Would it be crazy loud if I just ran straight pipes out the back from the headers?

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1970dartcustom

1970dartcustom

of the Moore clan
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I don't have a huge amount of experience with exhaust options and outcomes, so I was wondering if (for a big block street car) it would be crazy loud just to run straight pipes out the back, or if I should have a muffler in between just to make the sound lower n a bit muffled, or?

Don't wanna get pulled over for blowing people's ear drums out, but I wanna hear the exhaust too... Any suggestions, insights, experience, or pic/videos???

(I am running Shumacher headers up front attached to a 383, stockish stealths, xe 4.88 lift, 2800, 727, 8 3/4, 3.23...)
 
yes - very loud! - to the point of obnoxiousness! And, mufflers cause back pressure - which you actually need to make it run properly. Get header mufflers - then run pipe. I had a 360 truck - headers, mufflers and straight pipe out the back - with God as my witness, my neighbors thanked me when I sold that truck - it was LOUD.
 
1970dartcustom said:
....Don't wanna get pulled over for blowing people's ear drums out, but I wanna hear the exhaust too... Any suggestions, insights, experience....
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Many décades ago, a friend of mine that own a muffler shop, was running year long with straight pipes to the rear.

When caught by the cops, he takes the warning ticket and go to the police station for a sound check that he pass every time because he pack the double exhaust pipe with ''steel wool''.

Never try that myself!!
 
Guys out here run "test pipes" in place of their cats and then run nothing but pipe to a chrome tip. That is some loud rice, and it sounds different too as there is only 4 pulses but they wind them out to 6K on every shift. If you ran a crossover right past the collector, I bet you could get away with straight pipe if you dont blip it in front of a cop. Turbos remove most all pulses (frequency) so they are alot quieter but have their own sound.
 
Cheap glass packs have always sounded good to me, or you could even make your own baffles and "tune" them the way you like, that's what I did on my wife's 300. I welded up some baffles and bought fiberglass packing material off of eBay, sounds great and performs well.
 
I agree a couple of 30 inch Cherry Bomb glass packs would probably suit your needs.
 
turtleheadjoe said:
Cheap glass packs have always sounded good to me, or you could even make your own baffles and "tune" them the way you like, that's what I did on my wife's 300. I welded up some baffles and bought fiberglass packing material off of eBay, sounds great and performs well.
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Well, I most definitely want to save money as I have spend WAAAAY to much money on the drive train, wiring, and pretty much everything since I started with a stripped shell of a Dart...
 
1970dartcustom said:
I don't have a huge amount of experience with exhaust options and outcomes, so I was wondering if (for a big block street car) it would be crazy loud just to run straight pipes out the back, or if I should have a muffler in between just to make the sound lower n a bit muffled, or?

Don't wanna get pulled over for blowing people's ear drums out, but I wanna hear the exhaust too... Any suggestions, insights, experience, or pic/videos???

(I am running Shumacher headers up front attached to a 383, stockish stealths, xe 4.88 lift, 2800, 727, 8 3/4, 3.23...)
Click to expand...
Summit or Jegs sell exhaust kits that are easy to install and require little to no modification. Some kits include mufflers and some do not. If you opt. for a kit without mufflers, then choose your own mufflers.

The mufflers sizes are listed in the parts descriptions. 1 off set, 1 center. High flowing and reasonably quite mufflers would be Hooker Aero Chambers of Dyno Max Suoer Turbos.
The mufflers I reviewed from my kits from Summit and Jegs are very good sound wise.
 
In my opinion straight pipes generally sound like ****. Don't know why. They just do. It gives it that "cowboy rap". That's what we call it around here. All the chevys with duals have that sound. The hollow, fake performance sound. Just sounds like garbage.

You can run mufflers and still hear the exhaust. The exhaust and note primarily comes from the engine itself. If you're running a dog engine. You have to over compensate by running a shitty exhaust to make it sound "good". But if you have a good built engine, then almost no matter what exhaust you put on there, you'll hear it. I recently changed the exhaust on my 340 to the following:

Hooker headers - Full length 1-5/8 primarys, 3 inch collector, 3" exhaust with H pipe into dynomax bullets, dumped right after the mufflers. Just before the axle.

It is the definition of loud. My buddies hear me coming over from a couple blocks away. It's basically one step down from open headers. Sitting at the light everyone stares. You hear AND feel the lope of the cam. At idle it booms. At full throttle it screams. It will hurt your ears. And if you have any conscience what so ever, you will feel bad every time you fire it up in the middle of the night leaving a friends place or something. So be ready for that.

I will try and upload an open headers and exhaust video later.
 
Didn't some gm copo cars have just chambered pipes, which seemed to quiet it some under normal driving?
 
I don't know about what other cars had.
I have seen other cars use exhaust systems like an E body Cuda and other MoPars.

I was just helping a friend with a 69 Mustand, 390/4spd. The exhaust had (for lack of better/proper words) glass packs under the rear seats and a muffler between the gas tank and rear seat back.
I noticed even my old 318 Duster, dead stock, had a muffler under the rear seat and a resignator (sp!?) in the tail pipe.
This type of set up can be very effective in sound control.

Most guys that want it quite inside the car refuse to get a longer muffler or one that "could" flow less and end up in there word, suffering under the drone sound. Of course the longer muffler effects sound at the end of the tail pipe and that is what seems to be the supreme No No!
 
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YOu can try the straight pipe and if you don't like it just cut the straight section to allow for mufflers.

I run Borla XR1's which are a straight through design. IT isn't very loud except at WOT.
 
As mentioned, straight pipes usually sound like crap, especially on stock engines.
You'll be the laughing stock with people in the know, and mostly being considered annoying by all others.

Also engines don't need 'backpressure' from mufflers. Every engine will run better with less resistance on either intake or exhaust side. Thing is the engine has to be tuned for it.
And before some dip mentions an engine will run crap with no exhaust at all, yes that's true because an exhaustsystem is there, besides occupant-health and car safety, to help scavenge exhaustfumes from the engine.

I'll be installing a pair of Borla ProXS mufflers very soon on my Dart.
Kinda curious how they sound with a pair of Dougs Headers and 2.5" full X-pipe exhaust system.
 
I personally love headers and straight pipes - as long as the pipes go all the way back - shorter pipes sound dumb, especially when "dumped" under the car somewhere. Being an automatic though, would sound better with some type of mufflers (cheap glasspacks or something) - if it was a stick, then straight pipes all the way. Not too hard to keep it quiet if you know how to use your right foot.
 
Straight exhaust with no mufflers tend to sound like garbage,its not just that it gets loud(depends on the build,a stock or very mild engine wont be all that loud anyway) its just that it rarely sounds good,a real hot engine with open headers is something entirely different.
 
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