Muffler choices

[T-Buckeye]

In my planning process of getting my bucket built, I am at my exhaust choices. I know I want to run the T headers coated. My dilemma is with sound. I want to greatly reduce my exhaust noise. I live in a community where the houses are too close. I want to be able to get up in the morning at 5 am and take the T to work without waking up everyone in the neighborhood. I have come to the conclusion from reading posts that the baffle inserts are still going to be too loud.

I know I am going to have to run mufflers off the headers with turnouts. Anybody running mufflers instead of inserts? Any recommendations on mufflers that will work i.e. looks and sound dissipation. Has anyone ran the open flow mufflers from Speedway, and do they bring the sound level down to a tolerable level?
Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Ted Brown]

What I did to keep mine at a reasonal sound level was to divert the exhaust out of the collector into a tail pipe, then to a long oval steel pack muffler, I believe they come with fiberglass also. then to a tip out to the very rear of my car.. Keeps the noise and smell away from my nose and ears as well... I also put another small diverter in the center of the muffler to quite it a bit more as now it is not WIDE open all the way through... and I just put a solid block off plate between the collector and the turn out... :lol:

 

[Lee_in_KC]

Over on that other T forum, a guy named Tim "AussieT" Stevens had an on-going saga a couple of years ago about trying to meet Australia's stringent exhaust noise standard while using turnouts. He tried every commercial product available, then tried several home-brewed solutions, all to no avail. He finally ended up having to divert the exhaust through under-car pipes to regular street car mufflers. He alse had to install catalytic converters!

I tried to do a search on the other forum so I could hook you up with the thread, but the crappy search function can't find it.

 

[Ted Brown]

If he had to install a CAT converter, he must have had the car registered all wrong, as old cars do not usually have to have a CAT... ??? :lol: PS, another reason to keep it quiet in the first place... YES?

 

[T-Buckeye]

Yeah, I know this is a pain in the "you know what." I thought I had my dilemma solved by running lake style headers with the exhaust underneath, but it just isnt the style I like.
Man, there has to be a bullet style muffler that reduces noise sufficiently:wall:.

 

[T-Buckeye]

I am registering my T as a self-built. So, the regulations are kinda strict. Mostly, I want to quiet it as a personal preference. Besides the neighbors, I want to be able to drive the T for distances without the headaches.

 

[Ted Brown]

If you have room at all under your chassis, you could divert (again) hehe a pipe to another short stock muffler and then back out again, make it look like a crossover pipe from the top side.. :lol: ps that will give you the LOOK with the quieter sounds as well, fake it till you make it..

 

[T-Buckeye]

As in an X pipe with a dual inlet/outlet muffler?

 

[Ted Brown]

if you want to call it that, some trick sports cars run all the exhause through one piece of 2" X 10" pipe before splitting back into 2 pipes again... :lol:

 

[Ted Brown]

Sorry I think I read that wrong, no, just run that pipe from the collector to under your chassis to a stock muffler first, then turn the pipe back towards the front and back out next to the one going in, then to a round glass or steel pack muffler, then out the back .. sorry I got mixed up there.. hehe :lol:

 

[T-Buckeye]

That definitely is an ingenius idea and it might be the best alternative if I am unable to find a sufficient muffler.

 

[Ted Brown]

If you look at all my pics of when I had the BBC engine, I built a header system using a nice STOCK muffler, 4 pipes going in, and 4 pipes coming out, hand build collectors at both ends... You can do that also... PS I would NEVER register a car as home built, just use any stock papers.... and go on....

 

[T-Buckeye]

Yeah, I think that the self built is gonna bite me in the backside. I might look into getting alternative papers.:shhh:

 

[Ted Brown]

MUCH better... to not ROCK the boat...

 

[AZCOWBO]

Just a suggestion, but check out some of the motorcycle mufflers. I used them once on a Crosley Mini-T I built years back. Gets a good sound! In cas anyone is interested in building a Crosley Mini-T, I will post some vague specs, as I remember them. They are a blast.

 

[Aussie T]

G'day Stan

I tried heaps of different things to try and get my blown 350 quiet enough for rego. I needed to get below 96dB and I wanted to do it thru the sidepipes. Problem was I also have to run cats as its '95 motor that was designed for unleaded and cats, hence a legal requirement. I am running a 5" truck stack as a sidepipe so that helps hide things a bit. I tried several off the shelf 4" round mufflers but the best I got was about 104dB with a cat. I even tried making the entire sidepipe one big glass pak and that didn't even get me much below 100dB. I even went to the trouble of making cone type deflectors in the merge of the collectors and in the entry to the mufflers, but only got a best of 99dB. Another thing I tried was motorcycle style baffles inside the headers, both at the head and also on the straight pipe along the bottom of the headers, these only restricted flow not to good on the noise though. I even built maybe 40 other different mufflers to no avail (all of this eating up time I should have been finishing off the T and driving it) :sad:. I eventually conceded that it was not going to happen and surrendered to the fact that I'd have to put the pipes out the back.

What I ended up with is a 14" long 4" round muffler first, then the cat in each sidepipe. Then out of the muffler into a tailpipe that exits out the back side of the turnout and goes over the stabiliser bar into a homemade "Flowmaster" style muffler under the jag diff. With this combo it instantly ran at 96dB and with a little stainless muffler wool stuffed in it it should easily pass the rego test.

BTW all these tests are done at 3000RPM not idle.

Check out the link below to my website for pics and get back to me if you have any questions or need any other pics

Aussie T's T Bucket Site

Aussie T Tim

 

[T-Buckeye]

Thanks for the info Tim.
I found Sweet Thunder mufflers.
Corvette Exhaust System, Sidepipes, Mufflers - Sweet-Thunder - MC Productions
I am thinking of running 18" mufflers and sleeving them.
If anybody knows about these, information would be appreciated. Although they aren't the most quiet muffler, they do sound badass.