I have a stock 1984 305 Trans Am that I want to get some more noise out of. I was thinking about just getting a 40 or 80 series flow master put on. How good will it sound with the stock exhaust system? Eventually I would like to get headers and a full cat back but as I am working on the interior atm I dont have the money for that right now. So I guess my question is, is it worth it to get a new muffler now or should I wait until I can re do the whole exhaust.

 

My car is all stock too. I put a flowmaster 80 on. It sounds great and doesnt drone. the 40 drones horribly.

 

I'd be very surprised if an 80 'drones' less than a 40, but that doesn't really matter, if you want that flowmaster sound it will sound really similar with just a muffler as it will with the full exhaust.

Just be aware that your '84 TA probably has a 2.5" inlet on the muffler (if somehow it still has a stock exhaust or had a stock size exhaust replacement, you probably want to get under there an measure it), and the flowmaster cat back will use a 3" inlet muffler, but there is a PN that has a 2.5" inlet. If your exhaust got replaced with a later performance model's exhaust it will have a 2.75" intermediate pipe which necks down to 2.5" at the muffler, but in that case I'd get the 3" and cut the end of the intermediate pipe off and slip the 2.75" in the 3" inlet, that one is close enough to weld (I usually weld a pair of 3" collector flanges in there so i can pull the muffler off/swap by just pulling 3 bolts).

 

Thanks this a good tip. I am in the same situation as original poster in trying to decide if I should just change the muffler or full cat back. Think ill just do muffler as you say....

 

If you're only looking for more noise at this point, I say just slap on a used 80 series.

 

Yup, any boneyard should have a couple lying around bout $30 or so...

 

If you still have the stock exhaust with the washboard style crushed exhaust pipe, adding a muffler isn't going to make it a lot louder, though it can still change the tone considerably. My GTA had the stock exhaust all the way to the muffler, and no matter what muffler I put on it, the car was still quiet. I ended up with a Thrush chambered muffler (flowmaster clone) and it never droned. It was pretty mellow.

 

In my experience putting an 80 series on when it was a stock LG4 car made it much louder. Obviously sound is subjective, but to me it was quite a difference and sounded great on the 'ol 305.