I'm looking for a high performance muffler for my 86 Iroc 305, but i don't want that loud "my car is faster than yours" sound. I like the sound of the engine better than the exhuasts. I've found that most cars that are rediculously loud are cheasy. People mistakenly always associate loud exhust with performance. I want a muffler that will increase flow over stock, have a low rumble, but not much louder. Can i get a high-flow low-volume muffler?

 

The muffler really isn't the biggest restriction in our exhaust systems, if you havn't already start with a decent set of headers and work your way back. I don't have an exact answer to your origional question but I do know they make em.. post this same question on the exhaust board and you'd probably get a lot of good opinions.
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On a side note I prefer the only noise my engine makes to come through the exhaust. Not a big fan of knocking or anything else..

 

Random Technology makes an incredible catback for 3rd gens. It's reasonably priced and performs great. And it's not loud or drony at cruising/moderate acceleration. Real nice Idle tone. Wide open throttle it will sing in the upper rpm range (above 3500-4000 rpm). By the way they make great High flow Cat's too. Good luck

-Kevin

 

thanks. Ill look into it.

 

The muffler in Hooker's cat back is quite at idle and cruising speeds (You can carry on a conversation or listen to the radio), but at WOT, the snarl is enough to bring a smile to your face--this cat back in conjunction with a high-flow cat and Hooker 2055's.

JamesC

 

i have a flowmaster american thunder 3" cat. back system on my car . ( no cat ) it was a gift from my son , i was afraid it would be too loud . i was wrong , i love it now . also nice long s/s slash tips . good luck .

 

If I understand what you want correctly you need to look into either a DynoMax or a Magnaflow muffler. They are of the straight through design for good power but are relatively quiet.

 

A few years back, I was working on trying to get my '90 RS louder and "rumblier". I hollowed out the cat, put larger piping out of it, and installed a (at the time it was called) Delta-series Flowmaster. It was still WAY too quiet. I wound up cutting the muffler completely out of the equation and just running straight pipes back, to dual "echo chamber" tips. It sounded just about perfect that way, IMO.

From my experience, if you stick with stock manifolds and leave your cat intact, any good muffler will still be of a good volume and not hurt your power any. Upgrading to headers, obviously you'd be making a lot more noise. Then it's a different story entirely. I'd say a good hi-flow cat and a 40 series Flowmaster single-in, dual-out muffler would be a good way to go to make it sound nice but not be super loud.

 

a lot of people say that i need backpressure. So could i just do shorties, 2.5in y, 2.5in gutted cat, and 2.5in I-pipe to the stock muffler? Or would the muffler be holding back a lot of power.

 

Hooker aero chamber, hands down. I just put one on a 3" in, 2.5" out 305 Firebird, and it is near-stock quiet. It is cadillac/oldsmobile quiet. You can hear the intake tone over the exhaust. I replaced a stock muffler with the Aero chamber and you nearly can not tell the difference in exhaust tone. But the aero chamber has big huge flow tubes. Also the aero chamber does not have packing that will blow out over time like a Magnaflow will.

I don't think you can get a quieter performance muffler than this thing! I agree that most of the loud 3rd gens are slow beater cars, and I did not want to identify with that crowd.

 

I think mines kind of in the middle of that pile. My car is loud, and a beater, but definitely not slow...

 

I think mines kind of in the middle of that pile. My car is loud, and a beater, but definitely not slow...

 

hooker aero chamber. Ok ill check it out. Is it higher flow over performance.

 

If you can live with a single exit, or fab up a custom y-pipe out the exit to a dual pipe setup, the Hooker Maximum flow flows the same as 2.5" straight pipe, and is quiet....almost too quiet, on the inside of the car, you can hardly tell that it's there, you can hear just a little roar, but WOT it gets loud, normal cruise quietest muffler ever made.