I'm wanting to run some glass packs on a car. What's best ones for sound and longevity. I'm in a humid environment. I'd like some stainless ones. After a good throaty roar with the dreaded droning.
Porters are perhaps the most beautifully obnoxious muffler there is. i have them on a later motor(rhymes with "hell-yes") and they have a nice smooth steel pack rumble at idle and low cruise, but it's like flipping a switch when you roll into the throttle and make them rap at will, better than any glasspack. downshift a gear and you will end the cell phone conversation next to you. the secret sauce to the Porter sound is the inner core of the muffler is a stainless coil spring that moves with the exhaust pulses.
14 inch cores. They make them with stainless steel wool for packing. Back in the old days they were packed with lathe shavings. My pal Clark was making them and I asked him if I could get mine the old fashioned way with shavings. He said if you want that you have to come down here and pack them yourself and you have to bring your own shavings. So, that is what I did, I hand packed 2 sets, one pair is on my 40 and the others are on my Corvette
This a good question What muffler is the best. Each person has their own idea on what sounds best ,how load they should be , how throaty/ mellow they sound etc. Besides what the owner thinks ,the engine ,the way the exhaust syst is set up etc ,all have a bearing on your question, I am still struggling with this myself My Car is too load ,has a drown when cruising, has a raspy sound and am very dissatisfied My mufflers are the longer ,new dual porters) Several suggestion I have received ; try a 2 chamber style muffler. That all straight through will be likely too loud. many of you have mentioned : how the exhaust system itself is designed, will effect the sound and the loudness So I'm still working on a answer to this question How much money has be spent on experimenting to get the perfect loudness and sound Gene in Mn
I have porters on the Cadillac. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/media/cadillac-500-dual-porters-2.575392/ Hit the center of the video to play. I have smithy on my 57 Hardtop and they still rumble over 20 years old. The 57 country Sedan has longer generic glass packs. They have a hood rumble but also a common Y-block sound to them. I most likely got with porters on all of these when they get replaced.
Someone say Stainless Steel Porters? Here's a pair on my PU. They sound great and polish up real nice!
I have the long [ 26in?] Smithy's behind my straight eight . About 20,000 miles. Good rap, no droan. Firing order makes a difference in sound. Ben
I've been using Cherry Bombs for 50 years now, and I like them. I try and make the exhaust system so I can use the longest ones whenever possible and get them as close to the header collector as I can, which in my opinion gives me the sound I'm looking for.
I've always used Cherry Bombs because when I'm not broke, I'm cheap. I like the sound but I'm pretty sure they don't come in stainless. I recently scored a set of unused Smithy's from a garage cleanout that I'll be using on the next project but I won't know what they sound like until this summer at the earliest. That's hard-core attention to detail, I love it.
I LOVED Porters on my twin exhaust Chevy IL6 235. I'll run them on my '53 Ford flatty when the time comes.
I run Walker glasspacs (branded Thrush - original Thrush weren't glasspac) on my '63. I think they sound great. They are at the rear of the car with tail spouts out past the bumper. Loud when you step on it hard, but you can cruise it on the highway all day without objectionable sound level and no droning. I had some generic straight through steel mufflers on my '50 that I thought sounded too raspy and they were too loud at highway speeds. They are mounted midway under the car with tail pipes past the bumper. I cut them out and put the same Walker glasspacs I have on the Galaxie. Much improved sound, different than the Galaxie but the cam is stock and well, ... it's a flathead and it sounds like a flathead should sound. Overall I'm pretty happy with the sound of both cars, and the black '63 I'm currently building already has a set of Walker glasspacs behind a stock 390. It sounds pretty good too.
2.5" Flowmasters with an H pipe here. I don't like the modern glass packs with fiberglass, just lacking. The porters and smithys are a good mix and I agree with Moriarty, the H pipe mellows the harshness you can get in higher compression.... Something to think about is pipe diameter makes a difference in how noisy things can get also. Here is a walkaround of my chambered mufflers on the 56...
Yep, I have Smithy's on my roadster. They sound better now than when new, its like the flathead is in the process of tuning them.
Call Brockman Mellowtones,tell him what youre working with and what sound you want and theyll build em to suit your needs. Good service, good price, great sound.
x2 Brockman Mellowtones I called and told them the sound I was looking for and they built the perfect glasspacks for my Merc.
I have stainless exhaust systems on my 47 Chevy, and my 56 Olds, but I use Brockman Melowtones on both, even though they are not stainless. They sound THAT good!
I'm hiding behind a wall saying this so throw all you got. "Glasspack" mufflers are nearly all the same and yes Porters are engineered different. I installed a set of generic Walkers on my 39 but I can't tell ya what they sound like yet. A hot engine makes a lotta noise, mufflers have less to do with the rap than compression. A few years back I installed a pair of small Magnaflows on an OT rod. Heaven. Sweet and smooth cruising, get the women and children off the street when you smack it. I will indeed put those on my GTO. Rat-a-tat-tat is kool...maybe twice. Well unless you like that sorta thing. ANYTHING is better than the tin can Flowmasters. Hate those fucks now, loved em before. The best? Ever? EVER?? The OG Thrush. Gone now, but nothing ever sounded like those and still doesn't. My opinion is worth exactly whatcha paid for it, and that was even less than my $48 pair of Walkers.
I run stainless Porters on my 32, I got the longer quieter ones they sell and they sound great...and electric cutouts for when I pass EVs on the hwy.
Last ones I bought were Flo Tech Red Hots. Like theHighlander said, they sounded just like Cherry Bombs or any other glasspack, but were cheaper to buy. My Lincoln has some kind of generic oval chambered mufflers that were on it when I got it. Very short, about 12" or so. They sound decent, not too loud, no drone. Pipes exit under the rear bumper. Thought about going to glasspacks, may still do it later on, but these have offset inlet/outlets, and only others that might work would be the harder to find ones with the angled ends.
Running Summit special Stainless glasspacks on Taboo. They sound good and you can still hear them over the gear drive.
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