REFLECTOR:Innie or Outie??

Scott Derrick reflector@tvbf.org
Sat, 19 Jul 2003 20:21:57 -0600


My new exhaust should arrive soon from Custom.  a 4-into-4 2 pipes 
exiting through the lower cowl on each side straight back.  I need to 
change how the exhaust exits the cowl completely from a single center 
exit to two exits on each side.

I've seen pictures of where folks molded fiberglass tubes around the 
stacks,  I call it an Outie.  A protuberance that sticks out from the 
fuselage. These look nice and streamlined and help keep the exhaust 
stains off the cowling, but disturb the airflow at a critical place.

I'm contemplating an Innie. Keep the cowl lines undisturbed for the 
least disturbance of air flow through the prop.  Make long indentations 
from where the tube meets the cowling back towards the rear of the 
plane, the indentation gets less deep as you get further back for the 
exhaust to flow into the surrounding air flow. The exhaust tubes would 
be cut off so as to not stick out above the line of the cowling. I'm 
probably not explaining this very well.  Some of the W.W.II fighters had 
these indentations where the exhaust stacks came out of the forward cowl.

Do you think it would be worth it?  Any reasons not to do it this way?

Scott