Off Road Exhaust

[Greg D.]

I am restoring my off road system for my 65 fuelie and the mufflers are shot. Which mufflers do I go with - the CC N11's or Gardners N11's or...?

[John H.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

I am restoring my off road system for my 65 fuelie and the mufflers are shot. Which mufflers do I go with - the CC N11's or Gardners N11's or...?

Greg -

Go with the one you like best - both will get the same deduction for lack of the "W" embossment on the muffler shell, and anything else not deemed typical of factory production.

[Dan H.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

Greg, I put the whole Gardner N11 system on my 64 FI, was totally pleased with the easy fit and sound of it! Took the car to my muffler shop and they sealed welded the muffler connection as original. Great people to work with, Gardners was super helpful all the way!
Dan

[Thomas G.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

Thank you for the kind words. Don't mean to hijack this thread just want to post some information. From the orignal N-11 mufflers we have seen. I am not talking about replacement GM I am talking right from the factory as the car rolled off the assembly line there would have been no W. If it was a GM replacement muffler I believe there was a W and a part number. If anyone has other information and can verify with pictures we would love to see it.
Thanks again for the kind words.

Eric Gardner

[Grant W.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

Hi Eric
You are correct. Factory installed N11 off road on the Mid years did not have the embossed part numbers. Over the GM counter replacements had the embossed numbers.
From what I have learned the original factory installed N11 muffler system had in Yellow stencil- For Off Road Use- something like that.
Thanks, Grant

[Greg D.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

I know that this may be a long shot but have you heard of anyone repairing the original ones or is it once "shot" they need to be replaced.

[Terry M.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

I know that this may be a long shot but have you heard of anyone repairing the original ones or is it once "shot" they need to be replaced.

I know someone who repaired a pair of off road mufflers on a 1968 (or maybe it was only the passenger side muffler), but those are slightly different than the mid-year units -- however, a repair is a repair.

[David S.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

I know that this may be a long shot but have you heard of anyone repairing the original ones or is it once "shot" they need to be replaced.

What type of repair do you need to do? If your mufflers are packed with rust no there is nothing to do. However, if you just have surface rust you want to clean up and remove, there are techniques you can use.

Dave

[Terry M.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

In the case I referred to above the end cap(s) were welded to cover holes. I assume a patch was welded in to cover a rust hole. The guy who did the work was a supremely skilled welder. I believe unless you have superior welding skills, this is not a DIY project.

[Greg D.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

Thanks, I was taking a long shot on actually "rebuilding " them if possible and reasonable. But i guess that's why GM contracted with Walker for replacements

Does anyone know how many baffles the original Off Roads had and who made them?

[Grant W.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

Well here is a later 68 to 71 off road muffler that I cut in half to see what it looked like. 2 baffles. Very cheap looking material. Maybe that is why it was so loud.
Who makes them? I guess back in the mid 60's and 70's Walker came to my mind who made them for GM and there has been a couple of MFG's that made them over the counter for their other Franchise shops other than GM ie Midas.

Right now I think Gardner's Exhaust System has one of the better systems but then again that is my opinion, I'm just doing some fitting and see what is the best I can do for my 68 that has the 2 1/2 off road system. I have a few sets of NOS Off road mufflers and was thinking of cutting the pipes off and adding Gardner's pipes to the mufflers. As you can see it fits pretty good.

Thanks, grant

[Greg D.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

Grant, I have walker 2 baffle's on the car now.....Hmmmm

[James G.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

Allen exhaust system also made a N-11 replacement. It sounds good, but are a pain to get installed as the prefab bends are not 100% correct. I hear the Gardener systems are right on.

A 65 fuel coupe vin # 4590 that Charlie Bacon and Rick Parsley found in 1997 had its original 'OFF ROAD' N-11 system still on the car. The car was stored in Monrovia, CA since 1970 and the system was perfect, so Charlie left it on the car when he restored it. He sold the car to Allen Morris in late 2003. The mufflers were plain, no "W", no numbers, no 'off road' script.

The only way we knew it was a off road system was the familiar crackle out the back when the engine was fired the first time. I was there that day.

[Dale C.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

Grant
What about N11 C3's, like 68, did the N11 (off the line) cars not have the W stamped like the mid years? I have replacement GM mufflers and pipes with the W stamp, dated 87 and #'s and was just going to take a judging hit as I like like running the GM logo. I was under the impresssion from talking with Paul Olansky that the production mufflers, 68, did have the W and nothing else. Maybe that was for street cars that had the W only off the line?
Dale

[Terry M.]

Re: Off Road Exhaust

I can't tell you about the 1968 N11, but the standard early C3 (1968-1972) PRODUCTION mufflers had only the W on them -- no numbers, no dates -- just W and blackout.