Weighing in on the exhaust!

I stopped by the grain elevator on the way home from work and put Jenna on the scale.  Of course I did it on a whim so was not prepared and had my tool box, fire extinguisher, jumper cables, toe strap several bags of parts, a gallon of water and who knows what else in the car.  She weighed in at 2620 lbs with a half tank of gas. 

That’s about 50 lbs more than I had hoped for but considering all the steel and welding wire I added and the packed trunk I’m not surprised.  Race weight with all the stuff out and a full tank of gas I think will be around 2580.  That's 40 lbs heavier than a 427 Cobra but hey I get a radio, air conditioning, power steering, side windows and oh yeah, a top for that 40 lbs!

 But more important she is nearly 1200 lbs less that her predecessor so I am delighted!

Now on the exhaust thing I am still struggling to get where I want to be.  The flyin Miata set up has an OK sound if you like late 90s Corvette. It would be fine for a date car but hardly strikes fear into the driver next you at the stop light.  

I messed around with various configurations and found with enough venting to get the desired volume it sounds like an old Chevy pickup that needs a muffler, and with enough baffling to get the right sound it’s too quiet.  I know she will never sound like a 60s big block but I can still try!

So for now this is what I did.  I cut a hole in the muffler the size of a 2 bolt 2 1/2" flange.  

Then I cut the flange in half so I could get it in the hole and welded it back together inside the muffler with nuts on the back to bolt to.  Yeah that was interesting!

 

Next up I took an auger style header baffle and cut one loop off of it.

I welded the loop and the mate to the flange inside the muffler onto an old piece of Camaro exhaust I had laying around. 

On the other end I put a 3 bolt flange to cap it off for road trips.

And installed like so.

I tucked it up tight to try and make it not show.

That's my babe riding shot gun on the road test :-)

The result is frankly amazing.  It is still too quiet but the sound there is there is really good sound.  It’s big and deep, very much like a 60s muscle car.  It has just enough sound to be noticed and just cam lope to know there is something very not stock under the hood.  I’m hoping to post a track video in about 2 weeks so you can hear it but I know no video can do it justice!

The Lord thundered from heaven and the most high made his voice heard.  2 Sam 22:14.  Yep there is a verse for that!

9/10/13 update I took the screw out of the exhaust becuase it still was not loud enough.  Over the winter I am going to rework it so look for posts in 2014 on it.