How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

I have a 305 with a Magnaflow cat and catback. I don't want it to fail inspection for noise. At idle, how much louder will my car be with headers? The law says that it can't be any louder at idle than stock, yet both of my cars have catbacks on that are significantly louder than stock, and no one has failed me for either car in a combined 11 inspections...

There's no one around me with headers on a 305, so I'm simply wondering how much more noise I can expect. Idle is the most important, but I also wonder what cruise and WOT will be like. I'm planning on either Edelbrock TES or finding a used set of SLPs...

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

i have flotech headers and at idle it wont be much louder, however wot is a tripp man the laws out there are strict.... in Tennesse all there is here is old beat up ford trucks with out mufflers lol

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

like he said @ idle it wont be significantly louder but @ wot youll notice the difference.

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

How much louder are we talking? I know this is a hard thing to quantify. I'm ok with some more noise, but I don't want it being obnoxious. It isn't like night and day, right? Just sorta deeper, and a little louder? Thanks for anyone who has some insight...I know a lotta people have headers on here, I just don't know anyone who has them!

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

no it shouldn't be obnoxious lol its olny a 305, and you have a cat so you should be good.

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

Let me put it this way, with headers you will definitely know the engine is running with your windows rolled up or with your stereo turned up.

The sound is not obnoxious, unless you use it as a daily driver and drive it alot. But like all the other posts - the sound will definitely be better.

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

Not to mention added power and increase in fuel mileage!

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

The quantity of sound is more related to your muffler and cat. If those are staying in place, you will hear a "tinny" tone to the car of the pulses slightly "ringing" the header pipes, but the amount of sound overall will be very close to what you have with the stock manifolds with the hood closed.

Also, the Edelbrock headers are not a good choice, you will see no significant improvement over the stock manifolds. Dyno Don is making SLP clone headers, which pass smog if you tell the tech that they are SLPs. They're a much better choice.

TA

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

you will see no significant improvement over the stock manifolds? i have flowtechs and about two weeks ago i put them on, Trust me Headers are much better than stock mani logs any of choice :).

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

Well, first off, its good to know it isn't going to be night and day. The car is not a DD (neither Camaro is), so the most important things for me is 1) will it pass inspection and 2) improved performance.

Question: What's so bad about the Edelbrock TES? I've seen people and magazine test cars use them with good results. I would have bought SLPs for this car (I have all sorts of SLP parts on the '97) if they still made them. Where can I find these Dyno Don headers? More importantly, what is so bad with the Edelbrock versus, say, the Hookers? IMO, and this is without much to back it up admittedly, Edelbrock was a "better" brand than something like Hooker, Flowtech, etc...

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

Hooker and SLP are generally regarded as the cream of the crop out here.

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

Not true. When I started modding my exhaust, the first thing I did was switch mufflers. This is how I got "tinny" tone you are referring to.

The headers made the engine sound completely different.

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

Ive had both edelcrock TES and SLP headers, and I can tell you that the TES is a decent header, but they suck b/c of the goddamn airtubes that are in the way. If you cut em off they would be alright, but even then changing spark plugs is a bitch.

Re: How much louder will my car be with headers?
 

glad i found this thread its good to know about, i also have a 305 tpi and i just bought the edelbrock headers for it. currently im thinking of doing the magnaflow exhaust and i think due to this thread im going to go with that. if any one that has it can post up the part number that would be awesome.