I'm getting ready to mount the muffler on one of Larry's excellent exhaust pipes to install on my '25 coupe, and I thought of something. Has anyone assembled one of the original style mufflers(not a repro) without the inner shell? Just wondering if that would make much difference in the sound and/or restriction. I also thought about assembling it with the holes in the inner shell to the rear of the muffler instead of facing to the front. Any thoughts? Dave

It makes the car louder. As far as faster, not sure.

Yep, a little louder but adds character
Nothing like a straight pipe, so you won't have any problem with the law or the neighbours unless you rev it outside the garage in the middle of the night (my wife always reminds me to be careful when I'm eager to test something new right when I've got it installed regardless of the clock..)

I have a 1918-ish cast iron ended muffler on my primitive pickup. It made a terrible rattle when first installed, I had just cleaned it up on the outside then. When I took it apart, the inner shell was burned out/rusted in one end, giving it room to rattle - and rattle it did, a terrible noise at certain rpms. I removed the shell and have never considered putting one back. No change in speed, though.

It's also much easier to assemble a muffler in the horisontal position without the inner shell

I put some extra oversized holes next to the ones existing. Works gooood. Don

I added a couple of extra holes in mine to, engine seemed smothered beyond 35mph. A little louder but runs great at speed.

Thanks guys. I think I'll try it without the inner(middle) shell and see what happens. I have a Ricardo head and a Stromberg OF that I'm going to install later, maybe the muffler mods will help a bit. Not trying to build a speedster, just looking for a bit more horsepower for the hills around here. Many thanks, Dave

Let us know how it sounds! All the holes will be at the end, so the exhaust doesn't have to go far.

By the way, I sold six of my new pipes at Chickasha. Don't know if I'll have any more made. I've still got about 15 left.

The noise silencing function of the muffler is derived by increasing the distance the exhaust has to travel, somewhat like the crowd control rails at a busy restaurant or an amusement park. If you'll notice in the picture above, the hole coming out of the innermost exhaust pipe is on the rear most end of the muffler, the hole in the next baffle is located at the front end and the final hole where the exhaust exits is located on the rear end of the outer shell, causing the exhaust to have to travel 24" within the confines of the muffler, thereby slowing the exhaust down, creating pressure inside the muffler and dissipating the noise in the process. To eliminate the inner baffle will put the hole of the exhaust pipe in line with the exhaust hole, thereby eliminating the whole functionality of the muffler, so I would surmise that you might as well take off the muffler entirely, as the results will be the same. Jim Patrick

Jim, I believe you're right on the money. And I guess it's the reason I pulled the center baffle out of mine on my '22. I thought it was proper to leave the muffler on but wanted to see what it would sound like. Tonight I started the car for the first time after a couple years and my first reaction was "holy crap, that thing is loud!" Now I'm wondering if I'll just go ahead and push the baffle back in. I am however considering a dual exhaust manifold and straight pipes on my speedster to see how it will sound.

I would be interested to see what the results would be if one were to drill the same size hole on the opposite side of the exhaust pipe and inner baffle, leaving the baffle configuration in place. The exhaust would still have to travel 24" but twice as much exhaust from the engine would be able to be expended thereby decreasing the back pressure on the engine that might enable the engine to attain maximum horsepower, while still maintaining the noise reduction properties of the muffler by making the exhaust take the same circuitous route that Ford designed into the muffler. Jim Patrick

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Dave

I have a limited number of good used muffler ends that still have a lot of life left. These are for the 1920-27 pipes I've been selling. I'll post a classified.