X pipe on a 430?

Went to a muffler shop asking about putting a duel exhaust system on my '68 wildcat. When i asked about a "H" or "X" pipe option he stated that he did not recommend them as they would hurt performance on a "GM" engine. He went on to say that he only recommends them on ford engines. Anyone out put an "X" or "H" pipe on their cars and did it help or hurt performance??? He also said to stick with 2 1/4" from start to finish. Thanks, Dino.

 

Change muffler shops. This one is out of touch.

 

Out of touch is an understatement. :spank:

 

run like hell out of there! he's clueless.

 

ya, he just wants to get rid of 2 1/4 inch pipe. Go with the X, makes a noticeable difference

 

Thanks Guys! So that means go with an "X" pipe and what about the
2 1/4" pipe all the way back? Should I have 21/4" from the stock headers to the "X" pipe and then keep with 21/4" to the mufflers as well? What about after the mufflers? What diameter pipe? Won't going wider cause a reduction in low end torque? Thanks, Dino.

 

Go with 2 1/2. Buick reduction in torque No it will not cause a reduction in torque.

 

Is that 21/2" from the headers on back, or from the mufflers to the tailpipe?

 

You would benefit most buy doing the whole entire exhaust system in a 2 1/2 " diameter. John.

 

i have an H pipe on my 430 in a skylark with 2 1/2 exhaust
makes tons o power so go H or X
i think ta has a prebent system for those car but not positive

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. Looks like 2 1/2 all the way with an "X" pipe. Just got to by some superturbo dynomax mufflers and a pair of stainless exhaust tips!:bglasses:

 

Dude you should buy it from the GSCA club. X system with magnaflow stainless mufflers . End of story.

You are a member of this fine organization aren't you?

Thanks Joe:3gears:

 

If you go to a "muffler shop" you will get CRUSH-BENT pipes instead of mandrel-bent pipes. This is a cheap 'n' dirty way to form tubing. It results in considerable restriction at the bends.

Maybe there are some specialty-shops that can mandrel-bend--good luck finding one. I don't know of any around here.

 

Do your research, decide what you want and don't let the 'salesman' dissuade you.

Built a a 2 1/4" mandrel bent system on my 462" BBB powered 32 roadster.
Ran ok.

Swapped it for a similar setup I built in 2 1/2", seemed like it ran better, but without a dyno or dragstrip, hard to tell for sure.

Put a 2 1/4" H pipe in it later on, mainly to kill the resonance.
It's farther back than a performance H pipe would be, but it did quiet down some in the lower rpm range and ran about the same as before.

Since I was after noise attenuation moreso than performance the 2 1/4" is a little easier to install on an existing system than a 2 1/2" H pipe.

Some tests I've read about vis a vis competition style exhausts on NASCAR cars, they found that bigger H pipes were better.
In one case a 6" pipe squashed to an oval so it would fit whatever size exhaust tubing they were using showed a worthwhile gain over the same size H pipe tubing that the exhaust system ran.

I always like to ask for an explanation - politely - when someone tells me an interesting tale such as your muffler shop guy did.

My favorite was the service manager at the Ford agency where I bought my Ranger tell me it failed smog due to it was too lean...

 

Thanks for the advice. I also like to ask questions and try to understand why or why not something will work. So far I'm leaning to 2 1/2" front to back with an "x" pipe, and super turbo dynomax mufflers. Another point this guy made was that reversible mufflers are not as good as one way models. Is that true? Dino.

 

Can't tell you on the reversible muffs.
Most of the muffs I've used were directional.


Are these the glasspack looking Turbo Muffs that are full of 'dents' for noise attenuation?
For all the good they do noise-wise you may as well stick a piece of straight pipe in there.

I ran a pair of these on my 32 - for about a week - couldn't stand the noise, installed a pair of 28" glasspacks.
They sounded good for about two weeks, then picked up a bit of noise due to some of the packing seems to come out in the first few weeks.

Ran them for a few months, went to a Walker glass-packed Turbo style muff.
They worked well and after the two weeks settling in period, got a touch louder, but weren't too bad and sounded good for several years.

Replaced them with a pair of two chamber FlowMasters.
A little louder, not too bad, set off lots of car alarms in the parking garage when idling through.
The H-Pipe did a lot to quiet down the low rpm range as well as take some of the harmonics out.

All these installs except the first one were with the 2 1/2" system.

Last thing I did was replace the straight chrome exhaust tips with a pair of cool looking megaphones.
Picked up a little noise, but it's very quiet in the car when running the highways and steady speeds around town.
Accelleration is where the FM's get noisy.

I did install a pair of three chamber FM's on my 2002 F-150 SuperCrew with true dual 2 1/2" system and they have a very nice, sorta old timey steelpack muff sound.
If the three chambers fit in the 32 I'd run em in a heartbeat.

A couple pics just for the heck of it....

 

I use the x pipe system on my 350 motor with Flomasters and 2 1/2 inch pipe. Not only did the car go faster it also helps quiet down the system when travelling down the road. This is definetly the way to go. Buick engines are nothing but Torque, you can't slow that down. Tell that muffler guy to go back to playing with his little baby Chevys!

 

Little baby chevy's. LOL!:TU: So I better do some more research on the mufflers that I pick. How about stainless mufflers? Seen them on ebay and in the summit catalogue.