"Needs some cutting & welding" That may be the understatement of the year!! Really not bashing, I just wanted to let you guys know how the fit was.. Well, it wasn't good, I could have probably bolted it up & got it on the car BUT it would have looked like crap.. The offsets in the head tubes weren't even close to correct & the pipes weren't anywhere near the drive shaft..

The tail pipes aren't anywhere in the area either & I'm having to make several cuts in them so I can adjust the bend, then weld them all together.. I'm still not sure if I can get the tails to work at all, I may have to go with dumps..

For the most part, the quality of the system is very good, the bends are excellent, & the stainless mufflers can't be beat for the price.. If this system would have fit 1/2 as good as it looks I would have been TOTALLY satisfied!

Mods, if this comes off as bashing please delete it, but I'm really just letting people know about my experience.. Hind sight being 20/20, I wish I would have had somebody bend me up a 3" system locally here..

Scott

I've spent less time assembling my own scratch built systems from a box of mandrel bends and pipe than cutting/welding a prebent system. And mine fit better. ;) Cost is roughly the same.

Guy I bought my 69 from had the exhaust custom done by Midas. I don't remember the cost but it wasn't too bad - of course it was 10 years ago. I haven't touched it because they did a very nice job. It WOULD be nice to know what's in it, though, so I don't sound like a total ID-10-T when people ask.

Andy

Funny thing is that hte system I cut off was ten years old & still perfect.. It was just an old crimp bent 2 1/4" system..

I've spent less time assembling my own scratch built systems from a box of mandrel bends and pipe than cutting/welding a prebent system. And mine fit better. ;) Cost is roughly the same.


I wish I would have done the same..

I remember Jakeshoe used this exhaust on his 69 SS and have no major problems with the install..I recall he did say it took some work.
What inlet/outlet config are you using?

I helped a bud put a jegs 3" system on his GSX and I have to tell you, it fits pretty good (maybe better than my 3" Pypes system). Is the Summit kit the same as Jegs's?

Uh-oh! I just odered the 3" kit from summit. Should be here tomorrow. I have heard that Summit and Jegs are the same, but that is just heresay I have heard here. I helped a friend install a 3" Jegs system on his 64 nova and it went on really easily. I think the only thing we had to do was trim some off of the headpipes. We did have to really work to get both sides to look the same where the pipes exited (behind the rear tires). Total install time was probably around 2 hours which included removing the old system. We did have a lift though which I am sure really helped. I will post my results and feed back when I get mine done this weekend. By the way I am going with 3" offset inlet/offset outlet mufflers. Sal, were you working alone and did you use a lift?

Hey Rich! Found out my cousin's 3" exhaust was on the car when he bought it, so don't know where it came from.

Hope you have access to the lift again when you put your 3" system on-it really helps! Good luck!

I remember Jakeshoe used this exhaust on his 69 SS and have no major problems with the install..I recall he did say it took some work.
What inlet/outlet config are you using?

I am using Summits polished stainless mufflers, 3" offset / offset.. If I would have installed the system without mods, it would have hung as low as the header collector flange all the way back & the whole thing was miss alinged to the point that it would have leaked at the collecter.. THe muffler was also pinned against the rear control arm mount..

The fit was so bad that I actually called up a friend of mine that used to manage a speedy muffler & bent pipes for a good portion of his life.. I thought for sure I was doing something wrong, but no matter what we did, the fit was just WAY off..

I'll try to post some pics as this nightmare progresses..

Scott

I helped a bud put a jegs 3" system on his GSX and I have to tell you, it fits pretty good (maybe better than my 3" Pypes system). Is the Summit kit the same as Jegs's?
I'll tell you I used this same system on my 67, and what a headache it was, turned what should have been a two hour job into a 2 day affair. I definately think a lift would have eased things up a bit but body was 24 inches off the floor. The end result didn't turn out bad especially for the price.

The only thing about the Jegs's system is that you have to make many cuts, but I didn't mind that b/c that meant there was enough material to do the job. We did use a lift which was a bonus. If I wasn't so bent on using an X-pipe, 3" Jegs kit would of worked for me.

Then again, If I were to do it ALL over again, I would of used a 3" xpipe setup, 2.5 tails. This would of eliminated many headaches that I'm still dealing with today.

Well the parts arrived Friday while I was at work. Upon opening the boxes I noticed that they had sent me 3' center inlets and outlets instead of the offset/offset. I called Summit and proceeded to wait on hold for 45 minutes (no exagerration). I ate my complete dinner with the phone held up to my ear. Finally I was able to talk to someone who knew absolutely nothing. (Shoudn't you have to know a little something if your're going to be the tech. line guy?) Sorry, personal rant. Anyway, I was put on hold for another ten minutes. Must have been a pretty busy Friday night I guess. While waiting, I opened the exhaust box and got the instructions. Clearly stated offset/offset. When the tech guy came back he still wasn't sure about the mufflers, but said I should mock it up to see if it would fit as it shoud be pretty close. When I inquired about swapping for the proper mufflers, he told me they were not a stock item and that it would take about two weeks to get them in. So against my better judgement I decided to give it a whirl with the mufflers that were sent because I am an impatient knucklehead. Even though you wouldn't guess that by the time I was willing to wait on hold to get absolutely no information. So I called my trusty buddy and said that it was on. I decided to go ahead and do it even though the lift where I work was occupied. I tried to empty it earlier in the day but didn't have any luck. Why someone would cut the skid off of a heavy truck mounted piece of equipment and use the lift to pick it up and drive the truck out from underneath of it and scrap the truck is beyond me. We tried to lift it with a fork truck with fork extensions but the back end of the fork truck lifted the wheels off of the ground, even with my 250 lbs of extra ballast hanging off the back of it. So it was gonna be a floor jack and jack-stands. By the time my buddy arrived I had the old system off which wasn't too hard considering the six collector bolts were the only thing holding it together. I must say that the headpipes went on rather easily (2 pieces per side). It took only some minor adjusting to get to get the mufflers to clear the driveshaft and the lower control arms. The j- bends which go over the axle both need to have about 2" trimmed off of them to snake over the axle and into the muffler. After some gentle persuasion we had everything on except for the tailpipes. We just couldn't get them to line up right. The pipes would be too low. So we called it a night because it was about 2:00 AM. Upon lowering the car I noticed that the pipes hang very low even though we had pulled the mufflers up as tight as physically possible with the supplied hangers. I went ahead and started it and backed it out of the garage and was rewarded with a nice scraping sound as the car went from the concrete to the gravel. I told my buddy that I was going to the gas station to put a little air in the air shocks to raise it a little since my car sits pretty low in the back. It scraped a couple more times on the way on the mile to the gas station. I know air shocks aren't the in-thing around here but they sure came in handy last night. Anyway I raised the back of the car enough to level if off with the front end (maybe a tad more). On the ride home it didn't scrape anymore. Even in the places where my old flowmasters used to scrape. So I guess that is a good thing. Future plans include picking a set of 3" 90 elbows and putting them at the end of the j-pipes and trimming the tail pipes a little and then I think that the tailpipes will go on correctly. I can say that I do like the Aerochamber mufflers. They have a deeper sound at idle without being tinny or overly loud. You can really hear the lope of the cam. Noise at highway speed is also reduced over the flowmasters and there is significantly less drone. There is a slight bit of interior resonance but not nearly as much as before. That will probably be reduced even more when I get the tailpipes on it. Full throttle also sounds very good. Deep and rich. No more tinny and hollow. All in all I would have to say that I am fairly pleased, besides isn;t half of the fun supposed to be working on these things. Sorry for the long post.

Rich, glad it worked out for ya!:thumbsup:

Well the parts arrived Friday while I was at work. Upon opening the boxes I noticed that they had sent me 3' center inlets and outlets instead of the offset/offset. I called Summit and proceeded to wait on hold for 45 minutes (no exagerration). I ate my complete dinner with the phone held up to my ear. Finally I was able to talk to someone who knew absolutely nothing. (Shoudn't you have to know a little something if your're going to be the tech. line guy?) Sorry, personal rant. Anyway, I was put on hold for another ten minutes. Must have been a pretty busy Friday night I guess. While waiting, I opened the exhaust box and got the instructions. Clearly stated offset/offset. When the tech guy came back he still wasn't sure about the mufflers, but said I should mock it up to see if it would fit as it shoud be pretty close. When I inquired about swapping for the proper mufflers, he told me they were not a stock item and that it would take about two weeks to get them in. So against my better judgement I decided to give it a whirl with the mufflers that were sent because I am an impatient knucklehead. Even though you wouldn't guess that by the time I was willing to wait on hold to get absolutely no information. So I called my trusty buddy and said that it was on. I decided to go ahead and do it even though the lift where I work was occupied. I tried to empty it earlier in the day but didn't have any luck. Why someone would cut the skid off of a heavy truck mounted piece of equipment and use the lift to pick it up and drive the truck out from underneath of it and scrap the truck is beyond me. We tried to lift it with a fork truck with fork extensions but the back end of the fork truck lifted the wheels off of the ground, even with my 250 lbs of extra ballast hanging off the back of it. So it was gonna be a floor jack and jack-stands. By the time my buddy arrived I had the old system off which wasn't too hard considering the six collector bolts were the only thing holding it together. I must say that the headpipes went on rather easily (2 pieces per side). It took only some minor adjusting to get to get the mufflers to clear the driveshaft and the lower control arms. The j- bends which go over the axle both need to have about 2" trimmed off of them to snake over the axle and into the muffler. After some gentle persuasion we had everything on except for the tailpipes. We just couldn't get them to line up right. The pipes would be too low. So we called it a night because it was about 2:00 AM. Upon lowering the car I noticed that the pipes hang very low even though we had pulled the mufflers up as tight as physically possible with the supplied hangers. I went ahead and started it and backed it out of the garage and was rewarded with a nice scraping sound as the car went from the concrete to the gravel. I told my buddy that I was going to the gas station to put a little air in the air shocks to raise it a little since my car sits pretty low in the back. It scraped a couple more times on the way on the mile to the gas station. I know air shocks aren't the in-thing around here but they sure came in handy last night. Anyway I raised the back of the car enough to level if off with the front end (maybe a tad more). On the ride home it didn't scrape anymore. Even in the places where my old flowmasters used to scrape. So I guess that is a good thing. Future plans include picking a set of 3" 90 elbows and putting them at the end of the j-pipes and trimming the tail pipes a little and then I think that the tailpipes will go on correctly. I can say that I do like the Aerochamber mufflers. They have a deeper sound at idle without being tinny or overly loud. You can really hear the lope of the cam. Noise at highway speed is also reduced over the flowmasters and there is significantly less drone. There is a slight bit of interior resonance but not nearly as much as before. That will probably be reduced even more when I get the tailpipes on it. Full throttle also sounds very good. Deep and rich. No more tinny and hollow. All in all I would have to say that I am fairly pleased, besides isn;t half of the fun supposed to be working on these things. Sorry for the long post.

How far away from the drive shaft are your head pipes??

Well the parts arrived Friday while I was at work. Upon opening the boxes I noticed that they had sent me 3' center inlets and outlets instead of the offset/offset. I called Summit and proceeded to wait on hold for 45 minutes (no exagerration). I ate my complete dinner with the phone held up to my ear. Finally I was able to talk to someone who knew absolutely nothing. (Shoudn't you have to know a little something if your're going to be the tech. line guy?) Sorry, personal rant. Anyway, I was put on hold for another ten minutes. Must have been a pretty busy Friday night I guess. While waiting, I opened the exhaust box and got the instructions. Clearly stated offset/offset. When the tech guy came back he still wasn't sure about the mufflers, but said I should mock it up to see if it would fit as it shoud be pretty close. When I inquired about swapping for the proper mufflers, he told me they were not a stock item and that it would take about two weeks to get them in. So against my better judgement I decided to give it a whirl with the mufflers that were sent because I am an impatient knucklehead. Even though you wouldn't guess that by the time I was willing to wait on hold to get absolutely no information. So I called my trusty buddy and said that it was on. I decided to go ahead and do it even though the lift where I work was occupied. I tried to empty it earlier in the day but didn't have any luck. Why someone would cut the skid off of a heavy truck mounted piece of equipment and use the lift to pick it up and drive the truck out from underneath of it and scrap the truck is beyond me. We tried to lift it with a fork truck with fork extensions but the back end of the fork truck lifted the wheels off of the ground, even with my 250 lbs of extra ballast hanging off the back of it. So it was gonna be a floor jack and jack-stands. By the time my buddy arrived I had the old system off which wasn't too hard considering the six collector bolts were the only thing holding it together. I must say that the headpipes went on rather easily (2 pieces per side). It took only some minor adjusting to get to get the mufflers to clear the driveshaft and the lower control arms. The j- bends which go over the axle both need to have about 2" trimmed off of them to snake over the axle and into the muffler. After some gentle persuasion we had everything on except for the tailpipes. We just couldn't get them to line up right. The pipes would be too low. So we called it a night because it was about 2:00 AM. Upon lowering the car I noticed that the pipes hang very low even though we had pulled the mufflers up as tight as physically possible with the supplied hangers. I went ahead and started it and backed it out of the garage and was rewarded with a nice scraping sound as the car went from the concrete to the gravel. I told my buddy that I was going to the gas station to put a little air in the air shocks to raise it a little since my car sits pretty low in the back. It scraped a couple more times on the way on the mile to the gas station. I know air shocks aren't the in-thing around here but they sure came in handy last night. Anyway I raised the back of the car enough to level if off with the front end (maybe a tad more). On the ride home it didn't scrape anymore. Even in the places where my old flowmasters used to scrape. So I guess that is a good thing. Future plans include picking a set of 3" 90 elbows and putting them at the end of the j-pipes and trimming the tail pipes a little and then I think that the tailpipes will go on correctly. I can say that I do like the Aerochamber mufflers. They have a deeper sound at idle without being tinny or overly loud. You can really hear the lope of the cam. Noise at highway speed is also reduced over the flowmasters and there is significantly less drone. There is a slight bit of interior resonance but not nearly as much as before. That will probably be reduced even more when I get the tailpipes on it. Full throttle also sounds very good. Deep and rich. No more tinny and hollow. All in all I would have to say that I am fairly pleased, besides isn;t half of the fun supposed to be working on these things. Sorry for the long post.
my head hurts

my head hurts

LOL..regardless,good info from 69bu..nothing beats real world experience with these kits

offset/offset muffler config is key
I bought the Pypes 3" non X headpipes (cheap too) and they lined up perfect with my 2.5" Flowmaster taipipes/SS tips and offset/offset Flowmaster mufflers.Everything tucked up nicely as well.

my head hurts

Sorry I tend to ramble...

How far away from the drive shaft are your head pipes??

Scott,

I will try to get a measurement tomorrow, but I don't think there is any real clearance issues with my headpipes. That may have a lot to do with where your headers exit. Mine is a small block car so it may exit somewhat differently from your big block car.

Rich

Scott,

I will try to get a measurement tomorrow, but I don't think there is any real clearance issues with my headpipes. That may have a lot to do with where your headers exit. Mine is a small block car so it may exit somewhat differently from your big block car.

Rich

Actually, what I was geting at is that if they're too far away from the driveshaft, the entire system will hang too low.. That's why I started cutting & welding in the first place.. The pipes should run pretty close (3/4" or so) from the driveshaft to get them to tuck up high enough..

Scott

There's an outfit in Valdosta Ga. called Torque Tech (or something close) that makes 3" systems in house on mandrell bender and mail orders em. They've got em for a bunch of GM cars. I've got a set on a 69 Camaro with Hooker Super Comp headers on a big block and they fit like a glove. My system is aluminized, but I've been told they are now offering stainless.

There's an outfit in Valdosta Ga. called Torque Tech (or something close) that makes 3" systems in house on mandrell bender and mail orders em. They've got em for a bunch of GM cars. I've got a set on a 69 Camaro with Hooker Super Comp headers on a big block and they fit like a glove. My system is aluminized, but I've been told they are now offering stainless.
They are pricey, but fit is excellent.

Well after spending another couple of hours on it last night, I finally have the drivers side all mocked up.. I ended up having to make a really odd angle cut to the pipe that runs over the axle, then I fabbed in a piece of metal to fill the gap.. I will post a couple of pix later tonight for anybody who would like to see..

It was utterly ridiculous how many cuts went in to getting it to sit right, but I think I have it all where it needs to be to look right.. Boy, I sure hope that the other side goes in better then this one did..

Scott

Well after spending another couple of hours on it last night, I finally have the drivers side all mocked up.. I ended up having to make a really odd angle cut to the pipe that runs over the axle, then I fabbed in a piece of metal to fill the gap.. I will post a couple of pix later tonight for anybody who would like to see..

It was utterly ridiculous how many cuts went in to getting it to sit right, but I think I have it all where it needs to be to look right.. Boy, I sure hope that the other side goes in better then this one did..

Scott
Me too, or we might not see the car till next year. I found some 2 1/2 tails I think I might use, tips and all. They weren't quite "correct" and they are free:D

I need to get off of my but & order some tips & quick.. I really dont want to install them after my tail pipes are clamped on..

FYI I will try and post some pics of my Pypes/Flowmaster system