So after several years of socking away parts, moving, having a baby, and rear end woes I've finally gotten around to building my True Duals. I had originally planned on using some Warlock Mufflers, then that changed to single chambers, and I finally just pulled the trigger and got some Spiral Flows.

I would have used the chambered mufflers as originally intended but I just couldn't make them fit well. I'm not at all squeamish about beating my floor pans to make clearance but I still just couldn't find a way to mock up an exhaust and make room for 4 channel brake lines, rear end, torque arm... and speed bumps. So this is what I made, and I couldn't be happier!



That's all 3" with a Flowmaster D-Port Merge, V-Band clamps, cheap hangers from Advance, turndowns I cut from a 180° bend, and some Spiral Flow Mufflers. I chose the Spiral Flows because of reviews and soundclips. There were cheaper mufflers to go with, but they were supposed to give it an old-school sound.



Here's a shot of my stuff laying out on the ground about to go under the knife. You can barely see it, but behind the chop saw I've got a 180° pipe. The sawzall was nice to use, but nothing beats a chop saw. They make perfectly straight cuts and you can angle it any way you want. Plus, you can't forget the cheap Harbor Freight angle grinder. There was a lot of grinding going on to bevel the edges and clean some of the slag left over from the cuts. For grinding down welds nothing beats a 7" grinder though (not shown).

Also, for you Do-it-Yourselfers out there, universal dual kits WILL NOT fit up to our headers. You WILL have to get an additional bend in there to mate up to the header on the drivers side. I just got these cheap pipes from Summit that had two bends in them. They were sold as a pipe to help you mate up to headers that didn't fit, but only for the man who can cut/weld. I didn't measure what degree of bend I would have needed, maybe 20°, but if you're equipped with a chop saw and welder then you can look at any pipe with a bend in it and find a way to make it work.



Here's my old custom PaceSetter Y with 4" Flowmaster Merge next to my new duals.



This is how I mocked everything up. I noticed that with the car on the two-post lift that the suspension was hanging and killing the clearance for the duals. Since every exhaust shop that I've ever been to uses a 4-post lift I had to improvise. I'm glad I did because the exhaust would have hung down at least 2" lower. I have a UMI Torque Arm too, which is supposed to give you the most room for duals, plus I flipped the fuel line brackets.

The Oak posts really worked good. Truth be told the logs were probably capable of holding ten times what the 9000lb lift was rated for, lol, but I left the lift arms under there just to ease my mind.

Also, I used ratchet straps to help hold all of the little bits together before I tacked them in place. There's a lot of marking, measuring, cutting, and grinding that goes on when you're making a set of duals from scratch, and these straps were crucial for holding all of the pieces up together.



Here's another shot of it on the "Oak Post Lift."



Here's a shot of it after it was all welded up. My welds weren't that great but I don't care! I had fun doing it. I used a little Lincoln 110 volt Mig with a 75/25 Arcon/CO2 gas bottle.



And Finally, the sound clip. There are some leaks, but there were leaks before I took the old exhaust off. I'm almost certain that my old funky PaceSetter headers are leaking around the collectors. They're rusty as all get out. If you're in the beginning stages of your build and haven't purchased long tube headers yet then do yourself a favor, buy good quality STAINLESS headers. You'll be kicking yourself half a decade later when your ceramic coated headers would send you for a tetanus shot.

I wish I would have built duals a LONG time ago. The sound is so much better over a Y-pipe setup. No matter how you try, a Y-Pipe setup will always sound like an F-body. This setup sounds like an old school 396. No lie. The video clip doesn't do it justice. Another thing I'd like to point out is the merge. It's something between an H and an X pipe.



Here's a closer look at it.



And here's a look on the inside. I'm convinced that this is what gives it such a unique sound. I'm really happy with this combo. The Moroso Spiral Flow Mufflers also play a part in giving it a really deep and mellow tone.

This setup didn't yield the best ground clearance but I don't really care. I rarely drive the car anymore and the exhaust is low right where the tires start to pick the whole car up when you go over a speed bump. The merge is definitely at fault for any clearance issues. TSP does a good job of making a kit that bolts right up and angles the pipes in such a way that they can tuck up a little tighter. I still got the BHF out and did some clearancing on the pipes where they go under the drivers side and near the torque arm. I honestly don't care about the marginal amount of power that I may have cost myself by denting the pipes a little. I know it'll never be a 1200 hp car. It's just a gear-jammer... and it sounds damn good IMO!

Also, I can't really comment on the power increase because the rear tires are dry rotted to hell and back and it will easily spin like a car on ice while in second gear and moving. It's fun, but a little frustrating.

All in all, True Duals sound so much better than a Y-Pipe setup. I wish I would have done this years ago. And honestly, it's not as loud inside as most people make duals out to be. Would it get the wife seal of approval to ride 5 hours in with the windows up? No. Too loud. But, you don't have to raise your voice to talk. Like I said, it's not my DD anymore so I don't care.

One final word: Don't buy $40 turndowns. What a waste of money! Do what I did and get a cheap 180° pipe from Summit and just cut some pipes like these:



I turned them out a little to keep the drone down. Plus I don't think they look half bad either

Also, it's been a while since I purchased this stuff but if I had to guess how much it cost to put this stuff together it would be between $250 and $300 in parts.

 

I didn't see the lift in the first pic. I literally thought you were using the oak pieces by themselves. As much as a safety hazard as that would have been, that would have been absolutely kick-***

Looks good, Kurt. That Flowmaster sure is kooky, like you said. I believe it's the same "X" pipe tghey offer in their universal kits, is it not?

 

x2 on that Oak Lift scaring the crap out of me at first too! Nice work!

 

Nice write up! A lot of great info here. I too am trying to make/ peice together a true dual kit. Knowing what you know now would you have just spent the extra money and gone with the Texas Speed rumbler True dual kit?

 

Nope. But that's just me. I like building stuff on my own some times. Plus, I think my duals would sound better than the tsp setup because of the D-Port merge.

As far as the oak logs are concerned, they're easily rated at holding more weight than the lift. Heck, people have been using big logs like that to hold houses up for ever. I bet they weighed like 400 lbs each! Maybe more.

 

looks and sounds great

duals are the only way to go

 

Oh I know what they'll support. I meant any "wobble" or anything like that.

I just liked the "cool factor". Hell, I was gonna shave my beard... I felt undeserving at that point, lol.

 

The wood was awesome, I thought you might have been working on it in Arkansas!! Exhaust looks great dude, nice work.

I guess you had a "Woody" while building it!!

Chad

 

Oh no, this was right at home in Alabama. We were talking about it to some locals and they didn't quite see the humor in using logs as a lift, lol. I thought one was going to ask us if he could borrow them!

Thanks for all the compliments. I suppose "good" is in the ear of the beholder, but I'm really digging the sound. My wife says it sounds like the drag strip.

 

Nice sound, I'm running an ory dumped to a spiral flow, I can only imagine what it's like inside around 60mph inside your car, but it not being a daily helps.

You should definitely submit the log lifts for pic of the month , that's awesome lol

 

Gotta Love that lift though! Lol

 

sounds great,, what are the cam specs?

 

Here's a shot at how rusted out the headers are



Here's another shot of the Oak lift. My Father-in-Law is there working the 4.5" grinder on a section of pipe.



There's a lot of putting a pipe up, cussing because it doesn't fit, crawling out from under the car, making the worlds smallest cut or grind, and crawling back under to do it all over again. Good times.

Just like a cam or headers, I think I would be a whole lot quicker if I was to do it all over again.

On another note, I'll be posting my old Hooker CB and what's left of my 4" PaceSetter Y-Pipe for sale one day.

 

It's just a GM Hotcam.

 

Nice thread fella. Bet she sounds badass at WOT. And you get the credit of you done it yourself

 

so funny, I thought exactly the same thing!

Looks great OP! Your project gives me the confidence to try this!

 

Good deal, feel free to ask as many questions about the process as you'd like. I'd be thinking about what kind of connection you would like at the headers. I have V-Band clamps and I must say they're a little cantankerous. You wouldn't think so with them being only one nut, but I can't swear that they're not leaking. I had some header buddies but I choose to go with the V-Band setup since my headers already had them welded on from my old exhaust.

Header buddies are basically a ball/socket setup with no gaskets. For a homemade exhaust I'd say that's the way to go. I wouldn't fool with slip fit pipes and band clamps. I have never had a leak free setup with band clamps, and an un welded exhaust system always seems to loosen up and sag over the years, in my experience.

I'll try to get some coke can clearance pics soon, as well as a wot clip.