i have a 96 trans am that i wanted to get a little more sound out of...it already had a muffler under it i dont know what it was but it had tone but no loudness to it..it may have been stock im not sure. We have a lift in our garage and i wanted to see just how loud it would get (i had planned to just buy a louder muffler to put under it) but anyways i lifted it up and cut the bottom out of the muffler on it and basicly gutted it and took everything out basicly turning it into just a hollow piece of pipe, welded the bottom back on, set er down, went to start it up, and to my suprise, IT DIDNT SOUND ANY DIFFRENT. what is up with that? I know when i bought the car it was VERY loud. it didnt have any cats. so i just bought some stock replacement cats and put them on, and i noticed that quieted it up quite a bit...witch suprised me i didnt realise they made that big of a diffrence. but i figured changing the muffler would actually do something...

so i guess my questions are
is it the cats that are making my car so quiet?
what are some stock replacement ones I can buy that wont do that to it if it is?

i guess its teh cats..... might be clogged or broken up. cats make a big difference on sound.... and if you cut off the muffler it should definately be alot louder.

i just gutted my cat last weekend. i could see thru it mostly so it wasnt clogged but after i gutted it, wow did it get loud!

did it make your check engine light come on? i have cat bypass pipes that came with the car when i bought it. the main reason i put the cats on is because of the check engine light...with it on i couldnt pass inspection.

Does it sound better?

yes i think it does sound alot better. it toned out some of that gargling on deceleration. it is louder tho.