Gas engine exhaust stacks

[werewolfx13]

Well, I finally got my k20 on the road after owning it for just over a year.  I'm going to be pulling the bed off and mounting an 8'x10' flatbed on in its place. Intended long term uses for the truck will be relatively heavy towing, occasional snow plowing, and firewood hauling. I've got a PTO & pto driven hydraulic pump for the NP203 (at least I think the pto I have is for a 203, it might be gear pitched for a 205, but I know someone that would trade me for one for a 203), and intend to fabricate either a side or rear suspended log splitter with hydraulic quick connects for splitting all the wood I cut before hauling it back home. What I'm interested in is opinions on running exhaust stacks, possibly integrated into my headache rack to be less conspicuous, to keep exhaust fumes/CO from accumulating around the work area while splitting wood.

Two concerns come to my mind:
1: Water accumulation. I don't mind slant back tips, but in a torrential downpour, I question whether slant back tips would be enough to keep water out, and drilling small holes in the bottom of the stacks would mostly defeat the purpose of keeping the fumes up and away from the work area.

2: If integrated into the headache rack, I would need to use some seriously long flex sections to keep the pipe from being damaged when the bed and/or engine shift. I'm not even sure long enough flex sections exist, muchless what they would do to flow rate/sound.

I could run them between the bed and the cab, and conceal them behind the headache rack I suppose, since I've not built the headache rack for this flatbed yet...

Thoughts or comments?

[81_Chevy]

well some people say stacks are only for diesels and look bad/sound bad on gas motors, and other people are the total opposite. just kind of a personal preference i guess. as far as the water in the stacks you have a couple of things you can do here. one is that you can get stacks with flappers on them so that no water will get in, put cans over the stacks, or drill a hole in the bend and weld a nut to it and put a bolt in it then take the bolt out to drain the water.

imo when running stacks (i helped my buddies from school do it) on a flat bed it easier not to do a Y pipe and just run it like true duals, then just cut out two holes and run them behind the headache rack and use a flat plate and weld it at a 90* to the bed and use a couple of U-bolts and put them around the bottom of each stack. as far as the type of stack none of them really keep water out that much, some more than others but not alot really. the type of stack is personal preference really on what you like for the look of your truck and everything. imo i like the miter cut stacks and the big turned out bull hauler stacks!  lol

-Nic

[werewolfx13]

Thanks for the input
These would be purely functional stacks, the less visible the better. Likely to be 2.5" or 3" pipe maximum. I need to re-route my duals as it is, they currently are tucked above the crossmember, but one side will have to drop down below it to make room for the PTO. The pipe can't be hard mounted to the bed without a flex section being installed below the bed, the bed moves SIGNIFICANTLY when going off camber, I took this bed off an '87 v20 I had for awhile, and 3" of movement side to side/up and down is not uncommon when maneuvering uneven terrain.

[blazing816]

Your bed shouldn't move, because it is bolted directly to the frame (no rubber mounts) so your frame and bed should act as one. I may not be understanding you correctly, but it more like that the cab is moving (since it and the front end are on rubber mounts) and since your sitting in the cab, it is giving the appearance that the bed is moving.

[ehjorten]

FYI...Your frame will still flex regardless of whether the bed is solid mounted to the frame or not.

[werewolfx13]

FYI...Your frame will still flex regardless of whether the bed is solid mounted to the frame or not.

This is the reason the cab and frame move at different rates. And, this bed doesn't bolt solid to the frame directly, it's held down by 4 squared U bolts.

[Irish_Alley]

a V8 log splitter man it would make me sick to hear all that gas being wasted lol

[Engineer]

I lived through the 70s so I remember truck styles from "back in the day".

Don't know if you lived through the 70s or not, but since your rig is a '76 you can go full retro by using this:

[Irish_Alley]

bologna slices 

[81_Chevy]

I lived through the 70s so I remember truck styles from "back in the day".

Don't know if you lived through the 70s or not, but since your rig is a '76 you can go full retro by using this:

werewolf this is what i ment by "flapper stacks"

[werewolfx13]

I might wind up with the rain flappers, I really don't see my fire breathing (riiight) 305 thats in the truck now or the 87 TBI 350 thats going in the truck later offering enough exhaust velocity to keep the water blown out on their own.

Traditional tow behind log splitters usually wind up upside down before I get em where I cut my wood
 
Last winter I hand split most of my wood. I'd rather NOT do that again if I have the choice.