Anybody familiar with Hooker Aero Chamber or Dynomax Bullet Race mufflers?

[BB 70 Challenger]

Hi all!

So here´s the story:

- I bought 4 mufflers, I try more or less copy the original E-body 440 Magnum exhaust system, ie. the location of the mufflers, H-pipe (ok, H-pipe Hemi only but anyway) and stuff

- Why? My Challenger will be a daily driver and it should be capable of doing some 500mile trips. Well, never mind the fuel mileage ;-)

- The problem: I do not want that annoying resonace sound when cruising, you know, around 2500-3500rpm, it makes your head ache and difficult to talk inside the cockpit while driving

- My system: original stock cast iron HiPo 440 Magnum exhaust manifolds, stock 2,5" dual pipes with the factory H-pipe to the first mufflers. So ´till here the system is like stock. No possible problems so far (?), but:

- the first mufflers are Hooker Aero Chambers, 2,5" center/offset, from Summit. Then the stock system gets smaller to 2 1/4" pipe, BUT mine is 2,5" over the axle to the next mufflers

- my next mufflers are 2,5" Dynomax Race Mufflers, from Summit, bullet style (ok, ok, overkill? ;-) then 2,5" pipe to the openings. The original last pipes are 2"

- The question: will my system produce that horrible resonance sound, or not?

Any experiences on these mufflers? Thanks already

[Exit1965]

http://members.tripod.com/~racetruck/muffler.html

this is a "muffler soundoff". the only problem with the 'experiment' in my opinion is that these muffs were tested on an automatic 91 mustang with (i think..) a stock 5.0. The mustangs seem to sound somewhat similar no matter what muffler they happen to use. I think a 350 chevy with headers would have been a cleaner test..

they do test the aero chambers in this article -- the authors are focused purely on sound. I'd like to find out what these mufflers would sound like on a 440 with headers! My summit welded muffs arent loud enough for a weekend cruiser.

here is the text taken from that page: (20ish and 40ish is the age of the reviewer)----------------------------------------

Hooker Aero Chamber
Hooker's Aero Chamber mufflers use a "step" baffle design that, manages the individual exhaust pulses of each cylinder. Constructed from aluminized steel and painted black, the Aero Chambers resemble Flowmasters in appearance.

Comments:
40ish: They've got a mellow tone. My only complaint is at the 2000 rpm range where it reaches 90 dBs. Every time you accelerate, you have to go through that. You almost need one of those Corvette radios that adjust the volume. The idle is kind of throbby, but mellow.

20ish: Inside, they're pretty quiet except right there at cruise speed. They are kind of irritating there. The car sounds close to stock at idle. It has a growl but it's not obnoxious.



[This message has been edited by Exit1965 (edited April 05, 2000).]

[BB 70 Challenger]

Originally posted by Exit1965:
http://members.tripod.com/~racetruck/muffler.html

they do test the aero chambers in this article -- the authors are focused purely on sound.

here is the text taken from that page: (20ish and 40ish is the age of the reviewer)

Comments:

40ish: They've got a mellow tone. My only complaint is at the 2000 rpm range where it reaches 90 dBs. Every time you accelerate, you have to go through that. You almost need one of those Corvette radios that adjust the volume. The idle is kind of throbby, but mellow.

20ish: Inside, they're pretty quiet except right there at cruise speed. They are kind of irritating there. The car sounds close to stock at idle. It has a growl but it's not obnoxious.

SO: GULP!
I´m in trouble, I´m afraid... ;

[MopART]

Those bullets sound like sh*t. They are advertised as not being a glasspack, but when you get the box, it has glasspack printed on the side -- go figure.

And .... they do sound like a big glasspack.

My buddy has a set of the aerochambers on his '93 Z28 - they sound really nice, but are louder than the Flowmaster 2 chamber.

ART


ART

[Maxwedge]

70BB
From what I remember the stock crysler exhausts didnt have 4 mufflers but 2 resonators followed by two mufflers..
a friend of mine had a 70 440 6-pac challenger, 55k miles on it.
and that was the system it had.
Cool idle, cool cruisin sound.

[BB 70 Challenger]

Yeah maxwedge, You´re right. The first "cans" were called resonators, not mufflers. My typo ;-) I really would like to see what they were like inside.

Any Challenger guy out there with an exhaust system that does NOT have that annoying resonance sound when cruising?

[BB 70 Challenger]

Hi MopART!

So, which size Aero Chambers does Your friend have in his Z28?

Does his car have some kind of resonance sound when cruising? Like somewhere in 1700-2200rpm range?

How would he compare those mufflers to STOCK ones?

Thanks already.

[billyclub]

The Bullets are not designed to be street mufflers. They are designed to be a RACE muffler. They do work ok as resonators though, if you are looking to get rid of a couple dbA. Your H pipe will help a little as well. The larger the muffler body, regardless of who makes it, will be quieter. The Dynomax bullets have very little internal volume, that is why they only remove a couple of decibles.

[MopART]

BB 70 Challenger,

I don't know the physical dimensions of his aerochambers, but I do know that he has the 3" in and 3" out openings. Actually, we fabricated the full dual exhaust system for his car using the Hooker comp. headers and 3" pipe all the way back - a project that took us about 10 hours.
The sound: note that he has a cam that has .570 lift so this is how I describe his.... nice throaty choppy rumble - not a harsh cracking sound. No deafening resonance at cruising speed. However, I know better than to pull beside him at a light and expect him to hear what I'm saying.

On the other hand, my '71 340 Challenger has the MP .484 cam. I have 1 5/8 headman headers with 2 1/2" exhaust and the Flowmaster 3" in and out competition single chamber mufflers. The downside of these is the cost at $105.00 each. But it has a very nice smooth rumble and virtually no resonance at crusing and when you get on it at WOT throttle they sing!!

I beleivbe that if you have a cam that is near stock in that 440, the Hooker aero chambers will sound really saweeet.. I can say that nothing will give you that classic muscle car sound like classic resonators and mufflers..... so if you're not gonna go for the classic replacements, go with the aerochambers or a 2 chamber flowmanster. I like the Dynomax, but since just about every Mustang around here has a set of Dyno.'s on em', I wouldn't put 'em on my Mopar.

ART

[Exit1965]

I emailed a guy who has a blown 67 nova with these mufflers.

He said he liked them better than the 2 chamber Flowmasters he had on it, and these muffs are quite a bit quieter at cruising. He also said they have deeper tone than the FLowmasters and arent irritating when cruising. I guess there's 2 sides to how these muffs are 'tested'; but i would lean towards this chevy engine as a better test than the 5.0 stang.

[BB 70 Challenger]

Thanks Exit1965.

Funny how sounds change when the engine changes. A friend had a 400 Chivvy engine in his Chevelle, dynoed 396hp, ran 12´s without posi, big 3" pipes and self welded big mufflers. Very loud, yet not irritating.

Then he bought a race car, put the 400cid in there and installed the stock #matching 283cid mill back into the Chevelle. Guess what, there was almost NO sound, yet the pipes are the same huge 3" with those BIG self made mufflers. Weird... ;-

[Fly Boy]

Challenger, I know what you mean about the loud resonace sound at mid rpm with flowmaster's. I could not hear the stereo or talk in the Cuda when driving down the road. I replaced them with a set of DynoMax Super Turbo Mufflers 5 days later. The DynoMax has a nice sound to them.

[BB 70 Challenger]

Fly Boy:

Cool! Do You know if the DynoMax Super Turbo Mufflers flow well, also? Any cfm information?

How big are Your pipes? Mufflers in stock location? A H-pipe?

See ya.