Just a guess on my part but I believe the thick flanges were introduced to do a better job of keeping the manifold sealing surfaces true. I have seen some exhausts with the thin flanges that don't seal well at the cylinder heads.

Whatever the reason, having longer studs is not a big deal. It's just a pain in the butt to thread on your nuts. In tight spaces you can make up the difference and save yourself some grief with a stack of washers, or use a long nut (typically called a coupling nut). Whatever you choose to do, i'd suggest avoid the use of lock nuts. The copper coated nuts from VW and B&B and other sources are nice but the locking effect is really not necessary and can make for a lot of aggravation in tight spaces. Especially those locations where you can only get a 1/8th turn with your wrench-even the fancy zig-zag wrenches provided by B&B and SSI. Forget the lock nuts and just use a good amount of anti seize paste. The exhaust nuts at the heads just don't come loose.

All premufflers are not created equally.
I would love to see a non biased compare of our M&K premuffler versus anything else out on the market. We use an actual F1 merge, not something that looks like stamped pot metal. We also are the only manufacturer that uses 2.25" primaries to offset any restriction from the bottom oval pipe and 2.5"ID straight through with no restriction. Steve W used our M&K premuffler in his chip development, testing, and as part of his performance package.

Here is a pic posted some time ago by a Pelican member. You can easily see the differences in design. M&K tubing is larger, merge is proper, O2 bung captures the mix from both banks. The material used is USA 321 stainless which is much more robust than the Asian 304 that other manufacturers use.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1521211739.jpg

Internally there is a huge difference. Competitor just dumps the flow into a larger chamber which disturbs velocity.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1521212153.JPG


You can see by these examples how the different designs would affect measurements of power and torque on a dyno and why a dyno comparing different setups needs to detail the exact setups being compared.




.

Brian,
Through the testing you're aware of, are you finding any performance difference between your 1 in/1 out muffler when compared to your 1 in/2 out version on 3.2's and 3.4's?

Thanks
Peter

Not any significant difference in 1/1 versus 1/2 on the stock SC or Carrera engine. We recently re-tooled and revised the 1/1 for more flow and less sound at the same time. I'm testing it now and so far it's great!

Quieter!?! The M&K cat delete and 1/1 of my car sounds sooooo good that it ALWAYS gets praised as a mellifluous delight!

I guess Brian that not all customers are so inclined.....

Yes sound level is in the ear of the beholder, no doubt about that. Those who like the sport sound love it, those who like the quiet OEM sound hate it. I get that so we are adding a second line of mufflers that will be labeled street, close to OEM sound levels at idle but a bit sportier on cam. We're also working on active exhausts which I really like! In testing they are stock quiet and on the cam they scream!

Would love to see / hear some side by side comparo vids of your street vs. non-street offerings. With pre-muffler and without. Please and thank you!

I'll be posting some video once we finish testing and release the mufflers for production. Will be offering both versions to Pelican with the active exhaust to follow. We are nearing the end of a year long re-tooling and spec update of our entire line, addressing the long overdue desire to expand to meet the needs of a changing demographic.

This seems a good place to ask a question I’ve been wondering.

I keep reading how SSIs are good for a 3.0 and too small for a 3.2. How would they fare on a 3.1? On the good side or too small side?

Hi Ben,

Very clean setup.
How long are the primaries in this system?

32"

Ben,

That length will work real well in the 3.2L using the stock Motronic Intake.
I bet that setup will produce strong Torque numbers in 5000-6000 RPM range.
I asked about the length because I ran the calcs for the 3.2L engine in PipeMax software and it comes up with 1.5" ID at 31" long primaries.

I'm currently helping a customer that has your 914 Headers, I think his setup will do very well. He's building a 3.4L (upgraded 3.2L) using those headers for his 914. Will be using my MAF system.

I think it will do well. The only real improvement that could be a reverse cone merge but that is not the focus of the headers..