'85 Ram 50

Well I'm here to introduce myself and the beast I have to work with.
I'm just your average teen from Ohio and my dad has an old Ram 50 I wanna get back on the road. More info on that in the general maintenance section. The Truck itself is a 1985 Dodge Ram 50 Custom 4x4, with a 2.6l engine and a 5 speed. It was bought brand new in '85 by my father, after his Colt met a deadly end when the front was ripped off. Over the years of his ownership the truck slowly morphed into a light off-roader, upgrades include a 4 inches of lift, dual struts, minor engine work, and an interesting custom exhaust. While it would take an eternity to list all the upgrades (a scrap-book full of pictures and notes) I do have a few pictures that are before and after. The first was when the truck was brand new, the second, the interior custom work, and the third is similar to how it looks today, except the KC lights have been rearranged. Attachment 14915Attachment 14916Attachment 14917

Welcome to the site RamD50. Sounds like you and this truck have accumulated quite a history. And you're rocking old school with your scanned pics! O.k. I'll take the bait - so what makes the exhaust on your truck "interesting"? :P

Well Geezer, my father had a dual exhaust installed on the truck. The guy that installed it was a bit creative, instead of installing a Y-pipe after the catalytic converter, he split the headers and welded on another flange, running a whole second pipe parallel, converter and all. I.E. 2 cylinders per pipe, with both pipes completely separate.

That's one fine looking specimen

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Originally Posted by RamD50

Well Geezer, my father had a dual exhaust installed on the truck. The guy that installed it was a bit creative, instead of installing a Y-pipe after the catalytic converter, he split the headers and welded on another flange, running a whole second pipe parallel, converter and all. I.E. 2 cylinders per pipe, with both pipes completely separate.

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Hmm, that is pretty out there! Did the muffler shop guy spend a lot of time setting this up to run properly? They'd have to be pretty close in length to each other - I'd imagine it would cause all kinds of weird tuning issues if there was much difference between the split systems. Gotta post a pic of your set up! :grin:

Welcome to the forum :) Nice Truck!

Can we get a sound clip of this exhaust? "Twice pipes," right?

I'd love to get sound clips and photos, but the exhaust rusted off rears ago, one of the repairs I need to do to make her road worthy again.

Sounds like you got 2 options on your exhaust - go stainless for durability or convert it back to a single collector to save cash. It's hard to know whether or not the split system made any performance improvements but adding the extra cost and weight of two cats it would need to make it worth doing. :twocents:

I think I'm gonna stick two the twin pipes, it'll make things easier when I drop in a V8. Here's a couple pictures of the engine for you. It has twin Mikuni Sidedraft carbs, along with a bigger cam and lifters.
Attachment 14953Attachment 14954

Those PPH Mikuni carbies are worth a bomb dude! Any idea what that set up came out of? They are a pretty rare vintage item. I'm liking your truck even more now :grin:

Probably from John Baker Performance - he sold the Mikunis and the cam and lifters back in the 80's

If you're going to covert to a V8, would you sell the carbs, cam and lifters?

that manifold is for the 81 up head - unlike the weber one I have that fits up to 81...

Once I get this thing running, the v8 conversion will begin, any help with locating parts is appreciated.