96 split exhaust

[good2bea9]

I am cleaning up the 96 split exhaust manifolds and down pipes that I bought, so now how should I run the exhaust?
Should I do true dual exhaust 2 1/4 with an "X" or "H" pipe or should I merge into a single muffler with single/dual outs?

The motor is a 66 240. Prior to completing the exhaust, I am buying the Clifford intake and 390cfm. There are no mods to the motor.

Thanks for your time, assistance, and opinions.
David

[Greg D]

I think you will like the sound better if you run full duals. If you run them into a single in front of the muffler with a dual out as long as you use large enough pipe it should still flow pretty well.

[MadMaxetc]

The 240/300 doesn't benitif from the H/X pipes. The heads are balanced front 3 / back 3 so you don't gain anything from the scavenging.

Just run duels all the way back.

[DanSanDiego2000]

Not sure if everyone will ever agree on all points in this conversation, but I'd like to weigh in.

I have talked to and met with Larry at Clifford a number of times over the last few years. Clifford is in southern California, so when I did my Clifford upgrades, picking up parts and staying in contact with them for tech help was easy.

First of all, it is my understanding from Larry@Clifford that their intake and headers must be used together. They told me you could not run another company's headers with the Clifford intake, and that the fuelie headers from late model FoMoCo were incompatible, too. The clearances are tight, and it is difficult to access and tighten all the bolts, even using Clifford intake, headers AND specially supplied bolts together. I am not sure you can even use a stock exhaust manifold with the Clifford intake.

Clifford did point me to a Demon 350 CFM 2 barrel carb, and we never could quite get that right. I have now switched to the Holley 390 CFM 4 barrel, but have not yet fired it for the first time. I anticipate great results from the new combo.

On the exhaust note, Larry recommended dual exhaust front to back, but one of San Diego's local exhaust legends, Ed Hanson, told me quite a different story.

Ed Hanson insists the if you keep the inline 6 separated into two exhaust pipes, all the way back, the truck will run as if it runs two separate 3 cylinder engines. Combining the exhaust via an H or X pipe is essential to balance out the power, and assist in scavenging of exhaust. In fact, despite the fact that an all-new dual exhaust system would mean more bu$ine$$ for him, Ed Hanson told me not to go to duals, or even to duals with an X, because the Clifford Headers, into the oversized single exhaust he installed in my truck, would give me the best performance, driveability, and power. He told me the dual exhaust would not perform as well as the single exhaust I already had.

I hope to be able to test all these theories in the next couple weeks on an inaugural run of my new combo.

Happy motoring!!

Dan

[Brian Taylor]

I have a 300 that I installed the Clifford intake and split ford exhaust.
I used the factory bolts with both and had no issues. My only problem was I kept a length of the factory exhasut and it did not clear the tranny cross member. So I merged the 2 pipes intl one about 1.5 feat from the manifold.
As for true duels I personally would not, the engine is a mild or stock engine not a performance engine. Gains if any would be mild and un-noticable. If you spend a lot on hot rodding the 240 and make 300 horses yes make it duals and enjoy the rumble.
I have a single and will upgrade it to a better muffler and single side exhaust.

[good2bea9]

Guys, thanks for the input, I appreciate it. Dan and Brian, what size pipe did you wind up going with? Now after reading more input from this forum and inline6 I will run the split Ford exhaust and merge into one (like Brian) then into a muffler (not sure which brand yet; I do not want to run into cab resonance) then out of the muffler into a single/double behind the tire.
Again, thank you all for you input/experiences.

[robert porterfield]

just for what it's worth, several of the muffler companys make mufflers that are a duel inlet single outlet like your thinking, would get you around needing the y pipe....that is what i did on the flat bed in my profile, also let me know how the 390 cfm carb works out, i tried that several years ago, ran good up to about 3500, 4000 rpm and "laid down", tried giving little more fuel via jets, helped little but still doggy, so when this truck was assembled, it got a 600 holly, figured thats what most would use on a 302, so only shy 2 cubes....now it goes really good......just a thoght

[cdherman]

You really should read more about this question over at www.fordsix.com

The generally held conculusion there is that for a mild modded engine and nicest sound, a "X" pipe is good.

I would not trust much of anything out of Clifford anymore these days. Not much left of the old crew there, just folks making money off castings.

[MadMaxetc]

I run 2.5" to the muflers right behind the cab and then dump them down. I didn't run them over the rear end.