Good Mornin' All;;   Wanting to increase my exhaust size..    55 Bird-292-C4-Blue Thunder. Would like to go to 2 or 2 1/2 in.  What frames mods will be needed-- what about mufflers--don't want too much rap???  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Have rack and pinion ordered from wurthit so headers will come later, when I see how muchroom I have, will be putting in Flaming River Col, at same time.   Thanks to all you guys for such a willingness to share your vast knowledge and everyone BEHAVE-- especially Lon    Many Thanks  Eddie

Eddie

Lake Forest, Ca. 92630

Eddie:

Your stock exhaust pipes are 2" back to the mufflers, then 1 3/4" the rest of the way.  I would think a muffler shop could bend up a set of 2" tail pipes and install some 2" in and 2"out mufflers.  I doubt if there would be a clearance problem with 2" tailpipes, although I sure would be tempted to make them exit below the bumper instead of through the bumper guards.  Back when parts houses still sold ready made tailpipes, I found that '55 Ford tailpipes, swapped side for side and turned end for end, bolted into my '56 Bird, but exited below the bumper instead of through it.  Now '56 Customline police cars used 2" tailpipes and no bumper exhaust ports, so if you could find a muffler shop with a program for their bender for these pipes, it would be a piece of cake.  A lot of muffler shop guys are pretty skilled at taking a sample pipe and bending a new one to match.  Fastinating to watch them.

John

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Thanks John;  Did not know about the front pipes as compared to the tail pipes. Do you think the tail pipe only will give me any additional power?  What are you running on your Bird?  Again many thanks.   God Bless   Eddie

Eddie

Lake Forest, Ca. 92630

In a (much earlier) post Al Frakes mentioned an arrangement whereby the two mufflers were moved back to the T-bird resonator position. This gets a hot item out from underfoot and even makes it possible to wrap the pipes in sound/temp insulation in the floorboard area of the car. 

It also might provide a means to get a crossover in there before the mufflers which would lower the total back pressure, cut the noise level - and still maybe leave the famous Y "thump factor" for those who know? 

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

Eddie:

I have stock exhaust system sizes on both my Birds, but neither are routed through the bumper as original.  Eats up the chrome.

John

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Here is some pics of what I did. The floorboards stay Much,Much cooler. I used 2" pipe and had the muffler shop do the whole thing. It went really smoothly. Any more than 2" and you may start runniing into some clearance issues. Another important point about the muffler location is that you will find that most mufflers won't fit the original opening in the xframe. Most just won't go in there, unless it's the old glasspacs or stock. If you move up to 2" or above for the inlet and outlets as I did they can be set back like a '56 bird resonators position. I used the flowmasters. They are louder, but not too much. But I also have FPT headers so that also affects the sound.
One other note is you said you were going to change out the PS with a wurthit setup. His setup will not fit with the headers I chose. But that was OK with me my PS oldstyle works great (All freshly rebuilt) So you'll have to forgo- IMHO the good headers if you go for the R and P. To me I had to go with the headers.

I also kept the 2" pipe routed out the bumper, but you'll have to mod the hanger inside the bumperette. They will rust em out- but I just try to keep an eye on it and keep everything cleaned off. The pipes fit better than the pics show , the engines out so they are kinda laying on the frame.

       A  L  A  N   F  R  A  K  E  S   ~  Tulsa, OK    

Thanks to all. Think I will try the resonator type and try for a crossover pipe??  Yeah I believe I will go under the bumper with the outlets, but use the tips only in the original posistion,just for looks.  Also the pictures are great, only wish I knew how to post pictures, I'm not to good with the computor.   Thank you all for the knowledge  God Bless  Eddie

Eddie

Lake Forest, Ca. 92630

Al Frakes - a note for you - many thanks for the photos of your system - it explains tons of what I wanted to know before starting down this road. I'm hoping an "H" pipe will fit across where the two pipes exit the last X-member? Could form it back a bit into the "vee".

Two items I'd like to know if you don't mind all these questions - are the 2" pipe Flowmaster mufflers the 40 series "offset inlet/offset outlet type? They would then be the shorty 13 inch can length too?

If they are the shorties - do you think the space will allow a 50 series that has a 4 inch longer can? I was thinking that adding the "H" pipe - and the longer muffler would get the sound down where I like it - but it may just be too much to stuff into the space allowed.  

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

Steve,

            I don't know what his answer will be, but if you have room try for a three chamber Flowmaster. I have them on the red car and you can still hear it. Two chambers are LOUD.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

You guys got me thinking on this so I went back and measured and checked my paperwork. 40 series. I used part #42041 with both 2" on in and outs. they are 4' thick and 9.75 wide by13" case length with 19" overall length. That's where it makes a difference to keep it all tucked up in there. you don't want to get the bends to tight. It seems like I tried the 50 series, but they were 4" longer overall. If you can find a good muffler man that will work with it, you might could swing it. I didn't like the looks of it. I just didn't want to push the envelope that much. And I didn't want to go to all this trouble and have it sound to stock. About the H pipe. I hope you can get it to work I just couldn't with that pesky driveshaft in the way! There was just nowhere for it. The noise level for me is OK. You can use dynomat insulation or the like in the floor. Althought I didn't. I think it's kind of like when I sold my open pipe 67 Truimph scrambler. When interested buyers asked how loud it was? i said- "your wife an neighbors will hate it, but your girlfriends gonna love it.

You could mock up a cardboard muffler with the various inlets set like you want and hold it up there to experiment, if you look on flowmasters website they show all the options for the in and out positions, and pipe dimensions so that might help you gain space for the h pipe. Let me know. In hindsite I probably could have used 2.25" pipe overall. But in the big picture I don't know how much it would help on performance or the h pipe for that matter.

       A  L  A  N   F  R  A  K  E  S   ~  Tulsa, OK