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65 Impala Exhaust System Question

4K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  wogman75 
#1 ·
I have a 65 Impala 2 door hard top with a numbers matching 396. I had the motor completely rebuilt, a couple notches above stock, standard bore, pistons etc. - little hotter cam with a 3 angle valve job to the heads. The mechanic that built the motor said it will make around 375 + horse power. I'm getting ready to set the body back on the frame in the next week or two. I'd like to install the exhaust myself at my shop vs. having it flat bedded to an exhaust shop. I have the factory exhaust manifolds on the car - no headers. I'd like to have a full 2.5" exhaust system from front to rear that exits under the rear bumper as the stock system did. As far as sound goes, I'd like to have a little rumble - nothing too loud. My 2005 Silverado has a cat back gibson exhaust on it - slight rumble at idle and sounds healthy under acceleration. Is there a bolt on system out there from front to rear? Is there a system that anyone has actually used that can give me their opinion on? I'd appreciate any advice! Thanks!
 
#2 ·
Walker made the original pipes and mufflers (and resonance chambers for use with free flow mufflers). NAPA sold Walker replacement header and tail pipes, and mufflers, and brackets, and hangers, and the asbestos gaskets, as well as the resonance chambers with the factory tips once apron a time.

Since they can still find and obtain parts for my John Deer 1947 model M tractor if I give them a week I am sure it would be worth asking them what it would cost to bolt it back together factory original.

Big Dave
 
#3 ·
Big Dave, I actually called Walker about a week or two ago when I saw they show the complete set up on their website. The guy in the tech department told me it has long since been discontinued and were no longer available. I called Pypes and they said they can get me a set up for a header equipped car that requires the down pipes to be made by an exhaust shop. Wouldn't say, Chevelle big block down pipes be the same? Probably too short though, right/ I'm just trying to avoid having to put the car on a flat bed and take it to a muffler shop.
 
#4 · (Edited)
#5 ·
All of the bends exist in a printed book. If you go to any muffler shop in your area they can generally look it up in their book and bend a straight twenty foot piece of pipe to fit the car. The pipes are symmetrical (they just reverse the rotation of the bender to bend up the other side). NAPA has the same bend book and can probably bend up a set of pipes at their main warehouse and ship them to your store. That is what they did back in the seventies and eighties rather than having racks of prebent pipe for every car made in stock.

Since Walker has gone digital and retired their pipe bender they can no longer bend up your pipes apparently, I just hope the same hasn't happened at your neighborhood NAPA jobber.

Big Dave
 
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