Thought I'd share my fabricated exhaust system.

All 2.5" mandrel bent stainless 304, including hangers and flanges.
Also incorporated a cross over in order to enhance the torque and achieve a mellow tone.

Mufflers are Magnaflow Polished Bullets.

Tips are 3" stainless.

 

Very cool!

 

Very very nice indeed

 

Very nice work from front to back!

 

Thanks guys.

It's still a 5.7 ltr. with lots of internal and external goodies.

 

very nice, looks like great ground clearance too!

 

OMG, IT'S SO CLEAN UNDERNEATH! Needs LCAs though.

 

This IS nice work.
It's back to the shop for me. I assembled a y-pipe years back with stainless bends but didn't go so far as duals. Just a merge collector and an aftermarket cat-back setup.
What headers are you using?
Did you have to modify the cross member?
I don't suppose there might be a sound clip of the exhaust note?

 

awesome work!!! great pics too!

 

That is beautiful. Nice job. Such a clean car.

 

Headers are Hooker shorties. Yes, I did have to modify the tranny support. Welded a flat steel plate across the section where the material was removed.

Don't have a sound clip yet, as I have been working on her in stages. Engine, exhaust and now the interior. Being that quality and loudness of sound is a personal preference, I have to say that for me, the sound matches the car perfectly. I went with the LT4 hot cam, so the slight lope is distinctly noticeable, which is what I wanted.

 

I think modifying the cross member is the only alternative if reasonable ground clearance is to be expected. (That's my cross member in the picture I posted) The automatic transmission doesn't make it any easier either. I know there are aftermarket alternatives too.
From a performance standpoint, unless you were to run a massive single bullet race muffler (spelled LOUD) duals are the way to go in order to achieve enough cfm.
Sound, or loudness, is a personal thing as you mentioned. I'm still looking for a combination of flow and something that doesn't wake the neighbors.
Again, excellent looking job. I wouldn't doubt that I'll follow it as a pattern for the next exhaust system that goes on my car.

 

My cross over served several purposes. 1. It balances the pulses for added torque. 2. It served to mellow the sound, as the same I.D pipe was used. 3. Also served as a structural re-enforcer for the Y pipe, which then connects to the dual pipes (minimizing any vibration)

 

The exhaust looks great, but out of curiosity, why did you put the crossover where you did, instead of just incorporating an x a little farther back where the two pipes pair up? You would have been able to make a little more horsepower with the "x" instead of the "H" style pipe, plus it seems like it would have been a lot easier to incorporate it where the pipes are closer together.

 

Ideally, you want to put the crossover where the greatest amount of heat is generated. The reason I went with the "H" style verses the "X" had more to do with sound. I have tested both H and X styles and the gain differences haven't been that drastic, so, in this case sound tone was more important.

 

Nice job and thanks for sharing! Getting ready to instal the Dynomax kit #89009, true daul 2.25". I will try and get some photos etc and post them. Thanks for the motivation and nice work.
Roy