[pontiac4]

i currently have an 80 ta with flowmasters and turndowns and i'm considering running side pipes how much would this change my sound and is this a good idea ?

[pontiac4]

i currently have an 80 ta with flowmasters and turndowns and i'm considering running side pipes how much would this change my sound and is this a good idea ?

[JohnnyC]

It would depend on what type of side pipe you used, many of them are large, and some have mufflers built in that would make your car sound quieter. If I were you, i'd stick with the flowmasters, if you have the 40's they will probably sound better than cheap side pipes.

[BlkBird]

If your car has a Pontiac motor you cannot get sidepipe headers(Hooker calls them "Sidemount" headers) so you would have to run a pipe from your existing headers/manifolds over to the side of the car. If your car has a Chevy motor you can get Sidemount headers for them 'cause essentially its a Camaro and the whole world revolves around Chevys. As far as the actual sidepipe part of the exhaust you can use the Hooker side tubes regardless of how you get your exhaust over by the doors. They are 4" tubes. You can use either Hookers "reverse flow" mufflers, which are quiet and somewhat restrictive or Hooker's glass pack inserts which flow better...but sound like glasspacks(your decision on whether or not thats a good thing), or you can spend some big bucks and gets some really cool spiral tube mufflers that alot of the 'vette guys run over at corvetteforums.com which sound great and flow great but they are loud for some people and they run about $300 by themselves(just the mufflers that go in the pipes, not the pipes, you buy them seperately).

http://www.spiralturbobaffles.com/

[Coach]

Just food for thought, but.....I had a set on my old vette for about 5 weeks, then in a matter of about 3 hours both my wife and I managed to toast our legs on them. I still have the mark on my leg. Most of the folks I know who ran them ended up removing them for just that reason.

-harry

[Coach]

Just saw BlkBirds reply to you. I beleive the under car pipes he is refering to are the full length chambered exhausts. It is what I ended up putting on my vette after the side pipes came off. They are actually a little restrictive, but they sound great if you like loud cars :-). I ended up putting a set of Pacer resonator tips on the end of my exhaust, kinda like mini glass packs. These helped a lot with the popping and mellowed the sound around town a little. I got constant compliments on the sound of the car, and I never got hassled by the local constabulary.

-harry

[louisville97]

I owned many, many cars in my lifetime and I have always loved the sound of true sidepipes. Most of mine were made by Thrush and had a sound all their own. I put Thrush sidepipes on almost everything I owned. Whether it was a Pontiac, Ford, Mopar, Chevy or anything else, nothing sounds like a true sidepipe. They are condiderably lower toned than most exhaust systems, and just like a Harley, they have their own sound. There have been many imitators but no duplicators. Nothing has the deep, low sound of a sidepipe. some cars look stupid with sidepipes, but if you have one of these, you can always remove the protective shield and mount them underneath the car. Just my .02

[BlkBird]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Coach:
Just saw BlkBirds reply to you. I beleive the under car pipes he is refering to are the full length chambered exhausts. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The "under car pipes" who is referring to? My post was entirely about true side pipe exhaust. Either with sidepipe headers(Sidemounts) where the header's 4 pipes come out from under the fender and go into the sidepipe(which is'nt available for Poncho's) or the type where a single pipe comes off your header/manifold and goes into the sidepipe.

btw, for Corvettes you could get a factory type sidepipe which has a fiberglass cover which actually stays relatively cool to the touch. Unfortunately, even if you wanted this type of pipe on a 'bird it would be fairly hard to retrofit because the 'vettes sidepipes are 45" whereas the 'birds need to be about 56.5"

[Coach]

Sorry, thought you were talking about the under car units, my mistake!

-harry

[BlkBird]

No problem, I just was'nt sure if you were referring to something in my post or the original post. Ive seen those under car chambered type but that was'nt what I was talking about.

[pontiac4]

thank you, to everyone for your input

[pressthatpedal]

BlkBird, you sound pretty familiar with sidepipes on 2nd gens. Do you have experience mounting them against the rockers? A few months back I picked up a NOS set of Hooker 4222 sidemount headers for 2nd gen Firebirds. I also found on Ebay a pair of unused chrome Hooker sidepipes which are about the length you said. I'm just not sure how to mount them on the rockers so there is no vibration or burning of the paint along the rockers. I'd like to get them tucked up tight to the body of my 73 Esprit. Any advice anyone can give? I also want to get the headers coated at Jethot, but I don't know how that would look going into chrome pipes. Would a black coating look better?

[BlkBird]

I bet you're the #^%&^$ that outbid me! Ive been trying to find a set of those for over 3 years. Ive actually begged Hooker to make me a set or sell me the blue prints so I could have a set made(not gunna happen). No, I cant give any advice, Ive never seen a set in person. No directions came with it? Its probably waaaay to big of a PITA, I think you should just sell the stuff to me. Actually the one thing I can think to tell you(if you're sure you wont sell them to me) is to try: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zeroforum?id=3
They never get tired of talking sidepipes.

[pressthatpedal]

Thanks for the site, I'll check it out. I was amazed to see those headers with a Buy-it-now. I checked the sellers history and saw that he tried selling them two times with no takers!! Just fortunate timing for me I guess. Damn near lost one in transit though. Guy did a terrible pack job. LH showed up on the porch in a falling apart box but no RH! I about had a heartattack. Thank God UPS was able to find it by my description. It made it to its last stop with them - minus any box, packing, or address plus some new dings - but I got it. Just keep hunting on Ebay is all I can say. The right size sidepipes just happened on auction within about a week of when I got the headers.