I'm moving to a new quieter neighborhood shortly. That, in conjunction with my young daughter who will be riding in my car has given me reason to reconsider the 27" long Thrush glasspacks on my 350 powered ride. The problem is, I like the sound of glasspacks, not turbo mufflers or chambered "blowmaster" mufflers. Are there quieter glasspacks out there that won't tick the neighbors off when I head out to work a 5:30 am? I know longer 'packs are better so that's a start. The motor is a stock low compression 350 with 2.25" pipes and longtube headers. Thanks.
i've always wondered what 2 glasspacks in a row would sound like. in other words 4 total , 2 on each side
I'm running mufflers from Stainless Specialties on my 27. They make 3 sound levels and I went with the middle one. They are not bad noisewise but just enough to let you know there is a cam in the motor. Sometimes I wish they were a little louder, but they have been on the car for over 25 years, so I probably won't be changing them anytime soon. Don
Glasspacks burn out and get louder over time. I'd get a good set of mufflers...something like Don's talking about.
The longer Walker Continentals were pretty mellow but Rickybop may have a better idea with oem style mufflers. It shouldn't be too hard to find stock style mufflers that are for a factory performance car that have a bark to them when you want to bark but give a nice authoritative rumble that doesn't annoy the neighbors or hurt the rugrat's hearing the rest of the time.
i was pondering same thing. 24″ packs on each side pretty loud? 327 mild cam, right now straight lake pipes no muffle
Had a pair of real Corvair Spyder (turbo) mufflers on an OT Camaro they were quiet until you "stood" on it. I believe that you can still buy them! Worth a look see. KK
I'm running steel bullet glasspacks without issue. At normal easy out the gate rpm's, no problem. I can sneak by or up on anyone when I play the throttle right. But when I jump into it, cover your ears cause it's loud. At least till you figure out what you are going to change to, can you sneak out and by in the morning? Hate to see you lose your mojo.
I Needed some small mufflers for a OT short wheelbase 4x4 truck with a Warmed up V8. Muffler shop had a really hard time fitting anything in the space and kept pushing glass pack/resonators but they were too loud for that build. So after an hour or so I spotted some small round can mufflers and suggested those. Muffler man says "those are for 3 liter engines!" I said well that'd be perfect since the engine is 5.3 liters and we'll be putting in two of them." Sound level and note was perfect. Authoritative, throaty commands some respect without being loud but really barks on the loud pedal. Muffler man was impressed too and it's hard to impress those guys, maybe surprised was more like it but he said he learned something. Best part was they are dirt cheap and will fit damn near anywhere. Truck gets lots of those "man that thing sounds good" remarks too. I don't tell many people that they are just 2 cheap small engine mufflers. Performance was unaffected below 5000 rpm put I did loose some above that.
When I was a kid I used to hang out at Walker Muffler in LA. He'd always ask the customer how they wanted the glasspacks installed. Most didn't know what he was talking about. On most glasspacks the internal vents or louvers are open in one direction. They are designed to be installed so the exhaust gases flow over the vents not into them. If the muffler is installed so the exhaust flows into the vents the packing will burn out and they will get much louder. If installed the opposite direction so the exhaust flows over the vents they will last and maintain an acceptable exhaust level for much longer. I have two 36" glasspacks on my 283 powered roadster installed so they don't burn out and after 6 years it still hasn't gotten any louder. I too like the mellow tone of the glasspacks.
I put a set of flowmasters on my nailhead. Kept the factory size pipes, 2 1/4. It quiet just idling but lets that big block roar when you put that hammer down! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
This is true. I found out the same thing when I put 34" cherry bombs on my 350. It was louder when installed, but the tone has kept steady for several years. Yeah, a little loud but its a hot rod.
I had just the opposite experience. I had 22" Smithy's on my avatar and frankly it was too quiet. I replaced them with some 8" Cherry Bombs and the sound is just what I was looking for. Not too loud and not too quiet. They have only been on the car about 6 months so time will tell if they burn out and get louder.
Yep. This works great. Run 30" glasspacks with a crossover on my '51 Chevy and it keeps the rappy sound to a minimum with a nice mellow sound at idle.
I used these on several OT vehicles over the years. They were always my 'go to' muffler when I put headers on anything. The old Walker # was 21348, but it's no longer valid, comes up for something for a Subaru now I think. These were the shit before all the 'boutique' muffler companies popped up. Great mellow tone until provoked.
I'm running a 6 but this^^^has been my experience ....'X-pipe' with two 30 " cherry bombs , daily driver only vehicle.
I've noticed and wondering if anyone else noticed with glass packs and crossover a sound that's best described as a big zipper. Damn near the same sound from zipping up your coat only bigger.
Run the glass packs as far from the engine as possible and then run as long a tail pipe as possible after that. I don't know anything about your car but on a full body car like say a rtri five chebby or the like we used to put the mufflers right before the rear axle then run tail pipes all the way to the rear bumper. Also burn them in properly, name brand glass packs used to come with break in instructions. Basically you get them in then you idle the car untill it is fully warmed up then shut if off for a while and do it again. It allows them to settle instead of blowing the glass out the tail pipe right away.
I can tell you. My '46 Lincoln custom is on a '56 Lincoln chassis and when I was thinking about an inexpensive exhaust system, I used four Cherry Bomb/Glasspacks. The original '56 exhaust system had two mufflers and two resonators and the pipes snaked through the chassis x member. I bought stock pipes only and mounted the CB/G's in tandem and they sound sweet in a subtle way. I'm not into high performance noise, burnouts, etc with this car so it is real fine for me. The CB/G's came from an old (closed) speed shop in Calif and cost $20 on evilBay and were rusty from shelf wear and neglect. A grinder and a coat or two of high temp clear fixed that right quick....
The previous owner of my Nomad owned a muffler shop. He installed 39" glasspacks in 1986. I've owned the car since '91. The mufflers are louder than they used to be after 300,000 miles on them, but for years they were really quiet and mellow.
The Marmont muffler plant in Lenior City, Tn. just closed. And they made Cherry Bomb mufflers, hope they are made some where else.
Our Long Smithy's will be quiet enough for your neighbors and if you install them open end of the louver to the rear they will last a long time.
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