Souza exhaust
Souza exhaust
Since you brought it up, let's start with exhausts. The first pipes I tried on my 81 were purchased from Ed A. I believe. They were short straight pipes that I first used. Very simple, but loud. I also heard that short straight pipes could lead to burning of the exhaust valves. I do not know if there is any truth to this statement. I had heard good things about the Souza exhaust, except the price. After talking with Joe, he said he would sell me the parts and I would do the welding myself. For $125 he said he would send me all the parts for the 6" round can and the new oval can.
The round can got lost in the mail and I decided to build the oval can exhaust myself without the confusion of cross country interpretations. I am also having cracking problems, but continue to try because the exhaust is so quiet. The material that forms the oval can around the oval endcaps is quite thin and the cracks are occurring at the edges of the weld bead.
My second hired welder told me that stainless must be purged with argon to prevent the chromium from becoming brittle. I take great faith in his work as he does alot of stainless welding.
Which exhaust can did you buy, how much was it, and where was your cracking occurring?
When my last crack occurred, I was doing temperature testing. To continue testing I reinstalled the short straight pipes. I found that I gained 100rpm and the temperatures dropped due to the fact the exhaust was now nowhere near my radiator.
I am now relocating the radiator because I really want to use this exhaust. I have had a patch plate welded over the seam in hopes of eliminating the problem.
Here is a picture of the repaired exhaust with the radiator relocated to the back side of the vertical motor mount support. It used to be on the front side of that same support, which put the exhaust only inches away and blocking the top half of the radiator. This was in my opinion raising my coolant temps to unacceptable levels.
With your response to this subject I would then like to move onto the subject of the radiator.
Any input you or anyone else can add to the exhaust subject would be appreciated.