Dual exhaust question

When building a dual exhaust do each of the mufflers have to be the same or close to the same distance from the manifolds?

 

I do not have extensive experience with exhaust airflow physics but I would suspect they should be as close to the same distance as possible.
The way I understand it the overlap between the exhaust and intake valves allows the pulse of the exiting exhaust gases to scavenge the last bit of exhaust and help " pull " the fresh incoming fuel/air mixture into the combustion chamber, The number of pulses in a given length of pipe on each side of a V8 or V6 engine may influence or have an effect on scavenging balance, Possibly causing the cylinders on one side of the engine to have a little less air/fuel mixture volume under compression than the other.
For most of us average drivers ( myself included ) the difference may not be significant but on a tuned high air flow high performance engine I could see where it could make a difference.

Based on my limited experience I would think that maintaining balance on both sides of the engine would be desirable. I would place the mufflers as close to equal distances from the manifolds as possible.

Some members have more high performance experience than I do and hopefully will spot this post and chime in.

 

not really but put a balance tube in, or it will sound like a tractor......... or anything American with a V8

 

An X type muffler will solve the balance issue and the space issue that you will have unless you run it outside the frame. I wanted to do a dual exhaust but the performance gain is really minimal and only realized on the top end, not where I spend most of my time. A less restrictive single provides more low end grunt than a dual and is easily accomplished completely inside the frame up and out of the way.:v6: