alright, im looking for a new cat back to put on the new GTA. im mostly interested in the american thunder flowmaster kit. does anyone have this? what problems did you have installing it? any drivablity issues? and whats your overall opinion (from people that have it).

 

- not to be mean, but topics like this have been talked about so many times before. - Just hit the search key, click the "go advanced" put Exhaust on the forum spot and flowmaster as the topic. You'll find much more info that way than anyone we post/re-post on here.

 

I have the american thunder system i installed it 2 yrs ago it was really easy it is a direct fit took me only 2 hrs and it sounds awesome. It is really loud and gets louder with age.

 

your right, i didnt even think about that. but now that i have done a search i found a new question that the search didnt answer for me.
apparently there are different kits, one for single cat, and one for dual cats, correct? if so, how do i know wich is wich when i order? i have a single cat, so i dont want to be cuting or adding pieces to the exhaust.

 

when you order from Summit or Jegs, you can find and order the one appropriate for your car. In terms of the flowmaster cat back, I would personally go with another brand such as magnaflow, hooker, or dynomax (if you want it quieter) since it seems like everyone and their mother has a flowmaster muffler.. and when I say that I mean non enthusiasts who don't necessarily care about what they have..

oh and check out the exhaust boards for other peoples experiences with different catbacks

 

right now im kinda hard on cash, but the gta needs an exhaust! well, a freer flowing one anyhow (is freer a word even?). and the american thunder sounds like what im looking for, relativly cheap, loud, and some performance gains.

 

I had the American Thunder dual cat on my '92 Formula. I was UNIMPRESSED with the sound. Quiet, way too quiet. It took a long time for it to get louder. Of course, in fairness, I didn't drive the car too much and it probably took a longer time for it to "break in." I have SLP exhausts (stock on my '97 SS) and on my '87 IROC-Z 'vert and it is much louder (2 on the left SLP). My friends were as unimpressed with the American Thunder exhaust as I was, but as I said, the car was rarely driven at that point of my life. The install was easy, too. And even though I complain about the sound, I will probably go that route again when I started modifying my Z28.

 

I love my edelbrock. Been on my car for 6 years now.

 

does anyone have a sound clip of the american thunder exhaust? any alternatives you recomend for the money that may be better? im only looking to spend around $350 (+shipping of course)

 

I have the american thunder on my iroc and it was a breeze to install. Look at summits and order one thats made to fit ur specific car. It will install with no problems at all fits exactly like the original but a hell of atlot louder. And about it not being loud enought i think this is one of the loudest and nicest sounding exhaust. One of my friends has a 96 caprice with an lti engineand he has hooker headers and hooker catback and my car was so much louder than his. They break in and just get louder and louder.

 

That may well have been the issue; it breaking in. My '92 was not a daily driver and probably did not get 500 miles a year on the odo. That being said, it (the American Thunder cat back exhaust) was WEAK sounding. It got a little louder, but I was pretty dissapointed. If your car is a daily driver, you may see better results more quickly. EDIT: I should add that my exhaust consisted of SLP 1 3/4" shorties, dual Catco cats and the American Thunder catback exhaust for cars with dual cats.

As far as the install, as I said in my first post, you won't be dissapointed at all. It went on very fast.

 

cool, so im hearing good things, loud, but not ear killing, and an esay install, well, i think im sold on it.
thanks!

 

...just note after reading many independent dyno test and seeing the numbers myself, there are much better mufflers available for performance. Flowmaster is great sounding, but not even close to the best performing.

note on the sound: some people(me included, when I had my single 3") have had a really crappy rasp sound around 2000-2500 rpm.

 

When i first started it i also wasn't too impressed with the sound but after driving it everyday for a year, it got double as loud. My setup consists of slp 13/4 in headers, gutted cat, and american thunder catback also i got the 3.5 in pipe kit from flowmaster. I love it it also has not rusted and the tips are polished and stays very shiny. Had it on my car for about 2.5 yrs and have no complaints has a really agresive sound when u get on ur car.
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One other thing is u said that u had cats on ur setup. They muffle the sound alot at first i had a cat, I gutted it and it sounded much louder. The cat muffles the **** out of the exhaust.

 

The bold is often considered blaspheme to some, but Shagwell is correct.

 

I bought a Dynomax cat-back for my '88 IROC-Z. I know it'll sound different on my car 'cause it's an L98 but for what it's worth, here goes.

The car's idle is a lot deeper than before. Not louder mind you, just deeper sounding. (That's definetely a good thing 'cause I've grown tired of driving really loud car's - see my LT1 firebird in my profile. )

Loud cars, get annoying after a while. Believe me. I never thought I'd say it, but it's true. (Only took me 5 years to figure that one out )

I guess the best word to describe the sound is - "mellow"

When I first installed it, cruising around town I could barely notice any difference in the overall volume. Very subdued actually. As a matter of fact, it was even a bit quiter than stock but that's probably because the stock muffler it replaced was nearly 18 years old.

Even at wide open throttle, it's not that loud. Nothing like, say, a Flowmaster or Hooker. It's louder than stock for sure, but it's got a really nice tone to it with absolutely no raspiness at all (DEFINETELY a good characteristic in my opinion). No popping on de-acceleration either, just a nice clean, refined sound.

I've been running it it since last fall (September/October) and it has gotton louder since then, but nothing annoying. I'd say it sounds just about perfect.
I couldn't be happier with this exhaust. It's got a nice deep rumble and there's very little to no drone, inside the car, out on the free-way. It doesn't attract the cop's attention and I don't have ri-cers's pulling up to me at every stoplight wanting to race me.

I felt a noticible seat of the pants improvement with this exhaust though I also installed a 3" Dynomax cat at the same time so no doubt, that added to the increased performance and I'm sure you'll feel a noticible difference aswell, in your day-to-day driving.

GMHTP magazine put this same exhaust on a 3rd gen Firebird (believe it was a 305) and shaved off 2 tenth's in the 1/4 mile. That's a huge improvement and proof of this system's great performance)

I'm assuming you'll get similar results from this system on your car aswell. I hope that's what you were looking for.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

I have a 87' Z-28, Bored .30 over, TRW pistons, adjustable fuel presssure regulator, MSD ignition, Hypertech chip, Crane Cam, and some other stuff. Anyway, the car did have a Dynomax Ultra flo muffler on it, since 2000. I just put on a flowmaster 40 series american thunder, and dynomax free flo cat, hoping to improve and I am rather unimpressed, I feel it was a mistake! The dynomax had a deeper sound, the flowmaster sounds cheaper to me, and not as smooth. I have already had the Flowmaster welded, so I am gonna stick with it for now! I hope you guys are right and it does get better after being broken in because I think I made a mistake!

Grey............

 

What LT1fun described seems very commonplace, through my own experience as well as noticing peoples comments on these boards. I used to have an 80 series muffler, and have since gone with a dynomax catback with a cutout installed. Moral of the story: go ahead and get what you like, and enjoy it.. just keep in mind that you might get sick of it down the line.