I.m really tight for space on my Vicky, I have a pair of Flowmasters, which I know are loud and the other option is a pair of glaspacs, about 20" would work nicely. The glaspacs would fit under the car a lot nicer if they wouldn't be too obnoxious. I'm running 2 1/2" all the way back with a 2"crossover under the front of the trans. I'm going to turn the ends down to the street just past the rear which should help some. My question is, to those who have used these before, which is the least annoying. This is on a nice street 355, nothing crazy.
In my opinion the glass packs will sound perfect, and the Flowmasters will sound like a Camaro and are kind of loud and annoying and have a drone to them
I tried glasspacks on my Chevy II, and it was obnoxiously loud, even with full tail pipes. But having a blower probably makes a significant difference. Might want to shop around some more, there must be some other choice available? If you can find room for real mufflers behind the axle, you'll get a nice sound. Exiting below the body is going to be loud no matter what you do.
Flowmasters sound like a 5.0 mustang on everything. put the glass packs on it. Also, look at running 2.0 inch exhaust, not 2.5, you 355 inch will breather just fine through 2 inch, it takes up less space and really will sound better than 2.5 inch pipes, Unless you are running 12 to 1 compression or have 500 horsepower you dont need 2.5 inch. I run 2 inch on everything, my 39 has a 10.5 to 1 283 headers and 2 inch straight pipes and sounds amazing at 7000 RPM, but nice and quiet on the inside at cruising speeds.
And if options A and B don’t work just install a pair of Cherry Bombs (disturbing the peace since 1968) he he.
^^^^^^ this is absolutely right, dumping under the car will make it drone inside the car horribly you'll have a headache in 20 min.
OR, you might consider some really quiet mufflers and add in some electric cutouts so you can make your own choice about when to be nasty loud and when not to be!
I always run glasspacks and steelpacks. 20" with a cross over sound be pretty quite. Might try some generic muffler shop ones, stay away from thrush, cherry bombs if you want it to be quieter.
Find someone with a Walker Exhaust master catalog and you will be able to find something that would fit. Sure, having a loud exhaust might be cool for some people, but drive all day and it get's old real fast. I had Flowmasters on my wagon for a week before they were tossed. It was my fault because I listened to a Flowmaster salesman. He told me that I would get a "nice quiet mellow sound" yeah right, it sounded like a funny car. I found mid 80's Cadillac mufflers were a direct replacement with no modifications and a lot quieter.
On my Touring and 54 Chevy I used the basic 18&20" aluminized glass packs that the exhaust shop stocks. W Motor and a 350, both cars sounded great
I picked up a pair of Flowmasters this weekend at the swap but I had my reservations. For what I paid, no big loss. I already have the 2 1/2" stuff plumbed in from the headers so I'll keep that, (huge amount of work!). The easiest would be to use a pair of 20" glaspacs out right before the rear wheels and pointing down, outside the body. I don't have any graceful manner of getting the pipes out the back that I can conceive, (If you have a look at my build thread you'll see I'm pretty creative). This car is being built for the Wildwood run, 175 mi. each way, hopefully without therapy afterward. I have to be finished, at least enough for inspection, by the end of July to make it this year. I think you guys answered my question. I'll troll the doublewides around here for somebody who wants the Flowmasters.
From experience, the way the Flowmasters will sound will be entirely dependent on where you place them in the system. For example, I had a 57 Bel Air was a bone stock, 2 barrel 283. I was 15 and put a set of Hooker long tube headers on it. I bought a set of Flowmaster 40 series mufflers now knowing any different, but the guy at the shop knew what I was about. He put the mufflers about 6 inches off of the collectors, under the toe boards, and everything behind that was open pipe. That car was LOUD, and those mufflers would rap and pop like a set of glass packs. Later, I had to change some things around and the mufflers got moved to in front of the rear axle, which completely changed the tone. No more rap or pop, just deep muscle car sound like a Camaro. Air velocity seems to make a big difference in the tone of the muffler. Put it close to the engine and it will be louder, put it further back and it will be deeper and quieter. I've typically used Cherry Bombs, that I generally cut down shorter and weld back together again, but they're loud AF. They don't really quiet the car down, as much as they purify the noise into something more pleasing than straight pipes. Honestly, they sound great, and I've driven thousands and thousands of miles with them, but it can get a little old yelling at passengers, blasting music so you can hear it, etc, and especially so if you have passengers often. I have an Olds with a 324 and steel packs, and it's a pretty nice happy medium, but that engine also makes basically no horsepower, so it's not quieting some beast. I also have an Olds with a 350 SBC and Magnaflows, and honestly sounds pretty good. It's not super loud, has a decent rumble, but also doesn't kill you driving down the road. That car in particular also has an OD trans, so it's not constantly under load either, which quiets the car down significantly. I also recently did a 55 Ford with Thrush Turbo mufflers. It had a good rumble at idle, but was unimpressive under load. But the purpose of that was to be quieter since I was going to drive it a lot, which it would have accomplished.
Hot rods are supposed to be loud. But seriously, I would not g with Flowmasters or Cherry bombs, Check out the choices from Walker.
I tried a couple different generic glasspacks looking the right sound for my 463" Pontiac. I eventually bought a set of 2 1/2" Flowmaster Super HP2 (these are NOT chambered mufflers)... Perfect. And they fit the space I had available.
The longer the glass pack, the better the sound without all the noise. The farther behind the axle for the end the less drone inside. If you can’t go over the rear end, can you tuck the up under it? I definitely wouldn’t run them out the side in front of the tire or point them straight down toward the ground. 45* angle down might be OK, plus 45* angle to the side. You don’t want the sound waves bouncing directly off the pavement no more than you have to.
There is a hell of a difference between being loud for the sake of being loud and having a great sounding set of pipes that may at times be a bit loud. If you never want people to ride with you twice pipes dumping out under the car in front of the axle are a great way to accomplish that. Especially with turbo style mufflers. I rode about 25 miles and back with a buddy who had a mopar setup that way in the mid 70's and never got back in that car again to ride anywhere. I had a headache that lasted two days when I got back.
Anyone ever heard of California turbos????... I think they were Caddy mufflers... ..Or were they Corvair turbo mufflers???
Call Brockman mellow tones. They build different length glasspacks and use steel or glass for whatever sound you want.
I had Cherry Bombs and full exhaust on my car, VERY loud even inside the car. I went with 20" Dynomax turbos. Much quieter, after a while they got a little louder, but acceptable over what I had. We used to run Sears stock mufflers, wait for a sale and grab 'em. Not a performance muffler, but quiet enough. I had a pair in an OT Mustang with turn-downs by the rear axle.
A 20" glaspak ain't much. Either way you go you got noise, a lot of it. I've tried just about everything, but to my wore out tired old ears the Walker sound fx mufflers work great-have had 'em on 2 cars and soon will be 3. They're not performance, but give a good sound outside and decent inside. But my days of inside noise are gone.
A buddy has porters with tail pipes on a stock flathead, very mellow with a little rumble when he gets on it.
+1 for Brockman Mellowtones. I have a pair of 17" steel packs on my Plymouth (flathead) and it isn't too loud inside, and reasonable outside. Although I will say, my floor has sound deadening and carpet. Call, and Mr. Brockman will make a recommendation based on what you want. I am sure porters or smitty's would be great too.
I'll second what @custom_lettering said. Call Brockman, talk to the man himself and get custom made glass or steelpacks to suit the sound you want & support. Made in the USA, best sounding mufflers Ive ever heard on a hot rod or even just an old nearly stock V8. Edit: @Hillbilly Werewolf types faster than me.
Koz, my car and engine are different, I'll admit. I have Smithy duels, longest made. I like it. Flowmasters come in different "series". I had a set of 40s installed on an older OT Dodge pickup years ago. Pipes out the back. Drone at speed was horrible!! Ben
I ran Super Trapp mufflers on my 34, and they had the ability to adjust the sound by the number of plates added. I have Summitt Racing SS glasspaks on my 53, and way too loud. Walkers do sound nice...
All good replies above. I've run Smittys on several cars now and I love them but they only come in 2" max, same with Porters. A lot of glaspacs have 2 1/2" i/o but are 2" through the center. My problem is getting the pipes to "look" right out the back of the car and having enough room to fit the mufflers inside the frame rails, clear suspension and not cook my plumbing. If you look at my build thread, this car is tight! I may not have mentioned I'm running a pretty decent 355 Chevy that will have upgrades over the winter. I kind of need, ( you never really need anything you just want), the 2 1/2"pipes. I toyed with using a cross dual Camaro IROC muffler but cant fit it in front of the crossmember. A couple of pics. It looks like a ton of space but really isn't.
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