Looking for exhaust recommendations

62Ranchero200

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'62 Ranchero, 250 with ARP main studs, early 300 rods with ARP rod bolts, custom forged pistons (close to zero deck height), CI aluminum head with ARP head studs, Clay Smith 274/274/108 cam, Holley "500 CFM" carb, DUI, TCI 2500 stall converter, C4 with mild shift kit, stock open six cylinder differential with 3.50 gears, and CI stainless steel headers.

The CI headers exit into two 2" collectors. My primary goal is midrange torque - this will be a street-driven vehicle that may be raced occasionally. A secondary goal is an aggressive sound.

Will be firing up the engine soon, then one of the first drives will be to the muffler shop. I've read many posts about exhaust design, some a bit conflicting. I know I don't want to constrict the exhaust so much that there is excessive backpressure, nor open it up so much that exhaust gas velocity is below optimum, impacting scavenging. Given my goals, would true duals be best, or feeding both collectors into one muffler? Would 2" pipe be optimum? I like the sound of FlowMasters, are those efficient enough from a performance point of view?

Thanks
Bob the Builder
 
Flowmasters are a love/hate muffler. Either you love them or hate them. Performance wise, they are fine. Sound wise...I only liked them at two operating conditions. Idle and WOT. At idle, they sounded awesome. At WOT, they always made me grin ear to ear, even to this day. But everywhere in between I hated them. Even the 50 series I had droned between 1800 and 2200 RPM, which is where most of my driving happened.

I took them off. They were 2" in and out. I replaced them with generic turbo mufflers and couldn't have been happier. No noticeable difference in performance, but the sound was overall better. Still a nice note on idle, not quite as loud at WOT, and no drone. Not to hawk my wares, but I do still have the flowmasters in my garage. 50 series. Actually I have them and the turbo mufflers. I could be convinced to sell them cheaply just to get them out if you are interested, so send a PM. Just would have to wait until late May when I'm back in MA to box them up and ship them.

Slade
 
Expect different results on different drivetrains, . I swapped out a turbo type for 30" Smithy's (sp?) and drone disappeared. On my daily drive I use a pair of OEM six mufflersr = 1/2 restriction (?... ) . 2" exh pipe is easiest to find clamps and pre-bends if you are fabbing' it yourself.

also $.02 more: flex-pipe lengths help keep things hangin', and stainlesss steel truck-type band clamps can help R&R for maintenance...
.

have fun

.

the DD:

 
Any advantage to bringing the two headers into one with a Y-pipe and running lets say 2.25" or 2.5" out?

Scot in OKC
 
I'm on the the hate side of flowmasters, hate the sound, tin throaty. I love the dynomax mufflers. That's what I'm going to do econo64, I had put a new 2.25" dynomax muffler, short resonator(love the sound of that combo, very healthy, but not too aggressive) and tailpipe on shortly before my impending engine swap. I'm going to reuse them with the CI header.
 
i had magnaflow 14'' inch, dual was nice but the drone was there until I put a H pipe in.

I recommend a sing 2.5 pipe, with a 14 or 16" inch magnaflow, I've always wanted to, but didn't.

I would do two pipes in the magnaflow and one out. that will give the correct back pressure but keep the tone, with no drone.
 
I'm running the dynomax mufflers on mine, with 2" pipes, and love the sound. Nice rumble at idle, but fairly quiet at highway speeds... then loud when you open it up.
 
there's an exhaust thread here that discusses the turbo, glass pack, multi-chambered, etc also 2 vs 2.25, 3 inch etc. pipe diameters. The things it diid not cover was other aspects of exhaust (headers - long tube v shortie, coatings, amount of pipes/configuration & so on) but IS more specific to your Q ie mufflers...
finding it is the thing tho...
:twisted:
 
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