Seems to start better with a exhaust

[Jeff Ogden]

My 88 never had any exhaust from the convertor back when I got it and always was hard to start cold,the pump in the tank was bad and was replaced but still the same so I was thinking the pump on the frame is getting weak since it had to do all the work for who knows how long. Tonight I installed a tail pipe and a straight pipe instead of a muffler and I just reached in and it started up unlike before when I had to give it a little gas or start it two times,looks like the motor needs a little back pressure to work correctly or is something wrong.

 

[Krafty]

yes that is indeed correct, I remember a post i did years ago about why not to use 3" pipes with stock manifolds, all engines require a certain amount of back pressure, thats why 2 stroke dirt bikes have that massive expansion chamber then go back to a 1" pipe. manifolds provide neither good flow nor adequate back pressure for the engine, but remember the manifolds are designed to work with the original exhaust. where as headers on the other hand are engineered to provide flow and backpressure so that you can run almost nothing after them.

good to see your project is coming together.