72 Scamp, starting the exhaust project...

Hey guys,

So far, so good. The knowledge on here is remarkable. So, I thought I would get input on the exhaust before I start down the wrong path. So, let me explain the situation.

I was given a very nice Scamp. It has a 360 and 727, versus the original 318 and 904 (I think it was). It is running Chrysler 360 exhaust manifolds (which I actually have no problem with), but it has a couple of exhaust problems.

1) The left side muffler looks like an M80 went off inside and it's all blown up round, and it leaks. Sounds not great, but not completely horrible. But needs replacing either way.

2) The previous owner told me that just after he and I installed the engine (20 years ago), he attached to the exhaust manifold some pipe he had lying around ... just to get it to the muffler shop. One side of this pipe that he had lying around was smaller in diameter than the other side. But he didn't care, it was just supposed to get it to the muffler shop. Once he had the exhaust finished and later got the car home, he noticed that the muffler shop monkey simply welded onto the pipes he had meant to only be temporary. He was frustrated about it, but never fooled with it again.

Due to these 2 problems, I have decided to just "start over." Why not? I read some stuff about headers, and one dyno session was with a LA 360. So I figure that's as accurate as is needed for me. I'm not building a racecar. The Hooker shorty headers produced the 2nd highest hp and/or torque. And that's perfectly fine by me. All the headers tested were all pretty close anyway. And these shortys won't hang down too far. Anything is better than what I have currently, unbalanced and leaking.

Here's ideally what I would like to do. Install the Hooker Shorty headers, install a wideband (for subsequent carb tuning), but ... I would LOVE to bend my own exhaust, complete with an X-Pipe. The problem I'm running into, is that a) I have no bender, b) I have no experience bending pipe, and c) what I've read about buying mandrel pre-bent 45°s and 90°s as components, I might wind up with a jig-saw puzzle underneath.

Should I try to bend my own pipe? Should I just buy the pieces? Is there a better way?


7milesout