kuzco

So im just starting out on my build and have found a decent engines. I wanted to know what exhausts others thought put out the meanest sound? Starting at the block of an LS1 and working our way back.

89rs454

Straight pipes if it's a weekend warrior, hooker if it's an everyday driver with cutouts imo.

red rock

iTrader: (2)

Depends on where you live and how easy going the law is? Straights will be very loud if you get on it a little from a stop light, I have Borla with electric cut outs so i can go from mild to wild, but they are very expensive. Magnaflow and Flowmaster are very common. You need to listen to a variety of different cars with different exhaust to determine what you like, or can afford. Don't forget a good set of headers, shorties or long tubes?

kuzco

short tube, i was looking at a borla i found for only $800 but thats with out cutouts. My buddys got an awesome iroc-z with a flowmaster setup.

Zach/90\irocZ

iTrader: (6)

get a chammbered muffler every hot rod muscle car has flowmaster so majority sound alike and borla too expensive but very good quality nice sounding .. with cutouts open it will sound mean no matter what muffler lol but imo chamberd muffler sounds the meanest go on you tube and search powerstick or chambered exhuast you get a good idea

Guest

THEE meanest sound you will EVER get is...headers AND an open Y-pipe...

-Gentlemen please put your hands on the ground.

kuzco

chambered does sound amazing, i like it alot. i also found borla makes an exhaust called the "ATAK" im kinda torn between the two. Problem with the borla is they dont make it specifically for 3rd gens so id hae to do some custom work

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

Straight pipes sound awful on everything but all out racecar engines. Im talking cars that get trailered to the track because they're too crazy to drive. I never understand why people like the sound of straight pipes... ugh. Maybe its the illusion of power that comes with them?

Anyway, my idea of what sounds best is long tube headers and a free-flowing exhaust. Shorties sound good too, but I think the long tubes are why car sounds so good, because it sure isnt the mild cam or the mufflers themselves, because everything Ive had on it sounded good. And there are just way too many mufflers out there that flow well to bother with straight pipes.

My car has a mild 355 in it, long tubes, and I had a dual 3 inch with x-pipe and spiralflows on it for a minute. The ground clearance was awful so I changed it:


This vid is years old and I didnt know how to drive a stick yet.

So I put a single 3.5 system with a dual 2.5 inch y-pipe:


You can say whatever you want, but it sounds CRISP with the single pipe and it's still unbearably loud sometimes. One day the clamp I used (I wanted the over the axle pipe to be easily disconnected from both ends for maintenance reasons) to hold the muffler/tailpipe onto the over the axle pipe had loosened up and my muffler fell off right there at hte back of the car. Dear lord that thing was SOOOO loud. I could hear it echoing off embankments a hundred yards away with that awful "blat blat blat" that straight pipe cars do. As soon as I got back home the muffler got reinstalled.

So then on to the Dynatech splitflow muffler. This is a borla XR-1 on the inside:



Perforated tube with fiberglass packing around it, then a perforated wall/tube in the middle.

This is a Dynatech splitflow (what I use):



These mufflers are re-branded by Dynatech, but are actually made by a small outfit that specializes in circle-track mufflers. They're barely any cheaper direct from the source so I didnt pay any attention to it. But you can draw from that what you want about how well they flow. If Borlas flow well, then splitflows must flow even better.

And judging by how unbearably loud my car was when it fell off, it really does muffle, but it's still very loud. Orr had one on his car for a while and couldnt handle the volume. I'd like to switch to an aerochamber or something so the car wont be quite so loud and it wont be quite so "obvious" that it's modded, especially now that I've gone to a stock hood. But it does sound quite nice.

Zach/90\irocZ

iTrader: (6)

Yea if your racing

89rs454

Wrong just plain wrong. Straight pipes on an engine making over 250hp v8 sound trumps all restricted mufflers, unless your pulling stumps. imho.

toomany

Sound is subjective. What sounds good to one person sounds like crap to the next. Personally, I think straight pipes sound horrible...especially on a 3rd gen. I like the sound of a well tuned and thought out system.


To the OP. If you are going with an LS1...maybe wander over to ls1tech and check out some of the 4th gen systems. Most can be modified to fit.

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

No one likes straight pipes except a certain heavily-stereotyped subset of the thirdgen demographic for the most part. It sounds bad, it's obnoxious, and it just ends up getting on everyone's nerves around you.

If you have a lowish compression, stock cammed sbc going through tiny pipes, I can see how the volume might be tolerable, but on any kind of seriously upgraded or well-built engine straight pipes just take away from the great sound they have, and the volume is just way too loud. With my muffler off the car, with it idling in the driveway, I couldn't have a conversation with my sister 30 feet away from it. It's just unbearable. Why people continue to recommend it confuses me but if we're talking stock engines, maybe the volume level is just that much lower. High compression and more airflow from a larger cam + headers really, really up the volume level.

I posted this in another thread, but it's kind of relevant so I figure the OP might enjoy reading the article:

http://www.mustang50magazine.com/tec...t/viewall.html


The only car I've ever heard that I thought sounded amazing without a muffler was a big block 427 shelby cobra replica with a MASSIVE solid lifter camshaft.

89rs454

If you really buy into all the stereotyped subset of the thirdgen demographic then your just gullible beyond all comprehension, it's all about personal preference all this is just advice, do what ever the **** you wanna do.

92z28outlaw

this x 350

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

No, it's not. It's illegal to run without mufflers. Even if it isnt explicitly forbidden in your local jurisdiction, there are still excessive noise regulations. Even if the police dont enforce that, you should at least be considerate and courteous to people that share the road with you. If that's not a concern for you, and neither is the law, then that attitude will eventually come back to bite you in the rear. Unfortunately a lot of that stuff comes back to bite the whole community of us as a whole instead of just the ones that cause the problem.

DeathStarr89

iTrader: (1)

http://www.ls1sounds.com/


Personally i have TD's and a pair of Hooker Aerochambers on my 5.3 Avalanche, it sounds amazing. Mild at idle/cruze and loud as all hell at WOT.

89rs454

I have a hooker aerochamber catback and it sounds perfect imo.

Now on to the straight pipes, yeah it's not advised to do it, but to tell someone not to because it will look ******* is just dumb beyond stupidity on your part. Your word means less then 1% over the masses brother.

paul_huryk

Straight pipes and open cut outs are way too loud to sound good - unless you hear them from 3 blocks away...

Most tracks have a decibel limit on all events except those that are "noise days", so they will throw you out if you are too loud - cops will harass you on the street. It's a lose-lose situation if you ask me.

The best sounding thirdgen exhaust I heard was the gale banks one I had on my T5 IROC - a bit loud, but the perfect pitch. The same exhaust on my automatic camaro sounded good, but not as nice as the t5 car did.

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

If I said an exhaust system without a muffler looked stupid then yeah... that's kind of ridiculous. But I didnt say anything about looks.

Zach/90\irocZ

iTrader: (6)

been alot of bickering on TGO lately

Kuzco did you decieded on muffler yet what cat setup your running and y pipe setup you said its going to be ls1 engine correct

Thirdgen89GTA

iTrader: (5)

The ONLY objective measure of an exhaust is its flow, and its decibel level. Everything else is subjective.

Mufflers are required for every car from the factory, and it stands to reason that your state/county has a noise ordinance somewhere.

I've driven my car open Y-pipe and I hated it. I hate straight pipe noise too, to me its just noise, no tone. It can't ever be quiet. I like an exhaust that can settle down in the cruise RPM range, Hooker's Aerochamber is one muffler I think does it remarkably well, yet when your foot goes down, the noise goes up.

I prefer the more european exhaust notes, by that I mean the exhausts who's pitch changes as engine speed increases, I don't like flat exhaust notes all that much that just vary in decibel level. My SLP 2otL is like this, its sounds good, but I think the Aerochamber sounds better. Though I like the two on the left design. I think hooker makes a single 3" in, dual 2.5" out non-crossflow version of the Aerochamber, I'll need to check on that again.

89rs454

I'm done, Everything is junk runing straights sounds and looks it's all ****ing junk. These boys can't hang with em loud mufflers chopped off.



I'm done with all the haten man. Let them haters hate. Happy halloween.

Dakota W.

I agree with 89rs454 to some extent, it's your car so do what you think is good, but don't say something else is completely wrong and should never be done just because you don't like it. I really like the SLP loudmouth 2s because of how raspy they sound, the flowmaster super 40 has overall good sound, but I haven't heard a good magnaflow muffler on a thirdgen yet.

Ron U.S.M.C.

Man, this is a dangerous spot to be (the thread).Id probably get hanged if I said the 3" American Thunder Flowmaster 80 series cat back on "my" car .

CadeFirebird

I like exhaust systems like SLP loudmouth, Borla, and spintech. I think SLP loudmouth and spintech exhaust systems have to be modified to fit our cars though...

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

I love flowmasters. The problem so many people seem to run into is thinking that loud is fast. More often than not the loud cars I see are way slower. Any time you hear a loud car and there's no cam lope, you KNOW it's just a very slow, stock engine. Any cammed engine will make a very, very noticable lumpy idle with no mufflers, so it just makes it obvious your car is slow when you run no muffler with an internally stock engine.

Flowmasters, to me, make a lopey cam sound amazing. The only reason I dont like them is the drone.

Ron U.S.M.C.

I would not call my car fast but even with a 5.0 auto./Corvette servo. ,timing bump and basic bolt on's including new 3.42s and Eaton Posi. I can say its quick and every bit deserving of the Flowmaster on it. I do have plans to upgrade to a stronger, built 350 (I'm only using parts that will compliment the swap)when this one gives out on me.It only has 98,000 on it so it could be awhile. Until then Ill continue having fun with what I have.

Dakota W.

When my 305 is at 500 rpms it sounds similar to a big cam.

Thirdgen89GTA

iTrader: (5)

No. A big cam sounds like a big cam. A flowmaster on a stock cam engine just sounds like a flowmaster. It'll change the exhaust not but doesn't make it sound like a larger cam.

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

A big cam optimizes an engine to work properly at higher RPMs (since high RPM torque is, by definition, horsepower) and that makes them work WORSE at low RPMs. The lopey cam sound is the engine misfiring and running like crap. A big cam engine will do that at 1000 RPMs. A stock cam engine will do it at ... according to you, 500 RPMs. But surely there is a threshold there where the stock setup can barely keep the engine running and it misfires a lot. But no one is going to be fooled by a 500 RPM stock engine vs 1000 RPM cammed engine.

Reid Fleming

iTrader: (2)

I think we can all agree that a Harley with straight pipes and zero muffler whatsoever sounds terrible. And that a Harley with some sort of semi-baffled exhaust system sounds better.

Well, it's the same thing with cars. I don't like open headers because to me it just sounds like somebody banging on a metal pot with a metal spoon.

http://www.ls1sounds.com/GMMG/GMMG_before-after.mpeg

This is the reason I bought the GMMG exhaust for my car. I liked that it sounded different depending on the RPM. Granted, it is louder than most other exhaust systems. But if I just wanted loud, I'd have gone with a Loudmouth or open Borla. I like the GMMG system because it has a smoothness to it while still retaining that big block idle sound. Get up in the higher RPM zone and it starts getting a bit of that European sound.

I also run a cat in my car instead of no cat. Because it makes the GMMG system sound better. Even though it's also quieter. Same deal with stereo systems. Music sounds better louder. But not when it's clipping and the speakers are bouncing like mush. Turn it down a bit when that happens.

Dakota W.

It would barely idle at 500rpm, I was having trouble getting it to idle high when cold and was messing with the screw to hold the throttle open. It warmed up in the process and I turned it down to 500 for sh*ts and giggles, but it would barely run, most of the time it would die.

I don't have a flowmaster.

Zach/90\irocZ

iTrader: (6)

I agree chambered sounds the best to me ive heard them all majority muscle car guys run flomasters so alot of muscle cars sound the same imo which i wanted to sound different but its all subjective to what people like and dont like

Prokilllsx

I like my magnaflow

Bbourk89

okay hi to all i have an 89 camaro 305 tbi and i was wondering if i could use the flowmaster 10 series muffller 1 inlet with dual outlets even though its not a crossflow muffler, i intend on hooking the cat pipe to one of the dual outlets and have a pipe running out of the other outlet and another pipe running out of the inlet like the crossflow setups. will this work Please give FEEDBACK!!

AceBoogie!

Long Tube Headers
No cats
X-pipe
Bullets with turn downs