Greg:
Walker is a common after
market supplier. I think they do a lot of OEM to the factories, too. I
bet you could go to a full service auto parts store like NAPA and they could
order an OEM spec exhaust for you. NAPA or CARQUEST or just about any full
service store that has been around for a while will have the books and personel
who will call around and actually find the right parts for
you. Sometimes you have to convince a 20 something clerk to actually
look in the book, but if you find a clerk who is 50 or so, he has probably
looked for these before, maybe last week, and can do it again. The correct
mufflers are around, and in production. The muffler for an Imperial has 2
criteria--it fits in the space, and it works for the engine. Since the
engine is not exclusive to the Imperial, and the Imperial is larger not smaller
than the rest of the full sized bodies Chrysler used that engine in, there are a
lot of cars that still exist using that muffler.
I'd be more than willing
to bet that the reason they suggested going to the large pipe size is that they
have something in stock using that size pipe they would love to get rid of.
The factory spent a lot of
time and money desiging that exhaust to work extremely well. If
you are using your Imperial as the factory intended, a luxury
road car, mickey mousing the exhaust system isn't going to improve
anything.
John
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