I'm getting ready to put exhaust on my 1956 Chevy 150 but am unsure of what I want to do to keep it hidden as much as possible. I have Hooker fenderwell headers on my sbc. I am planning to run 2.5" exhaust which will dump in front of the rearend. How close can the exhaust be to the body mounts before I have to worry about weakening/melting the rubber? I don't really care for glass packs. What muffler will work best to keep mostly out of sight and hopefully not break the bank? I looked at some Thrush mufflers that were pretty small and very reasonable, but wondered if there may be something better. Thanks
Unless this is a drag car, or a true "poser" gasser style car, I'd stay away from fenderwell headers, especially on a Tri-Five Chevrolet, where there are so many quality brand, under chassis headers available (mine are hooker's). Why cut up the fender wells? There goes the driving in the rain when you get caught out for a drive, and it turns the engine compartment into a mess. That's JMO, and probably won't be too popular, but it's got to the point that these cars are too good to cut up. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
I put these inserts that bolt to the collector, they have baffles. The more baffles the quieter. I use one and it's quiet enough to drive around although I push the clutch in when I meet a cop coming from the opposite direction. With these there are no pipes and mufflers to hang. My headers are ceramic coated Sanderson's and it looks clean without a pipe coming off them.
I left the fender wells out altogether. I thought about the driving in the rain, but the way this car is set up I don't think I'll get far enough from home to give the rain much of a chance to catch me off guard.
Do you have a link to get more info about/purchase the inserts? I swore I read something recently about there being a down side to using inserts, but it was referencing the inserts in lake style headers so I didn't pay much attention... guess I should have bookmarked it. Any idea what they may have been concerned about?
Midnight Rider - Looking forward to a pic of that '56 150. The 150 models had really unique side spears, love it! The inserts I used in my pipes are from Car Chemistry. Had to weld them into the sidepipes prior to welding the bends on them. Butch raised a valid point about poser cars. If it gonna look the part, make sure it can walk the walk!
I built these out of 3" stainless a few years back with magnaflow stainless mufflers. Had a nice sound but pretty load. Not out of site but not in your face either. Ron Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
About using inserts, you won't make many friends with the collectors pointed straight down if you ever get off the pavement.
I used these. I see no downside to them. My previous post I said to take baffles out as that's how I remembered. Actually I left the little cap off with the hole in it. It's a different sound than mufflers and not the open header roar, they are loud tho. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/cci-3di25r?seid=srese1&gclid=CJqM057W9McCFQxqfgodJ74HrQ
Sorry no pics but, long tube no-name headers w/2.5 pipes into blown out (old) turbo thrush to reducer to 1 7/8 factory tailpipes. Has a nice BRRRRAPPPP to it but still subtle around town. Carpok has the cleanest setup, just very tidy.
It should run fairly hard. 500hp 383, super T10 4spd, 4.11 posi, caltracs, no front bumper, no fender aprons, no heater, no back seat, no radio.
Voice of experience from pitting in the dirt at the races in the Anglia - dust, sand, pebbles, grass, insects, small mammals, and slow turtles all end up blowing around and getting into everything.
Wow, a full year and I still haven't done anything about the exhaust(other than order mufflers). I guess I got sidetracked by wiring, interior and lots of non-auto related bs that came my way. Oh well, no one ever claimed it was easy(life or our hobby). So I was all set to have a pair of pipes bent and now I am back to thinking of using the inserts mentioned above. After all, the only time this car may see an unpaved surface is pulling off on the shoulder if I have a flat or am preparing to make a U-turn. I remember on the few cars we had with open headers Dad always told me to cap/plug the exhaust when I shut the car down. He said this was to prevent the heat from escaping too quickly and potentially screwing up the valves. My question is this: Is this a legitimate concern? If so, do these baffles alleviate that concern?
Old wives tale about open exhaust causing damage to valves. Look at all the exclusive race cars that never get "capped up". I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
The solution I used was to run the exhaust out of the side of the collector and then between the frame rails. I wanted the exhaust to be hidden as much as possible and not block the view of the ladder bars that I wanted to draw attention to. And with a simple T bar welded across the opening of the collector that locates a 1/4 inch stud in the center of the opening and a round cap held on with a single nut, open headers are literally one minute away.
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