Steve,
I am happy with my 1.75" and my 19"muffler. It IS a trifle louder than I
would have preferred, but really not bad. I think that the 2"x22" would be
significantly louder. Normal conversations and listening to stereo is quite
possible.
I do not believe that a street Spridget is going to benefit at all from a 2"
pipe. Just how big of a header are you putting on? Unless you ovalize the
pipe, it will be the lowest thing on the car and you will scrape it on speed
bumps (sleeping policemen if you prefer the British terminology) and
railroad crossings ad nauseum. Ovalized pipes are a whole nother set of
problems. 1.75" is quite adequate, IMHO. There is such a thing as too
free-flowing. They played with the "zoomie pipes" in the sixties and found
out that an exhaust system worked better than just a short pipe for each
port. Exhaust flow has inertia; the right size pipe will use the inertia of
one cylinder's exhaust to help start the flow from the next cylinder. Bigger
pipes help the top end (where only the racers ever go) at the expense of the
mid-range and low-range.
My exhaust consists of an LCB header (from Rivergate) which ends in a 1 5/8"
(1.625") tube which is the perfect size to accept the stock 1.5" pipe
inserted into it or a 1.75" pipe inserted over it. I chose to buy an
aluminized steel pipe from Rivergate with a bung welded into it for an O2
sensor (air/fuel guage) and a bracket near the back end for the stock hanger
at the back of the bulkhead. I then installed the JC Whitney muffler to it,
used a standard muffler hanger to bring it straight out the back with a bit
of left-over pipe to extend it past the bodywork and I was done.
David Lieb
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