February 21, 2010 - I've spent the weekend looking at exhaust options, figuring out how it will be routed and what components will make up the final design.
The two collectors in the picture are a couple from my collection. The grey merge collector on the right is an Edelbrock piece, one that I've used before in another build. I only have one of these.
The one on the left is of unknown parentage and will take more work to use as I'll have to cut and weld a star in between the tubes, while the Edelbrock is a slip-on. I have a pair of the basic ones.
The Edelbrock, being a merge collector, will theoretically flow better. But it has a 3" outlet (most collectors don't go much smaller) and I'll have to neck it down to 2.5" almost immediately - I'll use a Flowmaster ball joint connection to do that. So the benefit of the merge collector may be lost. The simpler one is also a 3" outlet, but it'll be shorter in length when assembled. The fact that I already have a pair of the simpler ones makes me think that's what I'll end up using.
I've been trying to figure out how to route the exhaust pipes over the axle. That leaves me short of space for an X-pipe, adds a bunch of bends and gets very tight just behind the axle. The idea is that running under the axle will be bad for ground clearance. But then I realized that the axle at full droop won't drop below the level of the floor pan. This means that if I run the exhaust pipes straight back, they'll clear the axle and ground clearance won't be affected at all! As an added bonus, it'll give me more room to run an X. Excellent. I just put in a big order for exhaust bits that will let me finish pretty much everything but the headers.
I thought I remembered the same thing being done on the Dan Masters build. I checked the photos and yup, it should work.
I have pretty good ground clearance on this car. The lowest point will have right around 4.5" clearance from the ground.
My decision to do exhaust now actually makes sense. It's not as flexible in packaging as some of the other components. Once the exhaust is sorted out, I'll be able to determine the location of the fuel pump and filter as well as the lines to the front of the car, keeping the fuel away from the hot pipes wherever possible. The same goes for wiring. I'm also looking at the cooling setup, but more details will come on that.
This is a really fun part of the build.
tags: exhaust, packaging |
THE DIARY