Exhaust layout and silencer location

300bhp/ton

New Member
Apr 4, 2005
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England
Here's one for you techy's or anyone really.

Imagine you where having a custom exhaust made for a car (for arguments sake lets assume a sn95 4.6 Mustang GT).

There are two possibilities you are looking at, however both systems will use exactly the same manifolds (headers), midpipe, silencers and piping. They will however be arranged differently.

Option 1:
LT headers, leading into a H pipe which then leads into a small striaght thru silencer per bank then a long section of pipe all the way to the back of the car. No Cats.

Option 2:
Exactly the same but the silencers will be located as back boxes with the tail pipe coming straight off of them.

The only difference is the location of the silencers, option 1 has them much closer to the engine (basically almost under the front seats) which then leaves a very long section of tubing before the exhaust gases reach the atmosphere (4-5 feet likely). Option 2 however has the silencers under the rear bumper and a very short outlet directly off of the silencers to the atmosphere.

What affect would the silencer loaction have in terms of:
-sound
-performance

Cheers for any help, as I have not been able to find any informationo on this so far.
 
There shouldn't be any difference in performance between the two. The sound might be a little different with the mufflers in the back. The resonance from the mufflers would be lost in the trunk. Whereas with the mufflers up front the resonance could be heard in the cabin.