Does anyone know what the largest exhaust that will fit on a maverick? I'm thinking of redoing my entire exhaust system to reclaim some ground clearance and allow better routing for my cable clutch by replacing my full length headers and 2-1/2" duals with some shorty's (hedman) or midlength (if anyone makes them) going to twin down tubes (2" to 2-1/2") which would come togeather right after the transmission crossmember with a Y-pipe to a single tube the rest of the way, ran through a turbo muffler than a resonator or vice versa... but I'm woundering what's the largest I can run? I was thinking 3-1/2" to 4" which should not cause any henderance to flow. I've also been woundering if the radius of mandrel bends are measured from center line of the tube or what? I know dual exhaust has been the main stamp of a "muscle car" but if it's a excessive henderance why not goto something that makes more sence and will get similar results. thank you.
I know alot of hemi truck guys are running singles with a nice high flow y pipe and getting good results. There running 350-400 hp range. I dont see why it wouldnt work on a car with 250-300hp range just as well or better.
I am about to convert from dual with H-pipe to dual 2-1/2 into a single 2.75 or 3" pipe. Gotta get rid of the drone. My hemi truck runs this setup with 2.75" pipe, and still has a little growl and volume, but not a bit of drone, even with a flowmaster installed. So if my 360hp truck works like this, I, like greasemonkey, think my 330 hp car would as well.
Change your mufflers and add tailpipes. Problem solved. Duals with an X pipe thru something like Dynomax turbos will give a nice mellow sound without a drone. Do you have thick rubber insulators between the body and mufflers now ?
Just because an exhaust is bigger doesn't mean its better. The size and length of your exhaust should be selected to maximize power. You need to learn more about the components of the exhaust. Things that affect pipe diameter choice are: 1. exhaust temp 2. engine displacement 3. RPM range for power tuning 4. X or H pipe location 5. muffler size, construction and placement 6. exit type and placement
Paul is correct (as usual ). Just capping off one tail-pipe on my setup not only quieted it down, but made it faster up to at least 6000 rpm (I didn't go over that, I was already over the speed limit when I got there, and backed off). So, in my case, dualled 2-1/2" pipes weren't the best thing in the world. So I will actually be "downgrading" my setup, and am betting it will run better and use available power more efficiently. To further drive this point home, I ran open headers for a short while (you would think that would be the BEST flowing exhaust available) and lost a BUNCH of time on my timeslips, and it hesitated off the line. Reconnected the exhaust and it woke it back up. I have not changed the y-pipe on my truck. The stock muffler was cut off, and flowmaster single in-dual out was installed under the bed, and dumping there. Loud-ish, but no drone. 21 mph on the highway.
If you had taken the time to tune the motor for the open headers, you'd have picked up some of that lost power. Just uncorking the headers without doing anything else will always result in lost power.
To bad there isn't any more options for shorty headers around... or any midlength ones as far as I know... I just don't like the look of the hedmans.
Hate to continue off topic...mine is a street car. Drove it to the track and back home. Didnt want to spen all night tuning then untuning.
Maybe someone has done this ... but this is my idea. Use an exhaust cut out valve or something like that on both sides of a dual setup in front of an H or X pipe and a second pair behid the mufflers. Would this allow "tuning" the flow/backpressure at all four points and thusly make the exhaust system tunable? I'm thinking that if you build the exhaust close but a little "big" you could reduce flow by partially closing each valve as required, AND there may be a track setup that works better for higher RPM range usage up to your shift RPM, and a cruisin tune that optimizes fuel mileage etc. at your prefered cruisng speed/RPM. So is this? ... Hairbrained ... may work ... been tried and doesn't work ... been tried and works ...
Another question I've been wanting to know is with the hedman 88400 shorty headers what size downtube will fit? I think they come with 2" reducers but according to some calculators I've found that will only support 328hp which would be fine for my car right now but I was thinking 2.25" or 2.5" that way it would be more matched to the single pipe size I'm looking to get... 328hp = 2 x 2" / 1 x 2.83" (3") 416hp = 2 x 2.25 / 1 x 3.18" (3.25") 503hp = 2 x 2.5" / 1 x 3.5" 657hp = 2 x 2.83" / 1 x 4" (The collector is 2.5" I know)
don't overlook the advantage of scavenging with a correctly chosen pipe size. Just going to the biggest available isn't going to net much low end torque. you need to be making a lot of power before you'll outflow a dual 2.5" intermediate pipe to the mufflers and 2.25" tailpipes. I ran a 2.5" to a flowmaster Y-pipe to 3" out the back and made more torque and the same amount of horsepower with that exhaust as I do now with the 2.5",2.25" dual arrangement. Of course, like PaulS said, tuning is key to either setup. Mandrel bent, of course.
