So I'm pretty dead set on side exit exhaust, I have always loved cars with them and I'm even planning on doing it to my v6 03 Dodge Dakota. My car is a 91 Camaro RS with the T5 manual 305 TBI. It's all stock besides a tune-up and aftermarket air filter. Even the exhaust is stock, so I was planning on sometime soon ditching the AIR tubes and plugging the manifold and either straight pipe dual or put dual mufflers with Hi-Flo cats. I want to do side exit and with how my exhaust is now it wouldn't be any lower than it is so ground clearance isn't too much of an issue. What's the best pipe to go and what's the best route. I'm sure there are people on here who have done it so please any help is needed. I don't need easy I just need possible.

 

side exit on each side of the car, or all exhaust out to one side of the car? I am assuming you mean under the door/rocker area and not ehnid the back tire right?

 

Any Tips on Side Exit Exhaust?
Yes, don't do it. There is no ground clearance on these cars for it and the tires make a mess of the tips. I give you this advise from experience from my youth, it's great for NASCAR, not so much on the street.

 

I second this advice. Side exhaust in front of the rear tires is right at the back of the doors... and windows. Wherever you go, you will smell like exhaust when you arrive. And probably have a headache from the fumes.

 

I know ground clearance is terrible for our cars, even so running it that way won't have much of a difference on clearance any more than what my exhaust is now. As for the fumes and junk, I have ways around that or how to deal with it.

 

Yes, exactly what I mean with the exhaust on each side of the car.

 

Did this as on a completely beat and rotted 84’ Trans am a lot time ago that my buddy got for next to nothing. Think along the lines of the TV show “Roadkill” and that was the whole theme of this car. It had some cheap headers and 3” y-pipe on it. Cut the converter and all of the exhaust off and ran a 3” glasspack in place of the cat to a 3” single pipe turn out right in front of the right rear tire a la NASCAR. The outlet pipe eventually turned oval from being smashed on the ground due to not enough ground clearance. It sounded great and was fun for about a 10 minute drive, but it smelled up the cabin and was just way too loud to live with. Probably would end up with CO poisoning too.

Would never do this on a car I liked and actually was going to drive, but it was cool on a beater.

 

Yes, I am familiar with the TV show "RoadKill". So if a no of side-exit exhaust the could I do a true dual setup? We can weld so I can weld things together if I need to. Just want my car to sound better and louder.

 

It’s been done, but it’s completely custom, time consuming and most of the end products I’ve seen look like crap and don’t fit right. The underbody just wasn’t designed for duals. Single 3” with a dual outlet muffler is the most straightforward way to go. There are kits available that bolt right up and sound and look good.

 

Alright, all I need to know is if it's possible. I may try that but if not I'll just do what you said.

 

Where it would be tucked up against the rockers wouldn't be the lowest point, assuming that you try to get it as close to the back tires as possible, you'll have to run it under the rear subframe/torque boxes, and if on both sides you'll have to get it over to the driver's side also, which means another extreme low spot. There just isn't room the way these cars are built.

Secondly, in most states, the exhaust has to exit behind the door openings to be legal, which leaves no real space for a realistic setup.

If I HAD to have it, then what I would do is cut out the rear seat mounts/pans, run mufflers in the area where the rear seats used to be and run the exhaust out _through_ the rockers right in front of the tires. You might be able to do something similar with pipes run through the back of the front fenders and then as side pipes under the doors, but here wouldn't be much room for heat shields unless you had a stock type ride hight (which is MUCH higher than most people think it is), though I suspect that you'd have issues clearing the rear A-arm bushing doing this and it would be difficult to do without damaging the structural rigidity of the car.

I just don't get why most people that want a dual exhaust really want a dual exhaust. Within reasonable limits, you can tune the exhaust to sound like you want it to sound without running a true dual. A good example is the Mustang, it's pretty much had a distinctive mustang tone from at least '79 till now with multiple different configurations and dozens of different engine combinations.

These cars are just not laid out for a traditional dual exhaust. The floor pan on the passenger side is specifically raised for the exhaust, and there aren't similar provisions on the driver's side. You are severely limiting packaging, exhaust size, or ride hight by trying to run an exhaust down the driver's side of the car. It's been done, but in most cases, we're talking about what most people would consider a racecar type setup with turndowns under the car. You could run dual 2.5" pipes down the passenger side and then get creative with what you do behind the axle, but it won't flow as well as a generic 3" single run in the same space. I've looked, I haven't tried but I believe that I could run 3" duals on the passenger side, but I would run the 2 tailpipes out the driver's side just because it would function better.

I'm sure that this is going to be taken badly by someone here, but I'd argue that there are quite a few people around here tired of questions like this. For what they were and for the time they were designed, these cars were very well designed to be multi-purpose performance vehicles/muscle cars. Like very few other cars they could be setup to run fast in both a straight line and around corners with the same setup, and questions like this go against the advantages these cars have for (often incorrect) perceptions of some of their owners.

 

Hi 90RS,

I have a dual 3" side exit exhaust on my car, and Ive been running it for about 10-12 years now. While it sounds awesome, it does limit ground clearance compared to running an exhaust in the stock route (which is the only way to maximize ground clearance on these cars, without hacking up the floor for more clearance). My car is lowered on ground control weight jacks, and I'm going to be taking off my side exit exhausts, and going with a custom 3.5" exhaust that will follow the stock routing, and exit in the back. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have if you still decide to go the side exit route. While I've scraped my exhaust plenty of times, I've never broken anything which is good, but if you plan on lowering your car especially, I'd go stock routing. If you think you can do a good job on it, then give it a go, and if it doesn't work out the way you wanted it, just take it off, and go stock routing.

Here's a pic of mine for inspiration (or to scare you away from doing it lol):

 

Years ago, someone (maybe DynoMax?) used to sell a kit to put true duals on a 3rd gen. I had the unfortunate experience of installing that kit on a friend's stock '84 (IIRC) Z28, 305 HO. That 'kit' was a mish-mash of bends and slip-fit joints, maybe a dozen pieces not counting the mufflers and hangers, and it was a battle getting it on the car. We had to re-bend several of the pipes, do a lot of welding on a supposed-bolt-on system, and the end result was far from satisfactory. The car didn't run one bit better than stock, and was constantly plagued with rattles. He eventually tired of it all, and we removed the duals and re-installed the stock system.


As for your original question ITT, the side-exhaust isn't advisable, and for all the reasons posted here by others.





There are a dozen really good aftermarket 3" cat-back systems on the market that will give you the sound you're looking for as well as a small performance/mileage boost. As others have advised here, you'd do well to just go that route.

 

if u hit the right bump, u get to run over it, yer exhaust that is......

 

Ok, so since there are no emissions in my state could I simply cut the cat off and plug the air tub and straight pipe or put a Hi-Flo cat on with electric cutouts? I'll probably just run the stock routing and upgrade my exhaust that way. Thank y'all for all the advice and information. So going the stock route, what's the best muffler system?

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/exha...aust-what.html

 

Thanks.

 

it took me a long time to dig up this article, but I had saved it from a long time ago for my cousin with an 88 camaro who at one point in time was dead set on a side exit exhaust. this guy did the exit in a strange spot, and I would think it would have looked better of at the back of the door, but I am sure he had his reasons.

Hot Rod Magazine November 2012

 

I couldn't possibly find someplace where I can get that article, could I? I wouldn't mind looking at it and reading it.

 

I am not sure about how to dig up old magazine articles online... but that is why I posted up all the pages from the article instead of just a single photo of the side-exit exhaust. You can save them and zoom in and even print them if need be.

 

Be forewarned, even if your state doesn't enforce emissions testing, that doesn't mean that you wouldn't be breaking federal law (much like most of us are in one way or another), and you could be held accountable for some pretty hefty fines or worse if you get yourself in the wrong situation. There have been instances where you could end up pissing off the feds, and I've heard of them setting up a roadside check where they were outright impounding the worst offenders.

That said, no cat and muffler is pretty loud, you won't likely want to run like that for long and would quickly get ticketed for the excessive noise. OTOH, a 305 with headers, converter and no mufflers sounds quite good in my opinion better than a 350, and I drove around that way for years with one of my trans ams. I'm also pretty happy with my current setup: headers, custom made y-pipe, intermediate pipe with a cutout, dynomax ultraflow welded 3" with a single tailpipe with a turndown tucked behind the bumper. With the cutout closed it's quieter than some of these cars were stock, and since stock they had turndowns also and you couldn't see the tailpipes it's essentially a sleeper, but with big heads and cam in the engine, the cutout open sounds full race car. Most of the time I drive around with the cutout cracked open which sounds like a nice performance exhaust, but I can quickly go silent (after doing something stupid in Mexico) or alternatively go full race car when I want to make some noise.

 

Dang, sounds like you got yourself a nice ride. Would you mind possible adding a sound clip of your car with the cutout cracked open and with the cutout fully open? I'm not sure if you can add audio clips but if you can I would love to hear it. Also as you said you have a 305 with headers and a cam? Is the motor relatively stock other than that, if so what type headers and cam are you running?

 

I did side exhaust on my car for 10yrs, the exhaust hit everything. I switched to a big single 4" a couple years ago. Best thing I ever did

 

mufflex 4" ?

what you running for headers and a y-pipe?

 

I have hedman elite long tube headers and I made my own y pipe mated to a 4" mufflex cat back with a magnaflow race muffler

 

I'm just gonna run the stock routing with an upgraded exhaust and an electric cut-out.

 

That’s what most of us do

thats what I currently have