Technical What Mufflers Do You Run On Your Hot Street Car?

Flowmaster mufflers may, or may not, sound great to you, that is subjective, but the sound is not anything like what would be around in the 60's, not even close. That is a 2000's sound, very distinctive. They are very successful company, they sell a lot of mufflers, so obviously a lot of people like them, but to me it is a very odd combination to have a vintage style car with a 2000's muffler sound. On a Mustang or Camaro they sound cool. On a HAMB era car, not so much.

 

90s style sound, to me. That's when I got mine, at least.

 

OK, 90's sound.

 

I had my set of Flowmasters on an O/T Nova drag car. That was in 1996. At the time I had bitchy neighbors and had to do something so I could run my 12-1/2 to 1 350 at home. They really didn’t slow the car down ether.


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X2 on the H pipe. really evens things out

 

BTW, I’m with the guys running “Turbo” mufflers. I did have a nice sounding set of glass packs on a 390!


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I run Dynomax & dumps on my o/t.
Real quiet until you put your foot into it.
The stroker & long tubes sound incredible at WOT!

 

Smoothy, I may be able to help you. How much room you plan on having underneath? You mounting them under the rear seat or in the stock spot up more towards the front?
Tom Hand

 

I have Dynomax on the '32 3W and can't stand the WOT noise but my Super 44 Flowmasters on the big block '55 sound awesome and make a lot of power.
I don't use any larger pipe than 2 1/2".

 

As usual, no consensus. Many preferences. But out the back for your ears sake. In the '50s, steel paks were the rage. Hollowed [ gutted ] original mufflers were used a lot. No H for a pure duel sound . Not around in those early days. Tastes have changed, though.

Ben

 

I'm using 2.25" pipes with a pair of Edelbrock , chambered "suitcase" mufflers similar to flowmasters. Dumps out just ahead of the rear axle. No sound or heat insulation in the car. Has a deafening drone at about 1600 RPM that goes away at 1800..It's LOUD! WHAT?

 

Just make your own. I did.

 

I run 30" glasspacks on my Hemi. I ran the pipes all the way back to the gas tank and did baloney slice tips. I did put a balance tube in to mellow them out some. Not too bad cruising and a beautiful noise when I stand on it! Just a note, I live up in the mountains and we have scores of the tall rats some people call deer. They don't move off the road for anybody even honking the horn gets a casual glance at most and a slow walk until they reach the other side of the road. One quick rap on the throttle and the bark from the glasspacks sends then scattering in all directions! Great fun.

 

Flowmaster 44 (X2) stainless with 2 1/4" pipes straight out the back after an "X".. Not quite as throaty as I would have liked but this is way better than too loud.

I'd use them again.

 

Garbage in/Garbage out. Consider the following
Louie and Lance.
Both famous Armstrong's,
Both dudes with the same initials,
Let's make them our "engines" for my analogy.
A trumpet is basically a tuned pipe, sort of an exhaust system.
Using the exact same horn, say a Getzen since I still have mine from high school,
Louie and Lance's horns are not going to sound the same.

I worked in an exhaust shop for a while in another life, people always said "I want my car to sound like that one". It isn't possible unless you got the same displacement, compression, cam, headers, etc. A great sounding set of pipes on a car is the end result of a great musician under the hood. Sorry if your reading this Lance, no insult intended.

 

My o.t. 69 454 had an X pipe with some kind of Pypes mufflers. It sounded like a V-6 with a glass pack to me.. I removed the X and ran a set of 17749 Dynomax Super Turbos and that great big block Chevy sound came back.. Now that they have some miles it really sounds nice..

 

I actually haven't pulled the trigger on buying any mufflers yet. I actually have a set of turbos brand new in the box at home that my dad purchased some time ago. He said they might be Walkers as that's what he ran on his 57 in the late 80s. I'm unsure what the inlet size would be, but I won't be surprised if they're 3". They were for his blown engine. Either way my headers did come with 2.5" reducers.

 

I run a big block with fenderwell headers 3 inch pipe and dynomax bullets turned out right ahead of the rear tires, lots of performance forums and online research of dyno tests all say it's a great system. Now reading the comments here it's all wrong, go figure..ha ha ha

 

Check out Powerstick mufflers. Mutleys Comet sounds killer with a mild 289...they have a cool YouTube video showing a bone stock 350 and they run several different mufflers...

 

Elcheapo Thrush glass packs

 

I figured on the dynomax bullets being the least restrictive as they're supposed to be a racing muffler. How's the sound? I'd say middle ground between open headers and glasspack?

 

This is a little hotter than yours but here's a video with open headers for a comparison to the bullets



And here with the exhaust



.

 

Can you still get Purple Hornies and Thrush muffles. Ran the, back in the day.

 

Dynomax oval turbos for me. They are fairly quiet compared to glasspacks and I went with a 20" length. Over the 1st year, the sound has changed and they are not as quiet. No drone and I run exhaust out to the bumper.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/wlk-17749/overview/

 

I have a post here on the 17749 Dynomax product. I like them a lot and the sound has changed after I put some miles on them.

 

Cherry bombs or Smittys straight thru is the way to do.

 

That's the comparison I was looking for. The bullets take quite a bit of the annoyance away, and I mean that from a neighbors perspective. Because if it were my choice we'd all run open headers.

 

I think what I will end up doing is trying a variety of mufflers, video documenting, and posting the results here. The mufflers dad had at home were 3" summit turbo mufflers. I think I will also pick up a set of the dynomax bullets because they're not terribly expensive.

 

Hello,
When we had the 58 Impala at the drags, it ran through the regular oval mufflers. we put on a “Y” dump exhaust outlet on both sides straight down from the header manifold. During the time trials, we could uncap the openings. During the eliminations, we had to cap them up and run through the stock mufflers. It was good enough to win some trophies against other A/Stock class cars.

But in the quest for speed and staying legal with factory stock, Chevrolet parts, we got a hold of some tube mufflers that came new, from the Corvette dealer’s parts bin. Our friend in Los Angeles gave us two tube mufflers from a Corvette. They were long and had the order listing as “off road.” Off road? On a Corvette? Maybe they meant for drag racing use only, not legal for street usage or something like that. The parts catalog said nothing about being illegal. So, on they went on the 58 Impala.

We only had time to take off the whole muffler system, all the way back to the rear bumper. Then welded and installed the Corvette “off road” tube mufflers on, with a couple of down turned chrome tips. In order to stay stock and legal, we had to use the whole muffler pipe system, so it was being modified for re-installation.

In the meantime, off we went to the local drive-in restaurant parking lot cruise. When we rolled in, the sound was like open headers. But, it was still legal. The local LB Police cruisers gave us the stink eye. But knowing how many rpms it took to keep the sound mellow, did the trick. The first trip through the parking lot was an eye opener for everyone.

The big 348 sounded outstanding, no hot rodding, high revs or throttle to the floor, just a cool idle sound. The next trip was down the back alley for some reverberations between two story apartment buildings. Now, that was extremely satisfying.

Jnaki

But, when we were ready to leave for the night, we backed up and went down the alley way at a standing start. Those Corvette “off road” mufflers sounded perfect. On the way home, that was the last time with these short down pipe tips, the following day, we had the tail pipes re-installed for the mellow sound of normal driving. It still sounded like a big time motor at idle and at stop lights, but at least it was quiet enough for conversation on cruises.

It was loud enough for my friends’ moms to tell my friends that I just pulled up in their driveway. I am sure that “date night” parents were not too happy with some noise coming from their driveway and some HS kid knocking on their front door. The dads were usually fine with me and my 58 Impala. But, thought otherwise if I drove up in a much quieter, 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery. HMMM, what is in the back area? a what???

As far as the 1958 Impala was concerned, I either learned to drive at a certain RPM or the car was never used as a showboat, doing stupid, dumb, teenage tricks. No tickets or equipment replacement certificates for me the whole time I owned the black sedan. It even passed those weekend night equipment check stops, that periodically pulled people over.

When the inspecting officers saw the frost exhaust coming out of the rear dual pipes, that to them, was fine for the check on my car. It was “through the mufflers” when they checked the exhaust, while looking at the hot rod/cruisers. Those Corvette, “off road” mufflers were still on the car when I sold the Impala in 1965.


Today, there are newer versions with legal sounds for any situations. At least, they will fit under most Christmas trees, with relative ease.

 

I second the auger mufflers. On my old pro street style Morris Minor with fenderwell headers and 3 inch pipes dumping out in front of the rear tires my wife and I could carry on a conversation at 70 mph with the windows down. It sounded like a early Ford Cobra with the factory side exhaust.
Less than a tenth difference at the track.