I have an 86 TA with a modified 350. Its got a nice lumpy cam (465 lift 290 adv. dur.). I put headers on and ran duals back to dual 2 chamber flowmasters which are located right behind rear end with turn downs. It sounds BAD *** but I recently put a balancer pipe (H-pipe) on it. Of course it made it a little quieter but It gave it a smoother sound (only and lower rpm's???) why?? The pipe is located further back on the car (about 4 feet in front of the mufflers) because its the closest I could put it. Why is it only smoother sounding at lower rpms? What kind of performance gain did I get? I love the way the system sounds though...It screams at 5500. Any advice or expertise on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

the balance pipes will help with balancing (duh!!) out the exhaust pressure between the dual pipes. also it will help with the scavenging of the exhaust.
since you are getting more burned stuff pulled ouf of the cyl it is able to help speed things up on the intake side a little more to give you a little less cam sound to it


maybe I am wrong
heck it is 4 in the morning and I am running off less then 10 hours of sleep in the last 60 hours
but just my theory


either way though get a x-pipe if you can
lot better gains in the low end with them
a LOT better gains

 

Although I appreciate your comment i already know what the balancer pipe does but what kind of gain did I get? Does it matter where the pipe is placed? If so where Is the optimal placement for the pipe for better torque and hp? And to the comment on giving the car less of a cam sound your right and wrong. It has the same "lopey" idle cam sound as before but off idle the pulses are gone.
thanx

 

hehe
what can I say
I was half asleep


as for placement I think that it does matter where so it is placed but can not think of the reason behind it right now. for the most part though the pipe is placed about 2 feet behing the collector on your headers if I remember... sorry been a while since I worked with a piston motor.
but if nothing else at least you have been bumped back to the top for someone else to read it

 

This is just something I heard, take it with a grain of salt because I know notihng about balancer pipes and the like, but it makes sense.

You're supposed to "paint" you're pipes, and where the paint boils and burns off, put the X or H pipe there...

 

nice.... I'll try that.

 

Proper placement of an H-pipe requires finding the hottest spot in your dual exhaust system.You should use black spray paint,applying it to a general area(where you suspect the h-pipe should go).Then fire up the engine and let the system get completely warmed up.The paint will burn off in the hottest locations in the system.This is where you want to install the h-pipe.
I hope this help's.
Mike