Quote:
Originally Posted by Concrete
can you explain more
I am looking at exhaust mods for other reasons
but simplifying and shorting the exhaust seemed like a good thing to do along the way
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You might think so, but most of the time, not true. An OEM engine combination was assembled with a cat, muffler, and long exhaust pipe in mind. Get away from the OEM operating parameters (say you want to run the engine at a higher average rpm) and things change.
There is a lot of published theory associated with tuned intake and tuned exhausts dating back tot he 1950's... the OEMs make lots of compromises, a sort of one-size-fits-all tune for the maases who buy their vehicles in combination with what is inexpensive to manufacture or pull out of the parts bin from another model. (check out Burn's Stainless, SPD, and Performance Welding Racing Headers websites and others for the short story on exhaust theory).
Most of the aftermarket exhausts sold these days are for the customer who will be using a higher rpm range (the street racer or hot rod guy). Then there's the towing and motorhome market, who want a system tuned for low end torque (check out Gale Banks and Gibson exhaust sites). Because of different needs, it's often easy to improve on a stock exhaust system.
In general, a tuned header and collector will net torque gains within the rpm range it was designed for, but you need to size the primary tube length, diameter, and collector style for your particular engine. It's displacement, camshaft and head flow ex. to int. ratio, desired operating range, muffler vs no mufler all come into play.
I mentioned in another thread that in dyno testing one of my race engines, I experimented with several headers and mufflers to find what I was looking for. Theory gets you close, experimentation gets you close to optimal.