> You want a system that both muffles *AND* is free flowing.
> What a concept. There are plenty of systems that do one OR
> the other, but not both. And there are some systems that do
> neither. Unfortunately the only way to know is to have DATA,
> and not necessarily the data from the manufacturer.
Vance is right on the money with what he said above. There absolutely no
hard data for TR exhaust components to make a decision by.
Vance also mentioned our technical god, David Vizard, and some tests David
carried out on various mufflers. The problem with that data is it now
verges on 20 years old (mid-1980s) and is pretty much irrelevant when you
consider all of the performance mufflers available from Moroso / Borla /
Whoever that had those two extra decades of evolution over the best designs
available in 1985.
I personally feel that the best performance muffler available on the market
right now is the Moroso Spiral Flow. It is cheap and effective in terms of
muffling noise, while having maintaining almost no backpressure through the
entire muffler. The problems with it are that is mild steel (rust) and the
build quality is poor. The internal baffles are spotwelded in place and
with only a year or so since the Spiral Flow was introduced, I know of MANY
cars that had internal spotwelds break and the baffles rattle around in the
muffler housing. What do you expect from a $40 muffler aimed at current
import market (Hondas / VWs)? But the design concept is solid, they just
need to improve on the materials and quality.
Perhaps we should persuade Mr. Vizard to reinvestigate exhaust mufflers in
the future.
I will close by saying that maximum flow through a muffler is not the only
consideration, but reversion should be another big consideration. Reversion
is the reversal of the exhaust gases, so that they flow back towards the
motor, a muffler should flow well one way and hinder and restrict gases
attempting to go back through the muffler. (This is true for entire exhaust
system, reversion is bad!)
Kai
--
Kai M. Radicke
Wishbone Classics
* British Car Parts *
www.wbclassics.com
Ph: 215.945.7250
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