1983 Hurst olds Replacement Exhaust

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smevis33

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Feb 13, 2020
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looking for any information as to where to get replacement exhaust parts for a 1983 H/O from the cat back that are a very close match to original for look and sound?
 
Not really. If you have a muffler shop in the area that can bend pipe, you can have them MAKE you a Y-pipe and tailpipes. The mufflers? Hard to imagine anyone having something that small and be as quiet. Most small mufflers like that are turbo types that are louder than stock.

Saw a cobbled up Monte Carlo SS Walker exhaust system on a 442 in an ad recently, but it looked retarded and I'd never put that on my VIN 9 Olds. The Y pipe front had to be cut off and a cat flange to fit the Olds cat had to be welded on in the front. For that kind of hassle, I'd just have a muffler shop do it up right using your old exhaust as a template.

Be wary of the nay-sayers who complain about the stock system being too restrictive, blah blah blah... because that's all they do. They complain about it, but never have any real, helpful information other than to say change it out to duals. They answer a question that nobody asked. EVERYONE who knows anything about G-bodies already knows that it's not an all out HP releasing system. But it functions perfectly well on the street.

Here's a GN style exhaust. I have no idea what the deal is on this stuff. I do know for an olds, you will have to cut off that front flange and change it to a 2-bolt style for the factory cat. The tailpipes also have brackets on the rising rear side of the pipes welded on. This one seems to have some other type of attaching deal with the tails.

 
Sorry, the stock Vin 9 exhaust is pathetic. Blah, blah all you want, it is unfortunately true. Olds gained 30 hp with a Y pipe, Corvette cat and shorty headers. No one makes a replacement and doubt they ever will. Custom is your only option.
 
The Great Carnak forsaw this...

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When I bought my 86' Regal about 5 years ago I replaced the single exhaust with a Walker 2-1/4" replacement system that I believe I ordered for an 86' 442' and even then I had to source the parts from multiple vendors to make it complete as it was being discontinued.
The mufflers that came with this are very small but sound decent.

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Ok, let's shove a cork in your lower intestine and then stretch you butt hole to twice it's size. Will the the sh*t fly out? No, it is constipated further up. The problem is the front half of the exhaust. The only way it would be worse if the swirl port manifolds and an even smaller 260 specific crossover pipe were used. The FE3X prototype exhaust was still crappy, so Olds must have made it so it could be emissions certified and found a good power gain. 30 hp is a lot on a 170 hp motor. Olds should have saved money and just done a dual outlet muffler like the 79 H/O and 80 442. I can't see much difference considering the lousy crossover is the main flow issue. He is trying to stay stock looking, it will take some work and cost to loose 20 hp and 15 ft/lbs that dual exhaust brings on an Olds V8. Pretty sure a good muffler shop can figure something out and look stock. You started this one FYI, I wasn't going to say anything, considering he wants to keep it orginal.
 
For me when I installed the 355 SBC in my Regal I ended up keeping most of the Walker exhaust but cut off a good portion of the Y-pipe and added an X-pipe so I could mount it to my headers, I wanted to keep it quiet and it sounds good IMO but louder obviously than the stock oil burning 307.

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Yeah, I did the same with a Hooker cat back, I replaced the Y with a compact X pipe and custom dual head pipes. The Hooker cat back being 2 1/2", having a true Y and a 2 3/4" test pipe did seat of the pants gain over a single exhaust that someone cut out a 2 foot section and welded in a smaller diameter pipe. The cat was already MIA.
 
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smevis33, sorry that things went off on a tangent, but there you go. That happens from time to time.

But let's steer back to your issue at hand instead of slinging insults, ranting about butt plugs and dreaming about a factory exhaust system that was never made- It depends on your goal for the car. Are you restoring it as close to factory as possible, or are you just wanting to get it close? Unless you can find someone with all the Walker pieces, or for that matter all the NOS parts, to get a similar exhaust to your stock 83 you'll likely need to get one built by someone who knows how to build an exhaust. Do you still have your factory exhaust on the car?

The thing is, even with the Walker systems, nobody ever did the Y-pipe factory correct. They always run it down the passenger side, and tap off the driver side pipe to make the Y. GM went right out the cat converter and sent it down the driver side pipe, and tapped the passenger side pipe into the driver pipe. Not that it made any difference in flow, but that's one easy tell-tale sign of a non-GM exhaust. Also, the factory system had crinkle bends in the exhaust, save for the down pipe to the cat. Even the GM replacement parts don't have the crinkles.
 
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All you needed to say was the exhaust no longer exists in the aftermarket. If even the GM replacement isn't the same, unless you own it from new, how does one know it is original? You want this wonderful exhaust to exist, take the original exhaust off your car and get a pattern made. It was done with the factory dual exhaust on the 60's and early 70's Olds dual exhaust. Those exact replica exhaust systems aren't cheap, you have to pay for exact factory copies that 5 people know are right. If these cars are finally worth money STOCK, then it is worthwhile. Here is your first customer. Otherwise he may be copying an incorrect exhaust to begin with, which makes it completely pointless in what he is trying to do.
 
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