I was shopping on Facebook marketplace a while back and found a first gen dodge hood for free. I've always wanted to hoodstack my truck but I never wanted never wanted to punch a hole in the original hood in case I changed my mind later on. I was wondering if it was legal to hoodstack it or not in Delaware. If it isn't legal then I've got a spare hood laying around and it's not that big of a loss. Thanks, Arthur Egolf

 

hood stacks I dont under stand why. The trucks I have seen with them the wind shield and cab have been black I bet that the exhust goes right into cab.??

 

Ask a Delaware DOT person - is the best advice I can give....Other than do not cut out the original hood as you will likely change your mind about how cool a hood stack is on a street driven truck.

 

I have certainly seen a few hood stacks in my day and while I never understood them, whatever. However I dont see how they can be legal on public roads as I am pretty sure exhaust has to exit behind the passenger compartment., but a stack is up high instead of under the vehicle so rules may be different. as previous poster advised best would be look up the code in your state or talk to a leo/dot official.

 

As much as anything else, visibility laws instead of exhaust laws will probably be the limiting factor; as the stacks would be in your line of sight.

That being said, I see all manner or trucks with structures over-hanging the cab and plumb out past the front-end, with big support pillars from the bumper-corners up to the over-hang; and, I reckon the D.O.T. ignores such obstructions to view.

I have driven such trucks and you have to hang way back from stop-lights to see them --- wayyyyy back.

 

A hood stack doesnt normally employ a muffler.... and a muffler is technically required here.

 

make some square plates with stack-sized tubes welded on them and a screw-hole at each corner.

Put these plates on the hood where you intend the stacks to exit and screw them down.

Using those stainless band clamps, clamp your stacks onto the plates/tubes.

Now, without any holes having been cut through the hood; cruise around everywhere you would normally go and then some.

If, after six months or so, nobody has thrown you in jail, and if you still want smoke coming out the hood, cut the holes and properly connect the stacks.


The place where most hood-stackers screw up and thus have black soot all over everything is that the portion of the stack on the hood does not gun-barrel-fit the portion coming from the manifold and the immense amount of soot this causes blows out from under the hood and all over the window.

Instead, do this farm tractor style, with the engine side of things coming up through the hood an inch or so and the stacks firmly fitting over this; every time you raise the hood, you will have to lift off the stacks and lay them aside; but, there won't be any big sooty exhaust leaks.

 

If you really want to get cute, plumb Propane into the lower end of the stacks and put igniters in the path of the Propane; turn on the Propane and hit the igniters and adjust the flames accordingly.

Of course, if your engine is in proper tune, there won't be any need for the Propane and igniters as they will flame all on their own --- just not when you are no-load cruising the strip.

 

That's probably one of the best ideas I've heard so far. My truck is pre 1997 so I don't have to have my emissions checked. The stack I'd like to put on is less than 3" tall. Which is shorter than the big ram figure in the middle of the hoodoo view obstruction shouldn't be an issue. When I got the truck it already had a straight pipe from the previous owner, and it's never been loud enough to cause issues with police. Thanks for the advice and I'll definitely try a false stack for a while and see what happens.

 

Now that would be a sight! There's a friend of mine that got the idea to do that on a side dump exhaust on his s10. It's crazy to watch but I'm not sure I really want flames coming out. I just want a simple exhaust through the hood. My truck doesn't blow out black smoke or anything, it's just a basic rig.

 

I just planned on having it a little bit. Not planning on having it permanently, I just wanted to try it out for a little bit. Do you know how I could get in contact with a DE DOT person? Thanks, Arthur.