62Ranchero200
Famous Member
Greetings Ford Six Fans,
I have a recently refreshed 200 in a '62 Ranchero (2,400 lbs). ATM it's stock except for a Clay Smith 262H cam, a DSII with an MSD 6A ignition box, aftermarket coil, and Pacemaker (Australian) headers, but I intend to upgrade to a DUI ignition and Autolite 2100 2V (with a carb adapter) soon.
The current exhaust system is as follows: the headers are "shorty" type, with 1.5" primaries of the following lengths:
1 - 16"
2 - 10"
3 - 11"
4 - 14"
5 - 11"
6 - 16"
Secondaries are 27.5" (1-2-3) and 21.5" (4-5-6) long respectively, 1.75" diameter. This is y'd into a 2" exhaust to a conventional muffler in the usual location, just in front of the gas tank.
I've read as many posts as I can find here about exhaust design, plus some of David Vizard's articles. It seems that for low to mid-range torque I'd want much longer primaries (maybe 21") plus 2.5" secondaries, also quite long. My question is, would upgrading to some long tube headers net a "seat of the pants", significant performance gain with the setup mentioned above? If so, I would do this sooner, but if not, I might wait for later on this - the interior needs quite a bit of work.
Thank you,
Bob the Builder
I have a recently refreshed 200 in a '62 Ranchero (2,400 lbs). ATM it's stock except for a Clay Smith 262H cam, a DSII with an MSD 6A ignition box, aftermarket coil, and Pacemaker (Australian) headers, but I intend to upgrade to a DUI ignition and Autolite 2100 2V (with a carb adapter) soon.
The current exhaust system is as follows: the headers are "shorty" type, with 1.5" primaries of the following lengths:
1 - 16"
2 - 10"
3 - 11"
4 - 14"
5 - 11"
6 - 16"
Secondaries are 27.5" (1-2-3) and 21.5" (4-5-6) long respectively, 1.75" diameter. This is y'd into a 2" exhaust to a conventional muffler in the usual location, just in front of the gas tank.
I've read as many posts as I can find here about exhaust design, plus some of David Vizard's articles. It seems that for low to mid-range torque I'd want much longer primaries (maybe 21") plus 2.5" secondaries, also quite long. My question is, would upgrading to some long tube headers net a "seat of the pants", significant performance gain with the setup mentioned above? If so, I would do this sooner, but if not, I might wait for later on this - the interior needs quite a bit of work.
Thank you,
Bob the Builder
