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Race/Sport muffler options?

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Luke_Healey

Luke_Healey

Jedi Trainee
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I'm curious about the types of mufflers available for Spridgets.

The reason I ask is because my two 66 Sprites were vastly different in the way they sounded. My first sprite had the crimped corner muffler that most likely was its original. It's item 12 in the Moss Motors diagram:

https://mossmotors.com/Graphics/Products/Schematics/SPM-014.gif

My current Sprite has an oval style muffler that resembles style 11 in the diagram. My current muffler is much quieter.

I'm wanting the cackle and snap that the original had, but I have no idea what my options are, or where to purchase them. I found this video ony youtube that sounds very similar to my old Sprite's exhaust. The quick revving, and the hollow cackle.

Both mufflers are straight though, so I assume the baffling material is different in one than the other.

[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/watch?v=WTzATjuvHKk[/VIDEO]url="https://youtube.com/watch?v=WTzATjuvHKk"]https://youtube.com/watch?v=WTzATjuvHKk[/url]


So what options do I have for a more sporty/race sound? I suppose I could just run a piece of straight pipe and see what it sounds like.... Nobody around here seems to care, with all the people on Harleys and whatnot.
 
We just recently had a thread on this where a couple of us are using Harley Davidson unrestricted units successfully!!! :thumbsup:
 
Well I know about that thread, but the 883 mufflers I have have steel baffles right in the middle. I may buy a hole saw today and drill them out.

I'm wondering where to find something snappy sounding like in the video. My current muffler is straight through, but sounds very baffled. The Harley muffler sounds about the same at the moment.

Also, my Harley mufflers are going to be hard to mount since the mounting tab is about a foot back from where it needs to be in order to hang it right.
 
David Vizard (Mini guru) used to put a stock bug-eye muffler on his Mini to boost power and (he said) to get the "proper sound". You may want to try that.
Bill
 
Hehe, drill another hole for the mufler hanger and move the bolt and rubber washers to it. Put a bolt with a coulple of hender washer on it in the old hole.
 
If you are most concerned about the sound, why not install a "super trap" type muffler that is tunable?
 
Try the Harley Muffler first with Baffle in place before you drill then out. I do remember the "snap" and "snarl" from an Abarth my buddy had iinstalled on his then new '68 Sprite. Sad but no longer available.
 
Trevor Jessie said:
If you are most concerned about the sound, why not install a "super trap" type muffler that is tunable?
Click to expand...

Sounds pretty good with 12 spacers in it. Quiet but throaty when opening up the throttle. No ricer car angry bee or weedeater sound either.

IMG_0417a.jpg
 
I love the sound of my muffler. Nice idle with a crack on acceleration, with nice throaty roar at high RPMs. The only problem is I don't have a clue what it is! It's covered in undercoating and I don't see any markings on it. It looks like an old cherry bomb-- come to think of it the original kind of looked like that too didn't it?
 
Yesterday I figured I'd just throw on the new old stock exhaust system I got with the car when I bought it. I imagine it's a 15 year old system from Victoria British. It looks nearly identical to what I took off.

Here is my original system removed from the car. There were some dents in the pipe right where it makes the turn up front. I figured a new system can't be any worse. Both have straight-thru mufflers.

2686820576_08c5223001.jpg


The new exhaust system looked like the exhaust pipe had been sawed in half by whoever sold and shipped it in order to save on shipping costs. That meant I had to use a 1.5 - 1.5 inch coupler to affix these two pieces. No big deal.

2686820138_26f35217ea.jpg


The old and new mufflers look nearly identical. The tail pipe is only slightly different.

2686818878_c88e05eae4.jpg


One of my home-brew exhaust tips made from some galvenized fence post. I reccommend using loctite on the screws if you do this. I lost one going down the road two weeks ago.

2686817998_84918c4c29.jpg


The result? The new exhaust is quieter. This makes me drive faster (ha!) because I'm used to a certain sound and feel. I added shims to the hangers and everything is tighter. The downpipe has no way to hit the frame of the car even when hitting big bumps and I isolated the muffler from the car with thicker pieces of rubber. The whole thing was easy to install.


Oh, and for anyone following my quest for a better running car? I noticed that the nuts on the manifold were not torqued to spec. Even though the car passed the 'spray carb cleaner at the manifold' test when idling, I think air was getting into one or both sides of the intake and causing a leaner environment.

Fortunately the previous owner used brass nuts on the studs, so they are easy to work with. I tightened everything up and the car started running rich. So I tuned the carbs from scratch and it may be a bit more powerful now. Not too noticible, but the drivability is really good right now. Not to mention, it's quieter and doesn't sound so much like a 16 year old kid in a Honda Civic.
 
Brass nuts are orginal and needed in that application.
 
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