2.75" vs 3" pipe on supercharged vehicles.

Originally Posted by Sh0velMan

Oh and your figure for 2.5" dual is a little off.


2.5" Dual = 9.817 sq inches
2.75" single = 5.939 sq inches
3" Single = 7.068 sq inches
3" Dual = 14.136 sq inches
3.5" Single = 9.621 sq inches
4" Single = 12.566 sq inches
4.5" Single = 15.904 sq inches

Edit: re-read your post, I see where our numbers are different, you're subtracting wall thickness. Pipe diameters should be ID rather than OD. So subtracting thicknesses should be unnecessary.

Edit 2: And the reason they over-estimate pipe size is because most of the flow is happening at the outside perimeter of the pipe, so a general rule of thumb is to add 10-15% (with the percentage being smaller the larger the pipe diameter) to the pipe size to allow for turbulence losses at the center of the pipe. Sounds silly, but it's been worked out many years ago by folks a lot smarter than us hahaha.