For my Senior Project, my partner and I designed and built an exhaust system for the schools Formula S.A.E. race car. While the plan was to have the car completed in time to enter the Formula S.A.E. competition in May, we soon discovered that the entire club had underestimated the amount of work required to complete the car. Therefore, we decided to change our objective, to use this year as a learning experience toward next years competition.

The exhaust is designed to utilize the flow of the exhaust gases to improve the performance of the engine. When the exhaust valves open, a shock wave of gases travel down the exhaust. When it reaches the collector, a pulse travels back up the other exhaust pipes to the exhaust valves. Before the valves close, some of the air/fuel mixture escapes into the exhaust. By changing the length of the exhaust pipes, you can time the arrival of the pulse to push the fresh air/fuel mixture back into the cylinder, increasing the pressure inside the cylinder, and improving the performance of the engine.

The drawings for the project were some of the hardest I've ever done before. All four pipes needed to be the same length and there was an added restriction of being able to use only one radius for the pipe bend. Making the exhaust in the schools machine shop was quite a learning experience. With a hacksaw and a grinder as our precision tools, we found it difficult to construct. Welding the exhaust together was itself difficult. Rotating one pipe buy a degree or two would throw the entire alignment off. My welding skills are negligible so we only tack welded the pipes and then took them to a nearby welding school.

If you'd like to view the drawing for the exhaust we designed you will need to download AutoCad's Whip Viewer. This viewer is about 3.5 megs. After you have the viewer you can click here to view the drawings. By right clicking on the drawing you can zoom or pan. I'VE ONLY BEEN ABLE TO GET THIS TO WORK WITH INTERNET EXPLORER!