[grandville455]

Yea Thats what I have only the 2 1/2 ones... the car sure changed exh note with new heads and cam!.. deeper now...

[72blackbird]

I recently had the privilege to take a spin with the B-man in his '64 GTO- the pictures and videos don't do justice to the actual experience of riding in the car. Aside ffrom the crappy-but-cool 'Waterworld' paint job, the first thing you notice about B-man's ride is the idle- lopey, choppy, musclecar perfect. Once warmed up, it does idle well considering how radical the cam is, even in traffic. But once the road is clear, the driver punches it and you know instantly why he picked that cam. Awesome performance- and even more awesome glovebox mural.

The cool thing about the '64 GTO is that it fits to the owner's personality perfectly. Thanks for the ride, B-man!

Geno

[b-man]

Geno,

Thanks for the kind words, having a true Pontiac guy in the car with me when I'm beating on it makes it twice as fun!

The funky old glovebox mural is definitely a sign of the times from when this car was a street-racer special back in the '70s. Back in 1987 a buddy of mine first found this car for sale, I went with him when he went to look at it and buy it. It was equipped with a '69 RAIII 400, a Saginaw 4-speed and a 10-bolt 4.88 posi rear.



On a summer day the 455 is usually idling on its own within one minute after a cold start, it only takes a couple of minutes or so on a cooler day. Not bad for an engine with low compression, a big cam, no choke or fast idle cam on the carb and no heat riser on the intake manifold. It's really not too cold blooded considering all of the things it has going against it.

Once it's warmed up it idles fairly smoothly at 650 to 700 RPM with the trans in gear, considering the cam duration.

Hats off to Cliff Ruggles and Rocky Rotella for the carb and distributor work, this thing runs so damn nice on the street since I made those two changes!

Bart

[MandevilleBird]

great story...

thanks

[2SlowTA]

This is a great thread, I just read it from start to finish. I love seeing it get new life like this.

And it did help me too, I am pretty sure what mufflers NOT to buy now. Funny how the old flowmasters lasted 30 yrs and then new brand 700 miles. Though I guess to be more fair, the mileage may be about the same, since the 700 does equal about 2800 passes.

[b-man]

Originally Posted by MandevilleBird

great story...

thanks

Originally Posted by 2SlowTA

This is a great thread, I just read it from start to finish. I love seeing it get new life like this.

And it did help me too, I am pretty sure what mufflers NOT to buy now. Funny how the old flowmasters lasted 30 yrs and then new brand 700 miles. Though I guess to be more fair, the mileage may be about the same, since the 700 does equal about 2800 passes.

Thanks guys.

Overall I'm much happier with the new mufflers, the old Flowmasters were really a pain in the ear on the street but fine on the track where my car was quieter than anything with open headers. A buddy of mine had some new 3" aluminized Flowmasters on his bracket car, one of them failed almost right away from a loose baffle rattling away inside so it's a crapshoot.

If another Ultra-Flo muffler fails I'll return both for a refund and put some PYPES Race Pro mufflers on. I have a pair of the 3" Race Pros that I'll be trying out on my soon to be LS3-powered '64 Tempest before too long.

[b-man]

After a second muffler failure I returned both Ultra-Flo mufflers to Walker for a refund.

I finally got around to finding someone to TIG weld an extra 3" long section of tubing to the tailpipes so I could install some new 18" long case 3" Race Pro mufflers.

Mufflers, tailpipes, clamps and sealer ready to go.



The PYPES Race Pro mufflers are very compact compared to the old Ultra-Flo mufflers, about 5/8" thinner in profile so they offer a little more ground clearance. They're very lightweight too at only 12 pounds each.



I picked up this tube of tailpipe & muffler sealer from my local NAPA for about $10, I've already done several muffler installations and it's only about half used-up.



Installation complete and ready to fire up.



The stainless band clamps are a huge improvement over the old U-bolt clamps I was using previously. They clamp more uniformly and don't kink the joints, making it easier to take apart in the future.



Fired it up and listened to the new mellower exhaust note. Still plenty powerful-sounding, but a little less noise than the Ultra-Flo mufflers. Much better, exactly what I wanted.

Tomorrow I'll take it for a nice long test drive, later on I'll post a video.

[Billz428]

WOW! The whole under carriage looks great.
Those band clamps are the way to go.

[brut4s]

Love your '64! It and others on this forum got me motivated to get back to work on mine and get it out of the garage.

[Nicks67GTO]

That GTO of yours is super sweet. I LOVE the Patina/Steel wheel look. In all seriousness your 64' has a cool factor that high end 100K cars dont have. I also like the exaust splitters out the side. How do think that would look on a 67'? Would it be goofy or cool looking? Ive thought about doing it when i fab my exaust up.

[b-man]

Originally Posted by Nicks67GTO

That GTO of yours is super sweet. I LOVE the Patina/Steel wheel look. In all seriousness your 64' has a cool factor that high end 100K cars dont have. I also like the exaust splitters out the side. How do think that would look on a 67'? Would it be goofy or cool looking? Ive thought about doing it when i fab my exaust up.

Thanks for the kind words, my old beater GTO is both admired and loathed depending on the taste of the who's doing the looking at the time.

If you think you'd like the way the splitters look, then go for it. On a '67 they wouldn't be going along with a stock theme like on my car, but that really doesn't mean they wouldn't look really cool either.

PY sells a few different splitters made of stainless steel in both 3" and 2-1/2" sizes as well as some others.

I made these because I was trying to make an aggressive looking interpretation of the original '64 -'65 factory splitters, back when I planned to make the GTO an all-out street car that both handled well and accelerated quickly.

My plans changed a bit when I was bitten by the drag racing bug so I never pursued the handling part of the original plan. The exhaust ended up being a lot louder than I had imagined it would be, so as a street exhaust is was very much over the top in that respect. The race Flowmasters and side-exiting exhaust tips both combined to make one hell of a racket, which worked out fine for a track-only car.

After changing out the Flowmasters for the Race Pro mufflers the car is now a bit more civilized and much better suited for street useage, but it still sounds plenty nasty when you stomp on the throttle.

[Karch]

Those are the 20" Race Pro's, correct?

I plan to go that route if I keep my '65, but after 20+ years of ownership, I am contemplating selling it for something that's got me really hooked.

[b-man]

The 3" offset/offset Race Pro muffler cases measure 18" long overall.

I have also contemplated selling off my car too after over 20 years of ownership. I really like it and it's a lot of fun but I have other projects and I'm running out of room for parking and storage.

[Karch]

Originally Posted by b-man

The 3" offset/offset Race Pro muffler cases measure 18" long overall.

I have also contemplated selling off my car too after over 20 years of ownership. I really like it and it's a lot of fun but I have other projects and I'm running out of room for parking and storage.

Just buy a bigger house with a bigger garage, right. Afterall, it's the Costco way. You buy a package of steaks that can feed a family of 10 because it looks great, and a great price. But what to do with all that beef with just me and the Mrs?

I know, I'm at Costco, so I just buy a new freezer.

LOL. I just love how the average person consumes this day and age vs., say, 40-50 years ago.

Nonetheless, I still like reading your updates.

[brut4s]

Any issues with keeping it cool? Thinking about selling,I wonder if I tell the wife I (Oops) we need a '64 to go with the '65 will she go for it! LOL!

[brut4s]

Hey B–man, do you have another link to your video. Its not working

[b-man]

[brut4s]

Thank you

[cuz68]

I love the story and the car all i can say is WOW Great job Bart.

[b-man]

I sold this car last year, I wasn't driving it much so it was better to pass it on to someone else who could have fun with it.

I will always have a lot of great memories from my racing days, some of the best times of my life.

I miss the ol' girl, but it was time to move on.....