Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Straight Pipes

Anybody running straight pipes on a daily driver? I've got Fenton's on my Chevy 235 with 30" cherry bombs for 8 years now, the last two with an "X pipe" that has really mellowed her out. I'm thinking about going back to a little rap.

A friend of mine is running straight pipes on his 230. He's got langdon split headers and just straight exhaust tubing the rest of the way back. He drives it daily...in fact drove it out to bonneville this past year from ohio. It's loud and he likes it. You can hear him coming from about a 1/2mi away. Definitely has a distinctive sound. If it was me, I'd probably run at least a short muffler to mellow out the harsh loudness. I like to be able to hear abnormal engine noise and it's pretty hard with such loud exhaust. Guess it's what you prefer that matters.

Yes, & it also matters to police!

MBHD

Duly noted Hank! Much too respect for the uniform. What I am really wondering is what the sound would be like with just the "X pipe" and straight exhaust.

The X really made a difference on the Interstate pulling over a 1500 foot pass, seemed like an extra 1/2 gear. The X seemed to take the two distinct pulses and make them a stereo mirror image. I have them separted on each side of the rear like a bent engine.

It would be quite loud still.
Some glasspacks would tame the decibles a bit.

What size pipes are you using?
If they are a bit big,they won't rap as much.


MBHD

i worked on a street rod recently and it had a muffler i have not seen or heard yet.
it was a flowmaster Hushpower. it was a v8 but it had a deep sound and nothing like a regular flowmaster( which i really dislike). the muff uses to perforated cones that the gas's pass thru in a straight line..

by the way, i do have a straight pipe on mine. no muffler. sounds good at idle and gets quieter thru the rpm. i just use a fan in the pipe to do the quieting.

Well they don't get much straighter than these. Not a daily driver either. It has VW exhaust tips on it mellow it out.

I have head the Hushpower on a Flathead 8 (Ford). It was on H&H Flatheads' demo engine (inside the trailer ). With one of them off (accidentally) it was REAL loud, when we all noticed it was off, and it was 'reinstlled' it was quieter, but still had 98% or the rumble and rasp, just not as loud. I've been looking at a set for our Anglia (Bent 6, dual W an 'H' pipe). Have yet to take the plunge (other priorities at the moment).

I have heard people claim the Hushpower IIs have the same sound as the old 'Holywood' mufflers. I wouldn't know, just thought I should pass it on.

I have heard the 'meat grinder' or 'mini meg' tips help reduce the interior noise (haven't tried it, but stand's to reason).

When I put the 270 in my '53 in '78 I ran Clifford tube headers and twin glass packs and an "H" pipe. It was fairly quiet and ran strong. Later I ran Fentons into one 3" Flowmaster. It exited in front of the left rear wheel. I liked the sound but I gave up quite a bit of top end. When I drug that off hauling a huge Mopar six home I put on two 2" straight pipes. They went side by side all the way to the bumper. They were LOUD and made less power than the flowmaster. Before heading for Bonneville I put two 28" Cherry Bombs on. I wish I'd gone a little longer. It's still loud enough but not annoying. ( to me ) It runs a bit stronger too. With the straight pipes I drove it to Reno three times and going up Geiger Grade to Virginia City Was not fun. Reno traffic was not fun . I'm not a Cherry Bomb fan but I'll take them over straight pipes any day on a driver.

Cosmo,
Here's another thought. Have you considered running chambered pipes? One of my buddies worked in a muffler shop for about 4 or 5 years, and he said that the most impressive exhaust setup that he remembered from his days as a muffler monkey was chambered exhaust pipes. They're straight through pipes, no packing, but are divided into chambers every foot or 18" and do a great job of canceling out harshness and reduce noise volume too, but flow really well. I've seen chambered pipe available for DIY exhaust systems in the Summit Racing catalog, so you might give Summit a call and see if they have anything you can use. Their toll free # is (800) 230-3030.

Ran my daily 235 last year with straight 2" pipes about 4 ft long.
No crossover, but the pipes should always be equal length to reduce noise.

Great sound at idle and when decelerating and smooth and quiet up to 2000 rpm without stepping on it too hard.
After that all hell breaks loose sounding like a WWII fighter plane in a dog fight with all guns firing.
What a rush, but not cool on the street.

After a couple of weeks I had enough and mounted the shortest steelpacks at 12" from Brockman and added 2 ft. of tailpipe.
Great sound for my truck, but on my coupe I went with the 17" steelpacks and the tailpipes going over the rear axle and straight out the back.
Still raps when I step on it, but without noise when the windows are down.

If you go with straight pipes avoid too long ones, as they start resonating already at low rpm and just keep getting louder.
Unless that's what you're after.
It's the 'air column' inside long pipes that vibrates and makes a sound when getting excited at a resonant frequency.
Think pipe organs...longer larger diameter pipes have a deeper and louder tone at a lower frequency.
Making a crossover cancels to some degree and balances the resonating effect.

In terms of sound, there are two things that happen in exhaust pipes: A faster sound wave originating at the cylinder and the slower exhaust pulses getting pushed through and exiting at the tips, giving a much slower shotgun like effect besides the resonant tone.
Mufflers are basically restrictors, absorbing some of the sound waves, while hopefully allowing the exhaust gasses to pass and flow efficiently.
Placement of the muffler along the pipes with insulating mounts is critical and can tune out certain unwanted frequency peaks, like droning.
There is a lot more theory about exhaust pipes and hours of reading all over the internet.

I did a lot of experimenting with different packing and a set of smithy mufflers. I tried gravel, nails, no packing, etc, cut them shorter and even used them as tips without inner pipe.
Experimenting with the exhaust on the old chevy inlines is really fun and I learned a lot.
You just gotta try different things to get the sound you want.
A whole culture has developed for decades around exhaust sounds with some really cool and unique ideas.

Chevy 6s can make music like few other engines, if you get them in tune.
Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news....

What do crossover pipes (H Pipe) do to the traditional split six sound when using split manifolds?

Have a friend (an Inliner) that has a 37 Chevy 2-door with a 235 in it. He has Fenton Headers and 2 1/2in. pipes. The exhaust pipes run underneath both sides of the car. The at the axel they make a 180 degree turn run back up front and again make another 180 degree turn and run back and out under the rear bumper. There is over 25 feet of exhuast pipes on both sides of the car.

Have you ever heard a school bus rap out? What makes the rapping sound of a school bus is the long tailpipe. Same thing here, except it is louder because he doesn't have any mufflers.

The thought of the sound of these pipes and the those on RapRap 40 Chevy bring a smile to my face. Can't wait to hear the sounds of spring. Birds cheerping and pipes rapping.
"LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES"
Luke

I was driving a 48 fleetline with 18" glasspacks mounted backward so the louvers inside the muffler were in effect creating straight pipes. These mufflers were mounted forward as far as I could get them and tail pipes clear out the back bumper. The manifold was cut in front of the heatriser and plated with the rear section being the part advertised in HOT ROD 30 years ago for $9.99. As far as I am concerned it was as good a sounding 216" as there ever was. The midwest men heard it at davenport 3 years ago. Now itis getting a 261" transplant.1 OL REDNECK

NOT IN FRONT OF HET RISER, IN BACK OF HEATRISER [OLDTIMERS] 1 OL REDNECK

A '48 Fleetline is what is what made a Chevy guy out of me.

I have a powler BLUE ONE WITH SKIRTS AND ALL TRIM. In process of doing the 261" THING 1OL REDNECK

I had Fentons and 18" Porter steelpack mufflers on a '53 235, it was very loud and still the steelpacks took out the harshness of straight pipes. It sounded much like twin shotguns going off continuously, at least that's what the cop that wrote me up for too much noise said. Another cop said it was as loud as an airplane. I guess somehow cops don't seem to appreciate the finer things such as the sound of a very loud split exhaust on a straight 6.

It was in my surfing stage. Mine was Yellow. The rear window was removed to stick the boards in. The rear wheels were 16" centers in 14" Chevy wagon outers. The fronts reversed 15s" Black with black big and littles. I had Chiquita Banana Logos on the rear side windows and they were painted yellow also. Sorta' sedan delivery style. The upholstery was made from flags I stole from in front of the many new housing developments around at the time. Great colors and patterns to chose from. The front was dropped 4". I sold it to a well known Northern Cal. custom car painter, who drove it like that for years! Yours sounds a lot neater!