sidepipes

[rblong]

I had posted about where to get some side pipes made a while back. I received several contact names and talked to all of them. Thanks everyone for the leads. The biggest problem I saw with all of them was once built you were stuck with what sound they had, and what they might have in the future (as with glass pack type) since they were sealed units. I really wanted something tuneable as Supertrapp makes for road bikes. Basically what Supertrapp has is a series of baffles ( 19 in all) that are easily changeable. You can go from full open to full baffled in minutes. I think I have found a solution and wanted to know if anyone has tried this or sees any problems. Here is the deal. Spiral Turbo Specialties has been making baffles to slide into corvette side pipes for quite some time. They are all steel and have an end cap that can be drilled out to custom tune the sound, or you can take the baffle out and run open sidepipes. The side pipes are two piece. Meaning you have the usual collector with 4 inch OD, and the side pipe with baffle slides over collector and is held on with stainless clamp at collector and of course support bracket at turnout as usual. Basically this will allow adjusting the tone or removing the baffle by removing one clamp and a couple support bolts per side. Looks like cost will be about $1000 - $1200 once they are complete and ceramic coated. I see these as being an almost permanent tuneable set of pipes. Any thoughts?

[Rick 427 Cobra]

The "auger" style inserts have been discussed many times here. The cars I have heard were still quite loud. The supertrapp stuff did bring the noise under control but really killed power. Appearance is also not to good with the discs IMHO.
Your mileage may vary

[rblong]

Spiral turbo claims without drilling out end cap the baffles reduce noise levels 12 DB over open side pipes. I am not looking or a quiet car by any means, but my open 4 inch pipes I currenty run set all my neighbors car alarms off, even when I putt by them in 3rd gear. The supertrapp discs I used were about 4 inch up inside the pipes, but I was just using them as a reference to what I use on my Harley. My other thoughts were by keeping the side pipes two piece, if the spiral baffled don't work out I still have access to the pipes to do something else.

[rblong]

From the posts I read I am more convinced this is the way to go. If you do a search someone had already posted some pretty good pics.

[Don]

Reference:

Lobak Mufflers

Have yet to fabricate, but it still is snowing in CT, so there is time.

Other baffles mentioned are the CC Disc Inserts made by :

www.carchemistry.com

and the Vortex Insert Cone made by Vortex Racing Mufflers: 812-897-3600.


Summit Racing sells both

[rblong]

Thanks for the thread. I am pulling my pipes this weekend to get the collector part built to match my flanges and have e-mailed drawings to the "auger" manufacturer to get the actual side pipes fabricated to fit the inserts. Once back I have a company that is going to ceramic coat it all and then I ought to have some bad a pipes that don't set all my neighbors car alarms off. It was interesting that in the thread a 7/8 inch hole in the center was mentioned - this size hole has been mentioned by the vette guys as the hole they usually end up with. Lookin forward to being about to converse with people around me without having to shut my car down!

[rblong]

I just took my pipes off to build some new and what a dream. The guy that built my Lone Star knew his stuff. Took me 30 minutes cause he has everything lined up perfecting and use anti-seize. A heck of lot better than I see on Lone Stars own builds. Any one know who Jim Street is from Pilot Point Texas? He is the builder and did one heck of a job. The deeper I go the better I like it. I would like to thank the craftsman!

[What'saCobra?]

Really big and controversial subject, but here is at least one or two thoughts.

Years ago i had one of the team FIA 289's, both for eventing and the street. It had a true 180 degree header system fabricated by Belanger, if i recall, in Gardena or somewhere. The inner two cylinder's pipes traveled down the block and under the engine/pan/chassis rails and connected with a header on the other side, along with the two outer cylinders. And visa versa. So, 4 pipes travelled left to right under the car, all 4 being inner cylinders. Sounded really nasty at high rpm and shook the ground at low.

On the street i used simple open glass pacs, that constantly needed refilling. But they worked very fine indeed. Nicely smooth and purring at low rpm and gnarly at high.

Of course, the car had low ground clearance and i wouldn't suggest streeting it in NYCity.

Never saw another pair in my life. Anyone else remember?

Secondly, take a look at the 'augmented' exhaust collectors of either a Beech Twin Bonanza or an older pre-Rockwell AeroCommander. (And a few other old North American products.) They were big straight tubes that simply surrounded the open-ended and different lengthed pipes on each side and they sounded quite nice on the ground, from 540 in3 engines, both at idle and takeoff power. The same concept might be applied and i did so on a 427 center oiler of about 1968 or so. They worked fine and didn't need rebuilding so often. They did look different a bit, but not radical and they were effective.

Of course, these are both for experimental and racey engineers and not suggested for conaseurs of hysterical cloning exactitude.

[rblong]

I been a little slow, but are just about ready to send my new fabricated pipes off for coating. I had full 2 inch primaries to 4 inch collectors made by Lonestar, I bought 4 inch blank side pipes turned out 1.5 inches and 4 inch spiral baffles from Spiral Torbo Specialties. I already have them cut and fitted, all I have to do not is weld on the mounting plated in the back. This set up really looks like it will work well and the sound is awesome, and you can tune them to your taste or drop the baffled out all together if you want. This will be a permanent set of pipes with no burn out. I will try and get all the pics of fabrication posted after I complete fab tomorrow night. Once I get them back from coater I can give total cost.

[rblong]

My fabed side pipes before fitting to car

[rblong]

I guess I am not smart enough to figure out how to post pics directly on to my post like some of you guys. I completed the fabrication and fitting of the 4 inch spiral turbo baffled sidepipes last night. I posted pics in my gallery. They are the ones that are not coated yet. That will be the last step. These really ended up working out great and sound fantastic. You will note a stainless steel clamp that kind of sticks out, but it will all blend together after pipes are coated, and the best thing is that if I want to change the sound there is a baffle plate that can be drilled out to make the pipes louder, or you could pull the baffles all together and run open pipes. Removeal and reinstallation maybe 10 minutes. The primaries are full 2 inch, collectors 4 inch and side pipes 4 inch all the way back. I will have them ceramic coated like my old pipes were.

[CowtownCobra]

Smart move to replace the original Lone Star pipes. They suck. A number of Lone Star owners got together a couple of years ago and had custom side pipes made up with DynoMax racing mufflers. Very little restriction. Anyway, I ended up with a pair of them. They help the hp a lot and sound very mean. Good luck with yours.

[rblong]

One of the biggest things I found - even with the 2 inch they just built me, was they don't clean the ports. I mean that they do the welds on the inside of the primaries (so they look pretty) - which might be as thick as 1/8 inch on each side. That reduces your flow passage greatly. I ported all the primaries with a diegrinder and now will have true 2 inch ports from engine to collectors. You know what the weather was like today, so I am still waiting to scream it a little!