Kirkham 668 build

[750hp]

I've had cars with rear exiting and with side pipes. My personal preference is for live side pipes, but that's not the question...
If the issue is purely around the sound and if the decibel meter is positioned a specific distance from the end of the exhaust pipe (regardless of where that might be), why should side pipes necessarily be louder than rear exiting pipes?
You can fit over a metre of muffler material into the side pipe, so why should that not be as effective as one or two regular mufflers?
If the issue is a lack of a balance pipe between the side pipes, that can and has been incorporated into some Cobra builds.

[renovationinnov]

lex luther
well mine passed with live side pipes & no stuff rammed up them to meet the db reading needed so
as stated before { ring lukey mufflers & talk to them ] as I did & was told to turn my side pipes in reverse so that the ' FISH SCALE inside my mufflers[side pipes ] to face the direction against the flow of exhaust so that it quietens it & I put a 200cat in line close to the engine as stated by them & I should meet WHICH I did by 1 db so please explain why you cant if 2 others can
ROB

[Lexluther]

Apologies Rob
Some how missed your post.
Interesting that it could be that simple, I will have to do some experimenting a bit later on, for now I just want the car on the road.


Cheers
Kent

[damage]

Easy, straight side pipes no stuffing or anything was 109db at 3600. Inserted cats and this dropped to 99db. Inserted louvred plates borrowed from renovation which basically shut the exhaust opening down about a 2 1/2 inch opening and I achieved spot on 89db.

Engineer said he was happy.

Car with the same configuration after driving around and carboning up the exhaust is 2 db quiter.

If I wanted it to be permanent I would fit an exhaust auger.

[damage]

Here ya go

http://www.summitracing.com/int/sear...rt-style/auger

They're under $20 each and 11inches long so you can put 2 in each side opposing each other and have a Prius sounding V8 in no time flat

[Donunder]

Originally Posted by Lexluther

now I just want the car on the road.

Kent I know it's easy for all us guys miles away to offer you advice, but I think I can speak for most of us when I say that we've all admired, been in awe even, of the beautiful work that you've put into this car up to this point. Dare I say that you're now at that dicey stage of the build where it's so close to being finalised you can smell it. As you say, you just want the car on the road. However I've seen guys get to this point and the months of serious and mindful work sometime give way to little shortcuts just so they can be on the road a week or two earlier.

You're so close to having this incredible car precisely the way you always envisaged it that to compromise your dream now would be a tragedy. The issue of side pipes, given that there are other cars with working sidepipes on the road in SA, should be one that could be solved with the support of your engineer and finding a human being at Regency. Such a person is rare, I know, but they do exist. They're like diamonds.

The second challenge relating to noise has been faced and defeated in different ways by Reno and Damage -- it can be done! And not in a way that just sneaks the car through rego and then things 'happen' to it afterwards. No, it can be done properly and legally so your car will stand scrutiny at a later date if ever called upon to do so.

Please reconsider your present course of action. Your innovation and the skill of your workmanship have made this one of the most keenly followed builds I've ever seen on this forum, and again speaking for the majority of your many admirers, let me say that we would be so very disheartened and disappointed if your desire to have this car exactly the way you originally dreamed it was to sadly be derailed at the eleventh hour by some petty bureaucrat's unfeeling and uncaring decision.

Some things are worth going the extra mile for. You might win. You might not. Or to misquote Tennyson 'It's better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.' Mate, for all our sakes, give it a shot!

[Lexluther]

Hi guys
Thanks for the encurragment
After reading Reno's,Damage's and your post Don I will defy my engineers advise and give it a go. ( I used to be indecisive, but now I am not so sure) suppose the worst thing that can happend is I spend a few $ & time of it fails and THEN I go under car
The reasons for my impatience is many and varied it's not just about the exhaust.

Cheers
Kent

[Donunder]

Good on you Kent.

It's too important an issue to not put up a fight.

All the best!

[Lexluther]

I have some bits to sell off, suit Ford Windsor


Anyone genuinely interested in any or all please PM me

Cheers

[Detroit Bill]

Lex, do you have any photos of you head restraints and how they were fabricated?

[Lexluther]

Hi Bill
Assuming you mean the head rests..
I dislike them immensely but are a necessary evil. I don't have a lot of photos of them, only the one in my forum photo album, my car is not here at the moment so I cant take any photos, they are the same as the Pace 427, maybe one of the guys building one of them may have some photos to share.

Cheers

[Lexluther]

Hi Guys
I was invited to show of my Cobra at the SA Clubbies garage meet last night.
It was held at a friends business -Old Farts Garage

There were some cool cars on display


No less than two RCR SLC's, same but very different set ups

GT 40 minus doors, front and rear clip, Astin Martin DB2, numerous Clubbies, a Gallant rally car and of course my Kirkham.
About 80 people showed up we who had cars there had to say a few words about our cars

I had not been to anything like this before it was a real treat, cars, food, wine, and beer what more do you need? a great night was had by all.

Life has been a bit hectic over the last few months, I will post some updates on the Cobra soon

Cheers

[guye]

Nice Kent. Good to share your passion and that was a slightly different opportunity to do just that!

Did you drive it over there? ;-)

[Lexluther]

Guy, I sort of drove it there.....
Off the trailer and into the workshop, it still has some work to be done on ECU , fuel mix ect. Before I can do any real driving

[albanycobra]

Love the SLC , certainly will be my next purchase ...AP are going to get some coin out of me...

[750hp]

Great collection and your car's looking spot on Kent.

[Tenrocca]

Originally Posted by albanycobra

Love the SLC , certainly will be my next purchase ...AP are going to get some coin out of me...

I thought AP didnt sell RCR gear anymore?

Some great photos there Lex.

[albanycobra]

I probably should of said the AP version of the SLC...

[Lexluther]

Hi All

I have got my baby home again after having some exhaust work and ECU reprograming done.
As I mentioned earlier, there are issues with side pipes her in SA.

After a LOT of discussion with engineer, exhaust man (Ashley) & the road traffic board here in SA, I .. (we) decided to proceed in the following way..

Run the exhaust through the header pipes exiting the body and fit CAT as close as possible to the engine.
[IMG][/IMG]

Exit the side pipe just before the end and tuck back under the car.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

At this point it starts getting difficult.
Turn the pipe 90 deg toward the rear of the car

we had to cut a small piece of the sill support structure and put a stap under it(Kirkham do this when running under car exhaust) to get the pipe high enough to achieve good ground clearance
you can just see in the photo above.

Then we had to thread the pipe between the drive shaft and lower A arm

[IMG][/IMG]

not a lot of clearance but it works
Ashley (Classic performance dyno centrte) had decided to run with 2.5' pipe,
a smaller pipe would have been a lot easier.

Then of course we run in to the back of the fuel tank it runs from wheel arc to wheel arch, no room at all.

I removed the tank and marked it up for modification
[IMG][/IMG]

After
[IMG][/IMG]

I lost about 30 liters of capacity out of (I think it was) 115 liter tank

Unfortunately the fuel sender unit has now ended up in the boot
[IMG][/IMG]
Hope fully I can address this a bit later on

Then the easy bit stick two mufflers in the void created, heat shield on the side of the fuel tank
[IMG][/IMG]

(sorry for the sun glare)

To address the heat issues on the exterior, we wrapped the header pipes, and a solid heat shield yet to be painted. (I personally do not like the look of perforated shield)
[IMG][/IMG]
A bit big and clumsy looking but not too bad, if it allows me to drive on the road I will put up with it!

Did the Db test and got a 83Db reading (Prius mode) emissions are well below the limits as well.

My sparky has sorted all the dash gremlins and everything works!!
Still a few hold ups with some things from suppliers.

Hope you all enjoyed!
Cheers
Kent

[deano59]

hey kent who did the exahust for you ? i may need to get you sparkys name as well
cheers dean