I've got a L98 with headman shortys and y, no cat, stock piping leading into a flowmaster muffler with 3" slash cut tips. I've got a Hooker catback off of my LS1 car not being used. Its an aerochamber 3" system. I know exhaust is a preference kind of thing but I've always heard in the LS1 world the flowmasters don't flow as well plus I'd really like to have the 3" piping of the hooker. A friend of mine has a Hooker catback for a third gen on his L98 and I honestly don't like the sound. Would the 4th gen catback sound different? Out of these 2 set ups what would you go with?

Can't really tell you what one to go with but time and time again people have proven that the flowmasters mufflers actually are more of a sound muffler and not good for performance like many people think. The gain from them from stock is so minimal compaired to some other mufflers like cherry bombs, and others, dyno test have proven this time and time again.

If your L98 is stock, just get what you think sounds the best. You're not going to tell a difference from one 3" catback to another.

Show me this `proven`data.

Not anyone's search monkey look around and you will find them. I watch powerblock tv in where they dyno'd them against competitors and the competition showed higher horse power numbers.

Well, it shouldn`t be that hard. You did say `time and time again`.
Just admit that it can`t be proven.
You may find dyno comparisons showing a difference of 10hp, which is well within the 6% margin of error that is commonly assossiated with dynos.

Believe what you want but there is plenty of info on flow numbers so take it how you want

Yes, I am sure you could find some. As in time and time again, not all of these instances are just posted on the internet. There is more out there than just internet. Yup 10-15HP I will take it especially if done on the same dyno.

I didn't say the flowmaster would be lower by 10 hp. It could be higher. But again, a 10hp difference could be chaulked up to dyno error.

You will see a gain over stock but when compared to magna flow or some of the cherry bombs the numbers would be higher than flowmaster. Of coarse it depends on which muffler series you go with.

I've had both setups on my car, and the flowmaster muffler sounds waaaay better to me. The hooker is what i had first, but after 1 summer i got rid of it becuase i wanted something a lot more aggressive. So in went the flowmaster, and i'm happier than a pig in ****. You can hear my cam a thousand times better and i get compliments all the time on how good it sounds. My vote, flowmaster.

I just went throught this same situation. When I first bought my 91 L98 car I put on a Flowmaster 80 because I got it cheap from a member on here. I was never trully satisfied by the way it sounded, it was WAY to tame for my tastes. About a month ago, I redid the exhaust for a friend of mine on his 91 TBI car. We did hooker exhaust from the headers back with an Aerochamber muffler and it sounded awesome. Luckily for me he decided to trade the car for an 89 tahoe and we switched mufflers before the trade went down and I couldn't be more than happier. The car sounds awesome so my recommendation would be the Aerochamber hands down.

Thats weird that the 80 series sounded tame. Did you have stock manifolds and a cat?

Nope, I'm running 2460's with a custom Y pipe and no cats. The car sounded like a damn V6 with the flowmaster. Sounds and runs alot better with the Aerochamber

I vote magnaflow. My z28 had a 80series on it with 2 1/4 pipes when I got it and it wasn't bad but then the cat came apart and it was raspy and obnoxious input a new 3in cat on and a 3in magnaflow catback and I'm in love. Just as loud as the blow master but better sound and feel a little more pull up top.

Sound is, of course, a matter of taste. I'm happy with the Hooker set-up because at, say, 70 mph I can easily carry on a conversion or listen to the radio without the resonant 'drone' associated with some systems. That said, I do enjoy the Hooker's nasty growl at WOT.

JamesC

A good friend of mine has the hooker catback on both of his thirdgens and I really like it IMO has a similar sound to my magnaflow.

Correct.
Proof Provided:

^ there it is. And besides hooker just sounds "better" its quiet at cruise and screams at wot without being restrictive. End of story

Well, cool, but you actually proved my point.
Every muffler save the Flowtech are within 5 hp of one another. Like I said, well within the percentage of error that may be present in the dyno itself.

Sorry, but blasting a Flowmaster for making 4 hp less than a Hooker is just ridiculous.

4th gen- same exact layout but slightly different hangers and connection to the y, you can interchange with minor work, typically changing the tips, since the 4th gen bumper sticks out a little more than a 3rd gen. FWIW, LS1 setups have extra hangers on the tailpipes that keep them from moving around, I like the design but I haven't looked to see if they can be used easly on a 3rd gen or LT1. I've had a 4th gen exhaust on my 83, and I've had the same custom setup on my '83, 87 and 97.

The engines sound different through the same exhaust. 305tbi/crossfire cars sound very similar to LS1's, the 305 TPI sounds very similar but slightly rougher. The L98 cars are one more step in that direction, and LT1 is sort of the roughest (most uneven, not in a good way) sounding, very similar to an L98. FWIW, 305's sound really sweet with an open exhaust, smooth and powerful, that same exhaust sounds like crap on a 350.

Also, headers tend to be slightly louder than manifolds, but their more even flow tends to make for a smoother sound.

Sound is a matter of opinion, I personally hate the flowmaster sound and am a big fan of the hooker aerochamber.

As far as that dyno chart... there is not enough info there to tell what is going on, is this on an f-body? what kind/what engine? open with tailpipe going past the axle, same setup as with the muffler should make the most power unless there's a tuning problem.

FWIW, I don't really care what the dyno numbers are, the "flowmaster 80 series sucks" stuff comes from a few back to back tests, first with 4th gens, but later with late 3rd gens, finding that the cars went slower with then then stock exhaust, significantly slower (one of the local f-body guys went .3 slower with a flowmaster than stock). FWIW, the late 3rd gen and 4th gen muffler/exhaust works _very_ well for a say sub 400hp engine. On my '97 WS6, I ran _exactly the same time_ within a few hundredths of a second (13.0x@106.9xmph) with the stock muffler, no muffler, magnaflow and dynomax ultraflow. My '87 Formula 350 ran exactly the same time (13.5@100) with an SLP TTL and dynomax ultraflow, and my '83 Crossfire car ran very similar times with 3" pipes as it did with the same setup and a dynomax ultraflow.

Unless you're making big power it just doesn't matter that much, buy what you like the sound of.

I agree, I think we should all know that the exhaust really doesn't make that much of a difference and is mostly about sound. I think header choice probably affects power more assuming all the catbacks are the same diameter.

If you have the hooker 3in. system in front of you than I say give it a try,cant hurt.That being said ,when it comes to a cat back I say its really up to sound for me. I say find/build a 3in. system around the muffler you think sounds best. I'm not going to run a muffler that I don't care for sound wise because it is supposed to give me a few extra horses. Thats just not going to happen.

So which flowmaster muffler did they use in that test? 80 series? 40 series? 10 series?

The deal with the Aero is you get to hear what your running.

A half azzed engine's opened exhaust is not pleasant sounding, that was the reason for flowmasters development, flow was secondary.

The Aero can only sound good on a well built engine, it was built for flow.
Sounds like **** on a bougs engine.

Flowmaster now offers more models, I have better mufflers than any of them.

Actually the Aerochamger quite sounds like its eating small children on a decatted longtubed LT1.

^ it is exactly for these reasons that i would (and did) go with the Hooker Catback. i think the Hooker muffler sounds better and is more befiting a sleek 3rd Gen - no droning, not obnoxious, you can carry on a conversation in the car with the windows down while driving - but when you get on the gas, it growls like a puma.

WARNING - the exhaust tips that come with the Hooker cat-back are TRASH. so, be prepared to buy exhaust tips from another source. i went with Monza double duals.

not to be argumentative, but ALL of the 3rd Gen with Magnaflow systems i've YouTubed have had waaay too much crackle and pop. does not sound good IMO. probably/especially on a mostly stock car.

i love the v6 and flowmaster combo getting bashed in here, i have a flowmasters 80 on my 2.8 and i honestly think it sounds decent, sounds good at idle,not bad getting into it and it really only whines when i go WOT, other than that its nice and has a good tone to it, sometimes ever sounds like i have a cam real early in the morning when my cars cold. i can cruise 75 mph and hold a conversation and have the stereo on low.

SLP 2otL sounds good. But this is on the small B-body cam with lower compression iron heads (closer to what an L98 would sound like)

Just bought a hooker catback system. Can't wait to hear what it sounds like.

I ran 3" aerochambers on my chevelle for a while and I much preferred them to flowmasters. The aerochambers had a much deeper sound to them and were pretty mild at idle but came alive when you got on it. I did have a small amount of drone with the aerochambers but this was with 3" dumps. Tailpipes would have probably helped. They were still much better than the flowmasters that they replaced. Running pypes race pros with an x-pipe now. Jury is still out on this system I kind of miss the deep sound of the aerochambers.

I just put on a hooker 16823 catback with my 350 swap. I'm running a high flow cat as well.

The Aerochamber really has a beautiful tone. Very deep and powerful sounding. Zero crackling, very smooth. It is quiet at idle and inside the car when cruising. Sounds great when you get on it.

That being said, this car is just a weekend toy, and it's a bit too quiet for me. As much as I love the tone of the Aerochamber, I need more volume. I'm sure it would be more aggressive without a cat. I'm looking into other muffler options right now. The hooker would definitely stay on if the car was a daily driver though.

too bad. your car could be a very nice sleeper...

All you need is more engine. Unless you don't like that its quiet at low rpms. My lt1 has no problem making noise and its a stock block.

Mine has NO crackle and pop bunk know what you mean. Mine is a nice smooth deep tone I love it.