Hey guys, I got a 350TPI trans am. The exhaust is all original on it, but my muffler is falling apart on the inside and sounds like ****. Would there be any problem taking it off? How much louder would the car be? Would I lose or gain any power? Thanks!

 

Break out the sawzall and hack it off just behind the last hanger. Its not that loud and you might feel a slight increase in accelration. It'll sound much better than a rusted out muffler

 

It'll sound terrible.

A new muffler is pretty cheap.

 

Do you guys think a Borla muffler would sound good on my car? I want just the muffler not the catback.

 

Find exhaust clips of it. There should be alot of good quality sound videos on youtube.

As for running without muffler, I am doing it now. Edelbrock TES 2.5' to 3' with a random cat and 3' straight back. Sounds good. I am gonna keep it like that for a while. My fathers Caprice on the other hand was stock and is a 305 TBI and had basically straight pipe when he bought it as well, and it sounds 10x diff and more horrible. So who knows. I removed the muffler to get access when installing a fp and wow did I fall in love with the sound.

 

I did because it was falling apart on me, i just did the ol chiesel/hammer/pb blaster trick

I'm kinda iffy on the sound, at times its not bad and it has a nice deep muscle car sound, but then other times it sounds like a truck and when your on the throttle for a while to get up a hill it gets annoying. It also has a horrible drone in a small garage, but iv noticed it seems like its got quiter now and not as trucky sounding. Also everyone thinks it neat that the exhuast pops when decelerating after hard revving lol. I also noticed it helped the engine rev much faster.

Mine is never driven really so its hard to tell but i dont mind it when revving and idiling. But if you have the money for a muffler, i would just buy one.

http://s889.photobucket.com/albums/a...alipers054.mp4

heres a decent video of mine.

 

I have read some of youre posts before. And you have one really nice GTA. Dont start hacking it up. Drive it as is until you can afford a good quality cat back. And do it right the first time. Trust me, It will be worth the weight. The sound asnd performance you will get out of a proper exhaust on that L98 will be very nice. Look into Magnaflow, Borla, GMMG, Corsa. Those all perform great, sound awesome, and are stainless steel. So yo wont have to worry about replacing them again. So search, and pick the one you like the best. And do it right the 1st time..

 

just had to throw it in, trust me though, no muffler is alot better then a bad one. For me when mine started to go out at first it was a slight crackle on rev, then it got that even on idle, then over a week or two it proceeded to get louder and louder, then it got to the point you would swear someone was letting off a machine gun. You couldnt talk to anyone inside the car and it echoed off everything, Not kidding the slightlest bit. Now THATS annoying! It was a 100x quiter and better sounding when i finally ripped the **** off.

For clarification, im not saying to run around with no muffler, but its better then a old, torn up one by miles. I also agree if you CAN, try to get a catback right off the bat, at summit you can get a dynomax cat back for i belive 190? or somewhere close to that. or a tsp rumbler for 230? Thats if you wanna stay under 300 tell you can save up.

 

On my first 3rd gen, a 305TBI, I cut mine off & had a shop extend the stock exhaust straight back, from the over axle part straight out the passenger side back. Sounded really good & only had the cat left to muffle the sound.

You can just see it in these pics:

 

Thanks guys for the advice. When the car is running it sounds as if there were plastic marbles or something like that vibrating around in my muffler. Its not loud, and you cant hear it in the car at all. I am currently jobless and have no cash so I was thinking about just taking it off till I have a new muffler. I don't want to cut anything off, I tried and the bolts on the u clamps loosened just fine. I would like to get a set of headers, a new cat, and a Borla muffler soon as I get a job. I am going later today to apply at some places so wish me luck!

 

Your pretty much gonna hafta cut off almost an inch, to get the muffler off. When those u-bolt clamps are used, they crimp the pipes down together & I have never been able to pull those apart, because the outer pipe ends up crimped into the inner pipe piece.

My .......

Cut it back a little further & have it extended to the back bumper, to keep the exhaust from building up under the car when stopped.

And at replacement time, I'd go ahead & buy a full cat-back instead of just the muffler. Chances are your factory pipes have some rusting on them & most cat-backs are bigger & freer flowing anyways, because of their mandrel bends instead of the factory wrinkle bends.

 

yep, trust me try to get it off as soon as you can, or it'll get BAD lol. like stephen said your gonna have to cut it off. also a question to stephen, if i attempted to bend the exhuast pipe outward by just my hands 1. will it not work or 2. will it just snap off? i get gas inside the interior and it gets annoying and stinky.

 

Even Arnold would have a hard time bending exhaust pipe. If he did, it would most likely just collapse at the bend point & start closing up there.

I cut mine just before it turned to go into the muffler, basically pointing down, then had the shop bend a short section to fit & come out level under the rear bumper, as in my pics.

If you bought a 30 degree or 45 degree pre-bent piece at a store, you might be able to get away with that. Not sure if the angles would be right to get the exhaust coming out looking decent though. But if it is just a temporary piece anyways, you might just wanna do it that way, for as cheap as possible.

 

well you just havent seen a picture of me flexing huh? lol

i guess i'll just forget about it then, gotta save all my money towards a catback anyhow.