1969 Camaro Chambered Exhaust Experts

[Billohio]

Is there any way to tell if your car had chambered installed from the factory other than the frame rail hangers? My 01B car has it now and the 2nd owner said it was on it with the spoilers when new. I am pretty sure the spoilers were added so not sure on the exhaust. What I have doesnt fit right also but it does have some age on it.
The car had no factory hangers and I will say, the set I got from heartbeat where horrible. 2 of the clamps I believe shoud have threads and did not and the ones for the frame rails are impossible to form to a round pipe. They had square angles to them. The Gardner hangers do look round and have a long bolt to pull them together
One of the frame rail hangers was put together the wrong direction also and looked like I had 2 for the same side

[cruiserofland]

Paul and all, this thread inspired me to do more digging on the system on my car. One tube says IMCO 2.75… so I am guessing that my setup was built by a shop using IMCO chambered tubes. So I can’t comment on the sound of the Gardner system or GM NOS but I can tell you that this system built from IMCO components sounds fantastic. My car had a major restoration from 2000-2010 in the Chicago area (the owner of Foreign & Domestic Auto Body in Libertyville) so I’m guessing this system was built around then

[CamaroNOS]

Thanks for you info. Matt (and everybody else) and your interest and sparking a desire to do some more research myself.

The best I can tell is that IMCO did produce chambered exhaust pipes for automotive purposes many years ago (possibly as far back as the late 70's as per FB). Matt has them on his 69 Z/28 and there are other Corvette FB forms referencing the IMCO brand as well. It appears that IMCO is just manufacturing exhaust manifolds for off shore boats, best I can tell.

As I referenced along with many site members, the SB chambered system that you typically buy from all the regular Camaro parts suppliers sounds terrible. They have a terrible crackle sound and really do the original factory installed systems no justice and that is a problem for me and alot of others it seems.

So I did some digging and found a company called Highflo Performance located in Michigan that manufactures a complete manifold back 2.5" (NOT a 2.25" system) chambered system with all the hardware for first gens. They also produce a less expensive system for a header back system. After talking to the owner, Ryan Westdorp who honed is exhaust building skill sets from Mike Cederstorm's who some of us are familiar with as the owner of Sweet Thunder. If you are a early Corvette owner, you definitely are aware of the great respect/reviews regarding the Sweet Thunder chambered systems to deliver that correct non-crackling sound. Ryan assured me that his chambered system is manufactured quite differently from the regular run of the mill systems, producing quite a different sound from the other manufacturers, which is exactly what we all need if you want a properly sounding chambered system on your car.

The only negative aspect to his system that I see is that the crimping of the two rear wheel well chambered sections are not spaced out the same as a factory system. For me, if the system sounds as good as it seems, it is a small price to pay to enjoy a chambered set up.


https://highfloperformance.com/pages/about-us

https://highfloperformance.com/colle...mbered-exhaust


As far as a substantial loss in HP/TORQ running the typical chambered system that is currently supplied through the regular Camaro part suppliers, I have heard/read about this many times. Here is a link to another aftermarket chambered pipe manufacturing company called Classic Chambered Exhaust that has customer comparisons with their systems. I cannot say that the Highflo Performance chambered systems delivers this type of similar HP/TORQ numbers as the Classic Chambered Exhaust system, but Ryan assured me he has never had a complaint regarding any engine power loss. And as he put it, "after selling thousands of systems, somebody would have said something by now."

https://www.classicchambered.com/

https://www.classicchambered.com/cla...rformance.html


I am a VERY happy dude now knowing I can install a much more correctly sounding system on my car for next spring....YIPPEE. And once installed, i will see if I can upload a video.


Paul

[427strato]

Paul, we just completed the restoration of my 69 Chevelle and we installed the Gardiner system on the car. It's a 375 hrs with a M22 and rubber floor mat with no insulation. Is it loud; it most certainly is, especially at idle. I'm 77 and still appreciate a loud exhaust. Everyone that has heard the exhaust so far really likes the sound, or they are just being respectful. I doubt most people drive their muscle cars more than a few hundred miles a year, at least in our climate, so some noise to me is acceptable. One of the disappointments when I purchased my new big block cars back in the late 60's was that they were not loud enough. At driving speeds in my original copo I could hear the M22 over the exhaust and this one is similiar. The Gardiner system is somewhat expensive however, relative to the cost of a restoration, it is not that bad. I also must add that they were great to deal with and this system does fit. We used all of their brackets and kept the originals, which will go with the car someday.

[Steve Shauger]

Just for clarification Paul, the best reproduction system available is Gardner hands down. Fit and finish are exact and excellent. The original chambered system has always been loud and obnoxious which has nothing to do Gardner just the original design especially on a solid lifter small block. My orange white stripe Z has a window sticker which list chambered exhaust and with a milder hydraulic cam and sounds better. I thought your intention was to get a system as close to factory, but that seems to change with your last post.

Hope you are satisfied with the system.

[Charley Lillard]

I have 2 69's with orig. chambered and neither seem very loud to me. a 69 SS 396, 350 hp and Warren Malkin's Z28. But then I am deaf in one ear....

[dykstra]

Originally Posted by Charley Lillard

I have 2 69's with orig. chambered and neither seem very loud to me. a 69 SS 396, 350 hp and Warren Malkin's Z28. But then I am deaf in one ear....

and can't hear out of the other..........

[69Z11Pacer396]

Agreed that Garnder fits very nice and sounds great on my L78 pace car!

[Rsconv68]

Everyone has an opinion about exhaust noise. I have always liked the chambered sound. The hp loss (at whatever rpm that occurs) is irrelevant if you like the noise.