I'm looking for mufflers for Hooker side pipes that have nice sound and won't reduce performance. Thanks

 

The only ones out there that fit your discription of the service that you want are JCL Spiral Mufflers.

 

Yes, the JCLs will do what you want, but they are so expensive for what they are; a tube with some sheet metal circles welded on it. Speedway sells a similiar item for $15, but in a smaller diameter.

 

I have the JCL baffles in my side exhaust.

I am VERY happy with them.

ZERO complaints.

They may not be made of much, but well worth the price. Sometimes it is not the sum of the metal that makes the value, rather the design and function.

I had a music video made of my car with several audio clips of the engine running at idle and in a couple of drive bys. You can get a pretty good idea of the sound there.

They have a very aggressive rhaspy tight sound, especially when you rapp it up over 5,500 RPM.

 

Do you have the video online anywhere? I would love to see and hear your car.

 

What is the I.D. of the pipe ?

The Moroso Spiral core muffler with the ends cut off might work .

There are some louvered core mufflers with large OD's from the dirt track car shops that can be had for cheap . They sound great stuck in the collectors of boats . Might need 2 inline on each side though for the street .

 

Schmucker. If all you can see is a " tube with some sheet metal circles welded on it" then the other item you mentioned is for you.........
69MyWay. Thanks for the great testimonial.

 

Summit sells the same things but for like $11.00. 3 per side == $66.00
The inner tube diameter is smaller so it works out pretty well.

I had to retune my carb afterwords as I picked up about 3 inches of manifold vacuum compared to the stock sidepipe mufflers.

The good part is that 3.5" fits under the stock covers
The bad part is Hooker pipes are 4".

 

Well, thanks just for laughing and not trying to explain why your product isn't that. I guess I'm just going to assume that it is. Thanks that for that wonderfully respectful reply.

 

That's where the extremely low cost Schoenfield Mufflers come into their worth . They are a louvered core muffler and have a sweet sound in the side pipes .I had forgot about these mufflers during the first post I made .

I think they have a website and they are sold at Dirt Track supply houses . Possible Jeg/Summit as well ? If not , surely there are some copies of them available .

 

It is hosted on another corvette site.

Matchframe (he uses that name here and there) took the video, did the editing, and uploaded it under his user name there.

It is too large to host on my site.

He did the video to Marilyn Manson's cover of Tainted Love. He fades the sound of the engine in and out in a few spots.

The original video ( I have on an actual DVD) is crystal clear. The video is a bit choppy, but that is for conversion to mpeg format.

If you can't find the video from what I mentioned above, shoot me a pm with your email and I will see if I can email it to you.

I do have a quick mpeg on my website of the car starting and idling, but it was with the old glass pack inserts.

 

Schmucker. I just "assumed" that with a statemant like you made, you had at least done some homework to see what these baffles do. If you think they're to expensive, thats fine. They are not for everyone.
The 400 plus sets I've sold over the last 2 years to members of this forum accounts for the realibility and quality of this product for sidepipes.
Again there are different mousetraps for everything. I hope you find something that works for YOUR sidepipes.......

 

I don't see what they do besides being a spiral muffler. What's special about them? Nothing on the web site says that there is anything truly special about them to justify the cost. What makes them better than anything else? Just by looking at the picture I can see that I can weld up the same thing in my garage with steel I've got lying around, so what am I missing? Was a wind tunnel used and the baffle put inside a clear tube and the way the air moved observed, the designed tweaked, and then retested? Was a flowbench of some form used at least? Is there a great deal of R&D behind this product that makes the cost truly justifiable? It's not hard to sell something for $330 to someone that just spent something like a thousand dollars for their sidepipes, especially people with the money to toss at a big cube big block. So why is this product so great? There is nothing on your web site that says why it's great. It shows why it's far superior to the Hooker mufflers, that I can see. I can understand why as well, but why is it a special product that really does an outstanding job and isn't just a tube with some sheetl metal circles?

 

Why is it special? Because it works, and works VERY well I might add. Sure has some simplicity to it, that what makes it great to me. No fiberglass to burn out or blow out and is over all a great product. I'm sure you can find a muffler that will sound as good, but will it flow as well, or have an easy install? Possible, but highly doubtful.

I have only fired mine up w/ the JCL's, but if it soundS half as good idling as going down the road I'll be extactic. The customer service goes without sayING, Jim is a hell of a guy and great doing business with. I just wish I had the same camaraderie with my other Vette related businesses.

 

Schmucker, I understand your trepidation here as I went through the same thing when I was deciding what mufflers to run. The original incarnation of my 502 was in stock hydraulic flat tappet form, rated at 440 gross horsepower. To make a long story short, the baffles from JCL made only 6 horsepower less than open sidetubes. Admittedly no rejetting of the car was done in either case. The current incarnation of this motor made 615 horsepower and the baffles in this case only lost 12 horsepower to open tubes. However now they are cut and uncapped. This is not to mention the tremendous sound these baffles produce. As soon as my car is back on the road in a couple of weeks I will do a soundclip. These mufflers absolutely work, check my original dyno results on the JCL website. Alot of people are running around with the hooker mufflers and are losing close to a hundred horsepower in some cases. If you are one of these, 300 dollars for 50-100 horsepower is a pretty good deal in my book and you will love the sound. In addition I second that Jim is a great guy to deal with. I bought my sidetubes from him as well for a little different look.

Bill.

 

 

Yellow 72, I take it you are a non believer? I wouldn't have myself if I hadn't done the dyno pulls. I lost 92 horsepower with the Hooker mufflers. This was on a very low revving, low compression 502. I believe MassVette had a similar experience with the Hooker glasspacks. It makes a very big impression when you see it with your own eyes on your own car.

 

Hooker sells sidepipes that fit corvettes, so does JC Whitney for a lot less. GM sells crate engines for $5,000, Goober & Gomer down at the local garage will build you a crate engine for $3000. Why pay $400 for a cam when you can buy one for $89.00, after all don't they both open and close the valves like they're supposed too? Buy whichever pleases you or make your own, it's as simple as that.

 

I'm not saying that they don't work nor that they don't work well, but it seems their pricing is based solely off the idea that it'll sell at that price (not that that's wrong, just not right). I just feel like it IS a tube with sheet metal circles on it. No has said that there is any specific engineering or design that can state otherwise. It's a way to make a muffler and it's clearly a superior way than Hooker, I know this, I knew this, I understood this. I just can't see spending $330 for a tube with sheet metal circles. It doesn't make sense. I can quite easily make that. I've got a plasma cutter and a welder, I can make a lot of stuff. Before I buy something I first ask myself if I can build it for less and if it's worth my time. I could understand charging about $200 for it because of its good fit and function.

Older Than Dirt, the simple answer to that is if the $400 cam isn't worth that amount, then I won't buy it. If the reason for its price is justifiable, than I will buy it. It's that simple. Prices are set by what people are willing to pay. Apparently people are willing to pay the $330, just like they would be willing to pay for a crate engine (I will never). I can piece that same engine together for less, just like I could make a muffler for less. But I would not bother if the difference in cost is not worth my time.

 

Schmucker I will jump in here just a tad. JCL is not cheap granted but they do the job and do it well above any other design out there for Hooker Sidepipes. They fit the form and function well with great customer backing.

But as you stated you have all the right equipment to build pretty much the same thing which is great yes. You will save some money by doing so and just use your time. But many of the people on this forum and not on this forum neither have the tools needed or the know how or the time. So it is worth it to puchase these items for there performance inhancing capability. And have piece of mind that they are getting a good product from a good company.