Good stuff, it must have been one of those "phantom" type problems

! Ignore the exhaust issue and have some fun with it for a while! Although it might pay to weld on a big Briggs straight through muffler to shut it up, your noise might wear thin with others in ear shot, and they might shut you down

(no fun there)
Enjoy the holidays..... sideways

FAST GRASS
I'll help you out with the expansion chamber design... much later... but first a video of your engine/kart would be good, feel free to PM me...