6T7L71CPE

Steve, Did you pour GoLytely or MiraLAX down the carb before taking the pictures??

RatDog

LOL! No, I didn't do the ever-popular "prep". Done that more times on myself than I care to think about.

But, look how clean that pipe looks without it. Maybe it's the boroscope light but it looks bright and shiny and clean as a whistle to me in there. Seems like it should be dirty/sooty/rusty or even rotted away. I'm assuming the previous owner of the car must have replaced them at some point.

Steve

vettsplit 63

I remember vividly as a teenager watching the dealership unload a 66 big block coupe equipped with side pipes. That was the loudest factory exhaust I had ever heard. I remembered remarking to one of my buddies "How in the hell will they ever be able to get that car inspected?" It was LOUD.

Dave Long

Just a few years ago I discovered that my side pipes are pairs of glasspacks welded end to end. It has a great sound, and wasn't uncomfortable driving from Chandler, AZ to roughly San Antonio, TX. The car was purchased in this configuration back in 1977, and I don't know when they were originally modified.

zr1bill

I purchased side pipes from Paragon a few years ago. They were loud. Then I found Sweet Thunder. I purchased the Quiet version. Sound like side pipes only sweeter.

http://www.sweetthundermi.com/

rayvaflav

You know what they say: "If it's too loud … then I want my Vanilla Fudge records back !"

Ray

tubman

When I bought my current '67 L79 coupe in 1987, I went to the local Chevrolet dealer and ordered a set of factory side pipes and covers. It took a couple of weeks, but I did get them. They sat in their original boxes in my basement until I decided I needed to restore the car in 2006. I bought the proper rear valence and installed the side pipes. Initially, I thought they were too loud, and I think if you look at some old posts of mine from about 10 years ago, you will find some where I asked the same question. I have since gotten used to them and don't mind the "noise" at all. As an added benefit, I always thought the factory radio sounded a little "tinny" and probably should have (at least) the speaker updated. I no longer worry about things like that.

TCracingCA

Roger Walling

On a side note, does anyone have a decibel reading for a stock set of pipes that could be used to fight a ticket for "loud pipes"?

Is there a published spec for this?

I thought that original equipment was always legal for road use.

RatDog

Roger - When I got my car, a local police officer came out to my house to verify my VIN and to do a stolen vehicle check so I could register the car and get plates. While he was there, I started up the car and asked him his opinion of the noise level. He said as long as the exhaust is original equipment, I have nothing to worry about. "Besides", he said, "your car isn't any louder than a Harley".

Maybe you can get a decible reading from a couple of Harleys along with the decible level of your car to show the judge.

There's a free app for measuring decible levels available for iPhones. Don't know about Android.

Good luck,
Steve

DZAUTO

Personally, I would prefer to have open headers all the time, but for sure, that would not be approved by the locals.

68hemi

Well, I guess I was wrong in my post #9 in lieu of the other posts and pictures of the insides of the factory pipes.

I will say that there are two kinds of Corvette people, those that want to listen to their radios driving at highway speeds and like their hearing intact and those that like side pipes. I have had three cars with them and hate them. If I ever bought another car with them I would have to do the cut out option to switch to the under car exhaust for driving anywhere other than around town.

64SilverbluePhx

Not sure whether mine are the loud or stock versions, as it seems there are different noise levels available.
A neighbor of mine all the way at the end of our street walked over and met me halfway down our street one night as he was wondering "What is that?!" as heard it rumbling all that far away...
Turns out he has some nice Mopar convertibles and we had a nice conversation.
Hope this is ok to post...CA has these different noise levels available...

TCracingCA

We won the open header competition out of 2800 cars for the weekend at the Route 66 in San Bernardino and even got written up in an article, with one of our Family Corvettes at 122decibels and one of mine is even louder!!!