Kirkham undercar exhaust pictures

[philminotti]

As I prepare KMP736 for engine installation, I thought folks might be interested to see the undercar exhaust that Kirkham fabricated. The headers are a work of art, as expected. The tailpipe section that goes up over the rear suspension is still on the car, but that may have to come out as well.

The collectors dump into a 3" pipe leading into the mufflers. The tailpipe section necks down to 2", the smaller diameter being necessary to clear the suspension. Maybe someday, I'll install electrically operated cutouts prior to the mufflers. That should endear me to my community.

Phil

[marcocsx3121]

Beautiful indeed. During my CSX 3121 period, I wanted a similar setup, but the only headers generally available for the car required side pipes. Wanting to keep the street car appearance, I rejected that approach, and had a talented friend weld up an under car set using pieces of u-bend and trial and error. I suspect that what we ended up with was only slightly more efficient than the OEM 390 Galaxy atrocities that came on the non-SC cars. If I had it to do over, I'd bite the bullet and go with the side pipes.

[ERA Chas]

Very nice use of merge collectors.

[DanEC]

They are nice looking headers. Those look a lot like the Spintech mufflers I'm using on my ERA. Are they marked with a manufacturer?

It's a shame they couldn't get 2-1/2 inch pipes in over the suspension. A 2 inch tailpipe is fairly restrictive. If the mufflers are 2-1/4 or 2-1/2 before they neck down - that will help a little.

[twin turbo]

Have you considered using oval tubing such as this to clear your suspension Dr. Gas Exhaust - Oval Tubing, Oval Bends, Round to Oval Transitions

[KM480]

Would there be room to exit the exhaust right ahead of the rear wheels as in GT350 fashion?
The use of oval pipe there would look really clean too.
Just a thought.

[philminotti]

I really wanted the rear exit exhaust. I've been told that the side exit undercar exhaust is really no quieter that side pipes. I think I'm much more likely to drive the thing on a semi-daily basis if I don't need to wear ear plugs.

Bobby Rahal had his CSX car converted to rear exit undercar exhaust last year...I figure if there's enough power for him, I should be ok

[mdross1]

Exhaust out the side is loud or it gets old no matter the mufflers if you do a lot cruising.Have had a couple of Vettes one we played with trying to quiet it down.Course those BBC move a lot of air and very hard to choke them up and still enjoy their power.
Our reason for going undercar.