57 chevy exhaust

[jmccann630]

Hi, has anyone ever dumped the exhaust from the sides in front of the rear wheels? I have been thinking about doing to my 57. If anyone has any pics of one with the exhaust like this could you share a pic. Thanks

[MP&C]

I've seen it on a 55 wagon but not personally on a 57.











The new location has the exhaust dumping just in front of the bumper, where it will NOT be visible. To me, the best look for exhaust is unseen.

[jmccann630]

Thank for sharing!

[Custer55]

I had my exhaust set up like that a number of years ago.
I think you can just barley see it in this picture.
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The advantage of this setup is it is cheaper and easier to do.
The disadvantages of it is ground clearance since the exhaust pipe has to go under the frame. It's louder when driving the car since the exhaust exits much closer to the driver and passengers. I switched mine to exit out the back of the car about 8 to 9 years ago and rebuilt it for the C4 conversion frame most recently. I like it much better out the back as its quieter driving the car, (but not to quiet) and no ground clearances at all as everything is above the bottom of the frame.
Brian

[jmccann630]

Thanks for sharing. I had my exhaust done years ago. I was not happy at all with the outcome as it hits the rear and the "X" pipe holds a lot of tension on the headers. I was thinking of just exiting out of the sides but i am worried about it being too loud inside the car.

[chevynut]

I'm not a fan of the side exit because I don't think it looks good on these cars. The only way I've seen that I kinda like is where the pipe comes through the quarter panel so it's not below the frame. If the reason to do it is because of clearances, consider that some guys have full 3" exhaust on their cars and don't have an issue. You just need to have it done by someone who knows how to build it. If the x-pipe is stressing the headers, the exhaust system isn't made right. Finally, I think it could be loud in the car depending on which mufflers you have. But if you like the looks, go for it.

[Rick_L]

I think it's going to be loud. You are going to be tempted to use a muffler with a short case so that you don't have to make the bend in the pipe quite as severe - which means the muffler is that much louder due to being shorter. You're going to be close to a 90* bend if you use a full length muffler.

[enigma57]

Hi, has anyone ever dumped the exhaust from the sides in front of the rear wheels? I have been thinking about doing to my 57. If anyone has any pics of one with the exhaust like this could you share a pic. Thanks

I've built several '55 Chevys and a '56 some years ago. On these cars, I took the exhaust all the way out the back in OEM fashion except for larger diameter tubing. My present '57...... I will either do the same, but add turn downs at the tips...... Or possibly route them through '57 bumper ends where OEM backup lights go if I want to add a custom touch.

That said...... Yes, the first 2 cars I built as a teenager in the early to mid-60s....... I turned the exhaust out at a 45 degree angle just in front of the rear wheels. And yes, it was loud. Loud enough that I had to shift into neutral, let the engine idle and coast by the Sheriff's deputies when I went into town or encountered them out on the road. Of course I was running 'straights'...... No mufflers, just straight pipes.

First car was a '53 Henry J running a DeSoto hemi and Dodge 3-speed transmission. Second car was a '55 Ford running the same DeSoto engine and Dodge transmission. Cannot tell you much about how such a system would sound if you ran mufflers. But I am sure it would be a bit louder inside the car than if you ran a full length system out past the rear bumper with the same mufflers.

Regarding the straight pipes turned out just ahead of the rear wheels on the 2 DeSoto powered cars I built in high school...... Not only were they loud, but when I had to downshift into 2nd gear around 45 MPH and let off the gas to begin slowing as I headed down the hill towards the narrow, one car, wooden bridge that crossed the Rio Guadalupe near our home...... She would rack back and belch flames out the pipes all the way down the hill at night.

There was a sharp right angle turn at each side of the bridge, so had to double clutch down into 1st gear to cross and once on the other side, get back on it and go through the gears again climbing the hill on that side. A couple of times Sheriff Kinzer laid in wait for us on the other side of the bridge at night with his lights off and we'd have to outrun him to the top of the hill, jump a bar ditch, take out a section of barbed wire fence and run nearly a mile across an alfalfa field to get over to the old Martindale Road and make a run for the county line. But that's a story for another day.

Happy Motoring,

Harry

[rwhipple]

3" Stainless tips, suddle looking and loud!

the 57 just off the power tour.jpg

[The Muss]

Personally , I like my hearing … Ringing and all . So I'm installing my Magnaflow system on my 57' all the way out the back , but I am looking to install "Cutouts" . The question is where in the pipes to actually put the weld in type cutout ? Standard spot or preference spot ? ZOOMIES !

[chevynut]

Here's how I did my cutouts. They're 3 1/2" DMH Performance electric cutouts.

20170205_006.JPG

[bigblock]

Robert, thanks for those pic of the exhaust but I noticed that the frame had the spring kit installed. I'm going to do that to my frame and have tried to find pic's of tri five's that have done the kit to see what the finished job look's like.CN nice looking frame, I done a 67 ss Chevelle like that and when I opened up the cut outs it so made things dusty but there's nothing like the sound of a bigblock from open header exhaust no matter were it points.

[Gmvette]

On those exhaust dumps, do they leak at all when closed? I ask knowing exhaust can find the smallest cracks to leak out of when ya don’t want it to.