Hot Rods Any one running straight pipes?

I was shooting the breeze today with a few old hot rod pals and the subject came up about how they/we use to run straight pipes in the 50's & 6o's and how we seemed to get away with it sometimes and at other times the police were on us like white on rice!

I know I got my fare share of excessive noise citations.

The last car I had and drove with straight pipes was in the summer of 68,a cobbled up coupester with a flathead that used as much oil as it did gas,it was loud and I thought it was cool but the engine died and I parked it in the field behind my grandparents house.

I drove the car less than three months and ended up with 4 tickets. HRP

 

16 years on a yblock. No tickets

 

Depends on where you live ... I'd hate to end up 500 miles from home deadlined because of some 23 year old rookie stopped me for no front plate & happened to look underneath.
Around home, no problem. But you have to understand - some vehicles are real slick running no mufflers, while others are childish novelty items ...

 

Wide open headers. See avatar photo.

 

Put some miles on running without mufflers, including in my brother's pickup with 671 blown 427 (bbc) that had caps under the trailing end of the front fenders. If we saw a cop it was pretty obvious- but we coasted along until we were clear. Lord that was a hellish scream it would wail out with a pair of 750 holleys feeding it all they could. My wagon uncorked is too much but surprisingly I haven't been stopped- gonna be any time I'm sure. Good thing all the machinery at work and target practice without plugs took most of my hearing years ago..


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I drive our 29 roadster with the headers wide open most of the time. It just seems right with a roadster to have open pipes.

 

The caps pretty much stay off...

 

For sure a flathead is pretty quiet with open headers. I don't think mine is all that loud. I still would like to add some kind of baffles in the pipe. Not that it's too loud, but I think it might sound nicer.

 

Open fenderwell headers last 5 yrs. or so. No problems so far, with the exception of my hearing!

 

I drove my 30 pickup for about 6 months with open headers, it was fun, but it was loud, and just a tad too much. My ears would ring after a 30 - 45 minute ride. No tickets though! I installed baffles into the headers which dropped the sound level about 10 db's, which makes it still pretty loud, but tolerable.

 

Mine have a bunch of bends in them.

 

Had this 39 roadster in Aussie with straight through side pipes. It had a twin carb stock flathead. Yes it is a roadster. Manufactured buy ford Australia with no windows in the doors. 50 39s were made before the war stopped production.

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I drove my '59 Ford around for a few days with short exhaust pipes, cops never looked at me. With the glass packs, it may as well be open exhaust, the mufflers have the noise dampening properties of a burned out bird's nest.

 

Straight Pipes ? Check

 

You should try the circle track mufflers.
Deep guttural sound, small and still loud.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Shorty-Race-Mufflers-6-x-3-1-2-Inch,32717.html

Here is an example. Turn your volume up.

 

Yep! So is my Pops,

 

all eight of them

 

It will probably be a long while but I plan to once mine is done.

 

It was the early 1990's my old ride with a Buick 455 and no mufflers. I pulled into the Farmer's Coop and the Chief of Police walked up to my window and said something to me. I still have no clue what he said because it was so loud I couldn't hear him. I smiled and waved, he smiled and waved and I left. He was and still is my neighbor.

The early 1980's. I was following my brother's Torino Cobra down a street in the town to the North of our home farm. I was at the wheel of my brother's Ford Maverick powered by a 170 I6 with a single glass pack. I'd heard from a friend that that city cop was out to get that kid that drove that Torino Cobra and I was protective of my little brother. The cop pulled my brother over, then waved me over but I was going to stop anyway. Heated words were exchanged between me and the cop. He jumped back into his car, locked the doors and called for assistance. When a Deputy showed up the cop got out of his car and gave me an excessive noise ticket explaining that the car I was driving wasn't loud by it's self but the combination of the Torino and the Maverick driving down the street was loud. He had forgot all about "getting" my little brother. I beat the ticket as I got a call from the county attorney before the court date explaining that the officer had dropped the charges of course this was after he found out that I had hired an attorney to fight it. The cop and I later became good friends, life is funny that way.

The mid 1970's, I was stopped going down the highway by a Highway Patrolman. My old 390 FE powered pickup was loud and I shut it off as soon as I pulled over. He warned me about my speed then he stepped in front of the pickup and said start it up. I smiled to myself because the starter was weak and the compression was high and I knew when I shut it off that I'd be sitting by the side of the road for an hour before it was going to start. I hit the starter and RRrrrr, RRrrr was all it would do. I said I don't think it's going to start for a while and I asked the patrolman why he wanted me to start it. He said that it was kind of loud when I went by him. I told him that I had two brand new Thrush mufflers on it. He looked underneath and sure enough he saw the mufflers but what he couldn't see was where they were unhooked. Two weeks later I was about to leave a stop sign when my door opened and the patrolman told me, "Whatever you do don't shut that son of a bitch off" LOL! I pulled over to the shoulder and he wrote me a ticket for a faulty exhaust system. He got me in the end and I still get a good laugh out of it. I had no clue he was behind me.

 

Around here in the 60s you would get loud and unusual tickets with glass packs. I never could understand the unusual part. Kansas law reads you must have mufflers and no louder than 90db @ 50 ft.. At least there is a limit instead of leaving to discretion of how loud is too loud

 

If we were racing, I sometimes let the zoomies on. Have yet to be pulled over. I have some street headers- side pipes, that I change to, but most of the time the big pipes stay on.

 

This car never had mufflers on it. Sanderson Headers into the fully functional Lakes Pipes.



Sounded Great.

 

That photo looks wicked! HRP

 

Have two inch pipes off a set of Fentons on my 235 with no mufflers. Ugly at idle but at about 1,000 rpm everything evens out. Sounds great when I get off the throttle between shifts too. Nothing like a six when going through the gears. Do need some sound deadener in the roof, no headliner.

 

I had a '65 Chevy C30 truck back in 1975. I had just swapped the 6 for a warmed over 283 with headers. Out for the maiden voyage, no hood and no mufflers. I had goosed it off a light, didn't see the cop car sitting in 7-11. I went right by him, he didn't associate the truck with the noise source, he was looking around.

 

Wide open and not at all quiet. Cops plain just don't harass me. They will give the occasional thumbs up.

 

That coupe is just too cool. HRP

 

sans hubcaps, hood, sidepanels by 1pickup posted Aug 28, 2013 at 7:08 AM

Used to run Thrush mufflers with turn outs in front of the wheels. Now has pipes out the back, no mufflers. I think it sounded better before.

 

Dual straight pipes from headers all the way out the back on my flathead powered roadster. Never been a issue for years although the sound is exiting behind me. Sounds great theres Harleys louder than me.

 

I have a 23 glass T that I run right off the headers.Warmed up 327-sounds great to me!