65-67 side exhaust 3872969

[Carl B.]

Does anyone have experience or opinion on sound quality of OEM vs. repro?

[Nick K.]

Re: 65-67 side exhaust 3872969

After market side exhaust pipes are available in an array of sound quality, loudness etc....from several manufacturers. OEM pipes are relatively quiet compared to some aftermarket pipes I've heard.

[Mike T.]

Re: 65-67 side exhaust 3872969

Carl - Nick's comments are right on the money, the aftermarket side exhaust pipes are all over the map when it comes to sound quality/loudness.
I bought a Maroon 65 NOM 396 Roadster about a year and a half ago and have been working on it since it got here. I'm pretty sure it was an original side pipe car from 65. I have two smallblock midyears, both with GM side pipes and love the sound and have a number of friends with smallblocks and bigblocks, again with factory side pipes and love the sound from them too and can't say the same thing about the aftermarket side pipes that came on my 65. The pipes that were in my 65 396 have only 100 miles tops on them and I don't like the sound at all. I remember in November of 2019 when the seller and I were heading out on the initial test drive and just driving down the street from his house, maybe all of 30 mph for speed, I was thinking...Holy Cow, this thing is loud and obnoxious, I expect the neighbors are going to start throwing things at us. While the pipes on my Roadster are practically brand new, there are no distinguishing marks or stamps to identify them by manufacturer but when I started a thread on the Corvette Forum and took pics looking in from the chrome tip end, the consensus was that they were made by a company that used to be called Sweet Thunder and now called HighFlo Performance. They are definitely not going back on my Corvette so I'm looking for a suitable substitute myself. I know that the stock GM pipes are restrictive due to the small inside diameter but while I would like better breathing for the 427 I'm building for it, I'm not willing to have 'super' loud pipes. One company I checked out was Gardners Exhaust and on their website, they had some customer videos/sound clips. After listening to one, I contacted the company and they put me in touch with a couple of their customers that had Bigblocks and Gardner side exhaust pipes so I reached out and talked directly to both of them. They both liked their side pipes but at the same time, thought the sound wasn't 'exactly' the same as the factory pipes, but so far the Gardner pipes are the 'closest' to factory sound that I've come across but the research continues. Price varies as well, you'll find some after market side pipes as low as $500-$600 and all the way up to $1100 a set. Hopefully someone will chime in that has bought the 'other brands' and can comment about the sound.
Carl - Here's a thread I started just a few months ago on the subject of side pipes. As you'll read, there is no definitive answer as to who makes a side pipe that's identical in sound to the original GM pipes.
Side Exhaust Pipes that are Close to Original Sound? (ncrs.org)