Not felling the Manta 2.5 exhaust

[PeteSS]

The first custom V8 exhaust I did was on that basis, it was an HQ 253 panel van and I did a twin 2" off stock manifolds with 18" Can Am hotdogs no balance pipe. It was a loud "thong clapper" extreme and the van got some notoriety for it's awesome exhaust note in the day!

If you ran a pair of 24" hotdogs each side of the tail shaft and 18" hotdogs in the stock muffler location, no balance pipe off stock manifolds, gave a 253 a more 350 Chev note. 308's were a bit quieter than 253's and extractors made them quieter mid range and louder on the top end.

Back in the 80's a mate had a HX Monaro with a heavily worked 308. It looked a little odd having a single pipe out the back , though he had a 3 inch single system not unlike what' was on the Brock Commodores of the time, without the resonators . Was one of the best sounding 308's I'd heard

 

[RevNev]

Back in the 80's a mate had a HX Monaro with a heavily worked 308. It looked a little odd having a single pipe out the back , though he had a 3 inch single system not unlike what' was on the Brock Commodores of the time, without the resonators . Was one of the best sounding 308's I'd heard

Single systems can sound great and the trick to them is having one pipe longer than the other from header outlet to the single collector, like the RH pipe crosses behind the gearbox and it's longer than the LH pipe where they join into one. If they're equal length, they sound like an LS engine with an X-pipe. I did a lot of single 3" and 3.5" exhausts on VN's to VS with live axles and they had a good note!.

 

[panhead]

Back in the 80's a mate had a HX Monaro with a heavily worked 308. It looked a little odd having a single pipe out the back , though he had a 3 inch single system not unlike what' was on the Brock Commodores of the time, without the resonators . Was one of the best sounding 308's I'd heard

I have a single 3 inch on my VS and when I start it up it gives me a case of the tingles.






.

 

[RevNev]

I have a single 3 inch on my VS and when I start it up it gives me a case of the tingles.

I was at the servo the other day and heard a nice V8 note as a car took off from the intersection and was old VS Statesman and looked to be a 3" tailpipe. The old Holden EFI engine did have a fundamentally good note and wasn't hard to make them sound good!

Years ago we had a VR Improved Production race car with a 640hp 358ci Holden V8 and we had a full Perkin's VR Supercar exhaust Larry used with Holden V8's. It was 4" single system off Tri-y headers with the oval outlet that exited out the side in front of the rear wheel. They had a great note much nicer than the later Supercar exhausts along with the flames trailing out the side of the car on overrun.

The headers were 1 7/8" primary into 2.5" secondaries into 3.5" intermediate pipes and then into the 4" single. The muffler we had to raise the LHR floor pan to fit was a 24" straight through oval muffler about 12" wide, 6" deep packed with stainless wool.

 

[Drawnnite]

To hopefully assist the originators question.
The Quiet 2.5 Manta does get a bit louder after a few weeks.
At first when i picked my VZ SS Ute up from the exhaust shop i thought "what have i done its way too quiet" Even the shop mentioned it was really silent at the time.
But since its heat cycled and all that its actually become a lot nicer, has a subtle v8 idle but still has the noise when getting into it.
Was nearly sold on the Medium, but the idea was to change it from a horrible raspy Xforce (headers and cats made that much much worse thus the change) to a nicer H piped note, but keep it on the quieter side. Looking back maybe the medium would've been slightly better suited, but with the windows down for spirited driving its nice and doesnt attract unwanted attention (along with the one day plan to add a cam and so on).

Another car (LS2, blown and big cam) has 4-1 1-7/8 Headers, H piped Twin 3 (full set of mufflers)
Its loud but with a decent note, obnoxious and would hate to know the attention it would attract being a daily.
Was also another reason for wanting something quiet.

Still have to say the favourite sound was from a mates Ford E250 Van.
Something about a 460 big block. No idea what the set up was, dont think it had any joins. just each side seperate with some decent sized pipes.
Just funny to cruise in it, people hear the distinct sound and turn heads to see a giant Brick on wheels.