C2 N11 Mufflers

[Gary S.]

OK, I'm going to raise the N11's for C2's again. I have read the archives on N11's and something is missing maybe.

I have had many sets of "NOS" N11's. All of them were embossed "735," "736" etc. like the ones in the attached pictures of a set of nearly new N11's I have now.

Also attached are pictures of the mufflers on my 67 400 air coupe showing the "off road" yellow ink stamp and a date(?)..that is it. I included the weld of the long pipe to the muffler for reference too (long pipes are flattened also). I guess these have been on this car for 20 years. The sound from them is like an N11.

To add to the confusion, someone told me years ago that the early (up through 65?) N11's do not have any embossed writing at all. I think it was Elmer Schuster (Tucumcari, NM) who said he had an original set without embossing on his 65. I also bought some parts a few years ago from an NCRS member and included was a set of mufflers with no embossing (I still have, but very worn out) that were claimed to be original to a 63 he had.

I did not see any reference to such in the archives. What does anyone know about all this?

Thanks...Gary

[Gene M.]

Re: C2 N11 Mufflers

Gary,
I'm not saying this is right but people in the know claim the embossed characters are over the counter GM replacements. Others claim the production line used embossed as well as non embossed mufflers.

My friend Jack purchased cars back in the early 70's from Ca. and Nevada that looked very original. I specifically remember a 63 split with 23K miles that had no embossed mufflers from Nevada. This car was clean.........

[Wayne M.]

Re: C2 N11 Mufflers

Gary,
I'm not saying this is right but people in the know claim the embossed characters are over the counter GM replacements. Others claim the production line used embossed as well as non embossed mufflers.

I specifically remember a 63 split with 23K miles that had no embossed [N11 ?] mufflers from Nevada.........

Gene -- what's current thinking on factory installations of N11 ? Looking at Noland's Vol 2 (pg.155) and keeping in mind this was written over 20 years ago, here's what he says:
"an off-road exhaust system was aded to production records on March 19, 1963. However production figures do not mention N11, so it is likely that no units were factory installed during the 1963 production year"

NCRS Specifications Guide also shows blank (ie. not necessarily zero) for this '63 option.

[Gene M.]

Re: C2 N11 Mufflers

Wayne,
I could not say the mufflers on the 63 were N11. As you know mufflers on performance cars were common to be "blown out". So the sound could not be accurately depicted as N11 or blown out standard. But as Noland says in the Bible, I would agree most likely they were standard production with some blow out. I was not uncommon to have good looking mufflers on the outside and rotted on the inside in "good climate south west" cars.

[Duke W.]

Re: C2 N11 Mufflers

The N-11 system will not fit on '63s with the deep seat wells. IIRC the change to the shallow wellls was fairly late in production - April or later - and N-11 will fit on these late '63s with shallow wells, but the general consensus is that no '63s left the plant with N-11.

Duke

[Michael H.]

Re: C2 N11 Mufflers

The N-11 system will not fit on '63s with the deep seat wells. IIRC the change to the shallow wellls was fairly late in production - April or later - and N-11 will fit on these late '63s with shallow wells, but the general consensus is that no '63s left the plant with N-11.

Duke

If the 3845735-736 off road mufflers were actually available for the late production 63 model, that would automatically mean the front pipes would have been changed to the 64 part number also. The 64 and later rear pipes won't fit over the 63 front pipes.
There's no mention of the later front pipe part number listed in the 63 AIM.

I seriously doubt any 63's were ever assembled with off road exhaust.