I am trying to quite the exhaust noise on (my) new 2000 Silverado. The bike runs great with the Hard Krome Classic pipes but they are just a bit too loud when accelerating and the tone is to sharp… The baffles are welded into the pipe and are very low profile when looking into the pipes.
I have been experimenting making baffles out of a heavy gauge diamond weave masonry wire that I had laying around. using 6” or 9” x 4 “ pieces of wire and rolling it length wise to about the size of a quarter, then putting it inside the existing baffle. (They are hard to keep in place and would shoot out about 6 or 8 feet before I started blocking them with an expanding screw devise) I have been getting good results from the wire baffles ( when I can get them to stay in place) The sharpness of the tone is greatly reduced and the bike still seems to run OK, Starts, idles and accelerates well but not as nice as it does without baffles.

The Question: Can I damage anything in the engine by doing this? There is a lot more pressure coming through the exhaust than I thought there would be and I will have to bolt my fabricated creations in place if I decide to use them.

All comments are welcome.

No .. but .... (always a but)

I don't know how much (restrictive) your homemade baffle is so it's hard to comment on whether it's OK or not. If it's very tightly woven then the exhaust may be restricted too much.

Try experimenting by rolling it less tight.

Doc

Look at the Hark Kore baffles for your HK's. A friend of mine installed these & thinks they are great. Just google Hard Kore Baffles & you should be able to find your pipes.

You can look at these baffles & try to copy them, too. Just a thought. Also, another thought, here on the clinic in the tech articles if a modification to the HK's by installing crumb cups. Look that up.

I have been using the same thing for about 6 months, I used a gutter guard screen which is pobably a little smaller diamond pattern than what your using...I don't have the regular baffles in tho, just straight pipes with the screen inside them..The straight pipe bolts into the shields the same way that the baffles did, I just use a bolt about a half inch longer and it sticks into the pipe enough to keep the screen from blowing out..I used the crumb cup mod for a little while, the first try, I didn't drill the center out and it was way too much back pressure, but sounded good,, then I drilled them and they still had a little too much pressure, the gutter screens seem to work better, still barks at ya when I get on it, but it cured the de-acceleration bark........

It is a loose roll that spirals out about 4 times to the outer layer

Hi Denello, I tried the same thing. I have Samson Rolled Thunder slip-on's. They are a little too loud for me. I used gutter guard rolled 2 or three time about 4" long. They kept blowing out. The sound was perfect though. Thanks for the idea for an expanding screw device. I'm going to try installing something over the winter.

Map

I recall getting pulled over by a cop for running loud pipes when I was a teenager (forty years ago). His comment - "I don't care if you have so stuff steel wool up the pipes - muffle that SOB." Well, I didn't use steel wool. Instead I used stainless steel pot scrubbers. Worked like a champ.

Just got back from a test run and think I am getting close to the sound I want. Have to thank everyone that replied. I came across the Crumb Cup baffles last week while surfing the site and it got me thinking about making my own with the wire. Fastjohnny mentioned the Hard Kore baffles and I visited that site.. and learned that I could remove the end caps from my pipes… I pulled the caps off just for yucks and realized that I could modify my wire design a bit, fold the outer edge over the existing baffel and use the caps to hold the wire baffles in place. It worked!! Ran the bike up to 3600 rpm several times and cruised at around 90mph for a few miles and the baffles stayed in place.!
I like the stainless steel pot scrubber idea and may try that next time I mess with it.

I really appreciate and enjoy the support and knowledge available at this site, kinda motivates me to mess with the bike and get it where I feel it should be, got a lot of projects planed for this winter…