exhaust emissions, modern vehicles have one or moreoxygen sensors. This sensor mounts on the header pipe-and intermediate pipe, if equipped with more than one. The sensor reads the amount of oxygen in the exhaust stream and sends this information to the computer for a better emission control.Once the catalytic converter processes the exhaust gases, they enter the intermediate pipe, which carries them into the muffler. The muffler is another box-like part located under and towards the rear of the vehicle. The muffler encloses a maze of chambers, baffles, holes and tubes. This internal configuration quiets down exhaust gas noises that shoot out through the exhaust valve openings, on the cylinder head, during the last part of combustion cycle as they enter the exhaust manifold.Finally, the exhaust gases exit the exhaust system through the tail pipe. This is the small piece of tubing connected to the rear of the muffler. Here, the combustion gases find their way into the atmosphere and away from the vehicle and their passengers.V-type engines come equipped with two-cylinder heads. Thus, each cylinder head has its own exhaust routing system. Therefore, each of these routing systems has its own manifold and catalytic converter. If they are not connected through a Y pipe, the system may also come with two mufflers as well. Still, each exhaust routing branch accomplishes the same goal: reduce exhaust pollutants and route gases out of the vehicle in a safe way.
