Exhaust

Mike/Nebraska

Senior Member
For those not so purist Model Aers, i have a question. I have an A with a rebullt motor. It was rebuilt with a counterbalanced crank, a lightened flywheel, a V-8 pressure plate,and a Snyder's 5.5 head. I have a nice tube header for it and as soon as I buy myself a downdraft intake, it will have a Holley 94 carb on it. So the question....What's anyone running with a header that makes the Model A sound a little more racy or throaty. Now it has the stock carb and exhaust on it with a straight pipe and it sounds like a Model A with no muffler. I want it to sound a little more like a hot rod. Any suggestions? I thought about making a collector extension with two pipes coming out and running duals. I know they make "A" headers with dual outlets but unfortunately mine isn't. I'd like to have some feedback on this. Thanks
 
With a stock cam you are not going to get too far off from the basic model a sound. Dual pipes may help a bit.
 
Have you also asked this question on the HAMB site? They cover much more of the modified and hot rod stuff as Fordbarn is more towards stock.
 
To get a deeper "Throatier" almost hot rod sound I gutted a stock (not Aries) muffler and cut the stock tail pipe off and added tail pipe that is 1 7/8 (or next size larger than stock). She has a deeper tone but still that 4 banger rhythm.
 
Mike, I think everyone has a different opinion of "racy" is, --or sounds like.

When I was racing Model A/Bs and was listening to the engines in other
speedsters and racers, I could also tell which engine had the bigger
compression ratio by the "lick" it hit. The diameter of the pipe and its
length changed the note but it still does not mask the sound of a racy "built"
engine. Most of my race engines (pix below) especially the flathead ones
were built with the same basic combination but each sounded slightly
different because of the pipe but I don't think you will ever had a "racy"
sounding banger engine with a 5½ compression ratio head. If you are
wanting a 'bark' just enlarge the pipe to about a 3 inch diameter, or put
a megaphone on the end of the pipe.



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AS brent says put a megaphone on the end. In the 60's when I had my olds powered 32, ran duals thru chevy 6 cyl mufflers (small enough to tuck up in under) and back then the "craze" was scavenger pipes, about 3' long with bell ends. Gave a different distinct sound.
Paul in CT
 
Brent, I notice the three bolt water pump head on the Mobil gas special. Is this a C head, F 3 head, G38 head or other? I am always interested in heads, I have a small collection.
 
Brent is right about compression and megaphone. I run a worn-out glass pack muffler and megaphone on my speedster, 6:1 Winfield head and it sounds good. The shorter the muffler the more noise. The headers will make a difference too.
 
This is not a Model A comment but talking about engine sounds reminds me of one of my favorite engines sounds, and that is the sound of WWII aircraft engines when they first start up after cranking .... such as a B-17 for example. That is a sound of raw power in my opinion.
 
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