H pipe or X pipe......

[abodyjoe]

Another question,is 3" pipe too big for a mild smallblock? Do you need a certain amount of backpressure?8)

a lot of people will say yes that 3" may be too big. all i know is i have 3" on as mild 360 as you cna get and that ***** has way more bottom end then i ever though it would have. and it has 2.94 gears behind it.. if you were a little closer i would throw you the keys and you could decide for yourself.

 

[dgc333]

I have the X pipe and have one word of caution, be careful with your muffler choice!!! I have a drone around 1500-2000 rpm. It can be corrected by changing the mufflers and thats my plan this winter. I do like the X pipe, the one I used is from Summit.

An X or H pipe will reduce the level of drone and yes muffler choice has a big impact on how much drone you get.

 

[abodyjoe]

Another question that I have and might be good info for this thread is to take note that the summit/jegs axhaust kits do not come with an H or X pipe at all...How does that also affect performance with out having either? And how much louder is it?

i went from 2 1/2 pipes with no crossove to a 3" x-pipe system and had to jet up two sizes on the primary side of the carb. definatley made a difference. as for the loudness i don't know for sure because i changed the mufflers too. i'm thinking it has to quiet it down quite a bit. before with no cross over you could be 10 feet behind the car and you could feel like a pop from the exhaust hitting your leg when each cyl. fired. with the x-pipe it splits it evenly in the two pipes and you have to get up on the car to even feel the exhaust now. its really weird..

 

[dgc333]

Another question that I have and might be good info for this thread is to take note that the summit/jegs axhaust kits do not come with an H or X pipe at all...How does that also affect performance with out having either? And how much louder is it?

Just for a point of reference: Before I put the 360 in my Barracuda I had a built \6 with 6 into 2 headers and a full 2.25" dual exhaust with glass paks and no cross over. The exhaust was to loud for me, you couldn't carry on a conversation at cruise, and at WOT it had a nasty sounding roar to it, like a hole in the exhaust.

Since it was much cheaper to had a cross over than to change out the mufflers I tried that first. I just welded in a piece of 2.25" tubing to connect the two sides (H). It completely changed the sound of the car. It had a deep throatie rumble at idle and cruise and at WOT it had kind of jet engine scream. I got many complements about the way it sounded. It didn't however make any difference in the power as measured by the butt dyno.

With the 360 I have the Summit 2.5" kit with the Summit X pipe kit. The engine overall is very quiet at cruise and there is no noticable drone in the 1500-2000 rpm range but still has a nice rumble at idle and noticable and deep roar at WOT. This replaces a 2.5" compression bent system with home made x-pipe and Flowmaster 50 series Delta Flows. Compared to the new system the old system was louder through out the rpm range and there was more drone in the 1500-2000 rpm range but it was not bad. The flowmaster mufflers sound good but I like the deep smooth sound of the Summit turbo mufflers better. There is no noticable difference in the power as measured by the butt dyno.