Oddball exhaust tube, Scout II

[urbex]

'77 Scout II, 345, 4 spd manual, 4x4. Newly acquired about a month ago.

While underneath the truck yesterday doing fluid/lube changes, I was also inspecting the exhaust system, and noticed an odd tube section on the passenger side, right by the transfer case. I drew a sketch in paint of what it roughly looks like, though not to scale or anything.

It's obviously machine formed this way, with smooth radii, not like someone went at it with a bfh to clearance it. It appears as if it might be for transfer case clearance, although there would have been enough room to leave the tube normal shape and be ok.

Is this stock for the scouts, or perhaps something someone added when the dual exhaust was done? With the relatively low rpms a 345 spins, should I even be concerned about it being a restriction?

 

[jeff campbell]

I don't think its stock. I wouldn't worry about an restriction. I suppose they had it custom made like that to get the transfer case out w/out un hooking the exhaust ? Jeff

 

[ronmc1954]

I know that a lot of scouts have the exhaust pipe flattened go clear the auto tranny, but not that extreme.

Ron

 

[brownheart]

I have the same thing. I don't know if it's stock or not but it's good to see that it's not uncommon.

 

[Mark Pietz]

A picture would be better. But years ago while investigating replacing all my factory piping (oem duals on a '75 w/345) with factory parts, I discovered that there were little dogleg stubs like that that connected the down pipes to the mufflers themselves (yes, they were Oem). The take away from that, once I measured them, was that due to how they inserted into their respective pieces, they became 2 1/8" restrictions in the rest of the 2 1/4" system. An original parts book would confirm this.

 

[Scoutboy74]

It is original for the sii dual exhaust system with the intended purpose of t-case clearance. Most d20 cases came with a support flange that would contact a non-modified pipe. Some folks wind up slicing that flange with a gas axe, as it is not utilized in the sii platform, thus eliminating any clearance issues of a round pipe. The dimple in the above diagram is considerably more extreme than what is actually found in the pipe. It is not a restriction concern unless you are building a high revving race motor to drop in there. A stock 345 is quite happy to have any exhaust system at all.