Steve - Given the Ford firing order 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8, with cylinders numbered 1-4 on the right bank and 5-8 on the left bank (facing forward), and both banks of cylinders having individual headers, it would follow that two cylinders firing sequentially on the same bank will create a bottleneck when the gasses reach the collector. This is exactly what happens when cylinders 4 and 2 as well as cylinders 7 and 8 fire. The theorim which supports the crossover header concept is that evenly spaced pulses in the exhaust collector will create less back pressure. It follows that if there will be two collectors, they must be fed by cylinders from opposite banks to create even pulsation. In order to do so, the two inner cylinders of each bank are fed to the opposite side collector. Thus 1 and 4 go to the right side, 5 and 8 to the left. This leaves the two inner cylinders of each bank to be crossed over to the opposite side. i.e. right bank cylinders 2 and 3 cross to the left side, while left bank cylinders 6 and 7 to the right side. This makes the pulses in each collector evenly spaced. i.e. right side has 1-4-6-7 (every other cylinder in the firing order sequence) while left side has 5-2-3-8.
The only disadvantages I know of are that it is more difficult to fabricate and may require slightly more room, but this is not really major obstacle in a GT40 since the collectors are placed so close together anyway. If you look at some of the pics of cars with crossover headers you can see how tidily it can be done.
[ January 19, 2002: Message edited by: BlueOvalBlood ]
[ January 19, 2002: Message edited by: BlueOvalBlood ]
[ January 29, 2002: Message edited by: BlueOvalBlood ]