exhaust question

[missingperson]

I need a suggestion. i have an 88 formula 350 with the original exhaust and a replaced muffler. I'm toying with the idea of changing the exhaust, I'm looking for SOUND. Do I go for the whole shabang (headers to tale pipes) or just swap out the muffler. If so what brands. I've heard flow master is the best for 3rd gen 350's but I'm open for suggestions. Thanks in advance.

:dancing:

rice is for eatin', not burnin'.

[WayFast84]

flowmasters, to me is the worst sound in the world. I had to sit in the back of my freinds lb9 car with eddelbrock shortie headers, brand new oem cat, and a flow master catback, and I had my ears plugged the whole car ride.

Are you looking for loud? or nice tone? check out thirdgen.org in the exhaust section for exhaust clips, and their is a member on here with a hooker catback for $100

[missingperson]

thanks for the reply. I going check out the hooker website tomorrow. i'd like to hear from anybody with catbacks on a 3rd gen 350. thanks.:dancing:

rice is for eatin', not burnin'.

[WayFast84]

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/exhaust/378898-looking-catback-start-here.html

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/exhaust/318269-third-gen-f-body.html

[SteveR]

If you're looking for loud, go with a set of long tubes and chambered tubes from www.classicchambered.com with turn downs.

[maroman88]

i have a 3" flowmaster catback only on my 91 z28 350, sounds pretty good to me :) everyone says it very loud but im used to the headers and cutout on my 88 camaro lol

[missingperson]

You guys sparked my interest with the power sticks. Seems like a quality cost-effective solution to what I want. I think swapping everything out for a true dual set-up would just take to much time and money - wife, kids, house...
Gonna do some more reading on the chambered exhaust power sticks. Anybody have suggestions for them on a 3rd gen 350? I Really, really appreciate the replies.

Rice is for eatin', not burnin'.

[missingperson]

Flowtech afterburner muffler. Any thoughts for the 3rd gen 350?:shrug:

[bubba428]

Ok man heres the dillio...hooker or black jack headers into a hi-flow cat(newer cats ar NOT restrictive and keep you legal)and I would go with 2.5in stock style to retain back presure so you don't loose all of your torque to a flowmaster 80series and some nice chrome tips. A friend of mine runs a performance exaust shop and I may be able to hook ya up with a good deal

[WildBillyT]

I would do Hooker ceramic coated headers into a Magnaflow high flow cat, followed by a Spintech or Magnaflow muffler.

Forget the Flowmasters, unless you are very strapped for cash.

[bubba428]

flowmaster sound like hot sex...don't listen to these people

[WildBillyT]

flowmaster sound like hot sex...don't listen to these people

Yeah, hot sex between a tin can full of rocks and a howler monkey.

Skip the Flowmaster.

[chevylover5]

1. everyone has their own opinion of what sounds good
2. it depends if you're going for sound or performance

in my opinion, if you want a nice setup that sounds good and is fairly cheap id say go with flowmaster. I have a catco high flow cat, stock headers and an 80 series flowmaster 2.5in catback system in my 92z. It sounds pretty good. Not too loud, but loud enough for people to know you're there. I'm getting headers soon for a little better performance. If you want performance and you have a quite a bit more money id say go for slp headers and a borla catback, its a lil bit too loud for my liking and WAY overly priced. good luck lookin! later
-Ken

p.s. WayFast84 hows your car sound when you drive it? :gay:

[Tru2Chevy]

I would go with 2.5in stock style to retain back presure so you don't loose all of your torque

Go find whoever told you to put tiny exhaust on a small block chevy and slap them upside the head.

A 2.5" catback might be a good combo for your 3.4, but it's way restrictive for a 350. 3" all the way....

Personally I like Hooker Aerochamber, Magnaflow, and Spintech.....

- Justin

[Ian]

if I were in your position, I'd try to find a used 3" catback for cheap and get a spintech muffler. those mufflers flow amazingly well and sound great! when the time comes for me to do the exhaust on my 79, I'm going with spintech mufflers for sure.

[unstable bob gable]

if I were in your position, I'd try to find a used 3" catback for cheap and get a spintech muffler. those mufflers flow amazingly well and sound great! when the time comes for me to do the exhaust on my 79, I'm going with spintech mufflers for sure.

Yup, Spintechs are DA MAN!!!8-)

[j0n]

Go find whoever told you to put tiny exhaust on a small block chevy and slap them upside the head.

A 2.5" catback might be a good combo for your 3.4, but it's way restrictive for a 350. 3" all the way....

Personally I like Hooker Aerochamber, Magnaflow, and Spintech.....

- Justin

imo if you have a performance car you should attempt to put a minimum of a 3" exhaust on it. everyone always bitches and complains and stomps their feet about backpressure yet everyone that ignores all the backpressure ******** goes faster than those "retaining backpressure"

[missingperson]

Thanks for the replies. I've made the decision to go as cheap as possible for now, muffler only. Spintech or Flowmaster. Decisions, decisions.....

[ar0ck]

Go with a Spintech or Magnaflow muffler. Those are probably the two lowest cost options that will sound the best and last the longest.

[missingperson]

I'm not opposed to magnaflow, but I heard that they're not recommended for
3rd gen's. Any model # in particular for a 3rd gen 350 tpi. :-? Thanks.

rice is for eatin', not burnin'!

[NightRydaSS]

Open headers!

[Camvill]

MAGNAFLOW!

[WayFast84]

p.s. WayFast84 hows your car sound when you drive it? :gay:

sweet :cry: I miss the sound :-x

Go 3 inch always, I wish I wouldve gotten 3 inch,cause now im going to be stuck with 400+hp and a 2 1/2 catback till I pass inspection when it runs. Get a members 3 inch hooker catback, for $100 then $80 for another members magnaflow muffler and tips! Id do that if I had the money

[NightRydaSS]

I too am looking into a new exhaust for my 4th Gen SS. I was thinking about Borla for the longest time, but now i'm not so sure. The system i can get is priced @ $810 and it rated at about 15 HP; that means that 1 HP costs $54. This kinda seems like buying a civic to "soop-up" and make into a sports car: it costs like $10K to get 100 HP and you still get owned. I'm wondering if there is a better way to spend my money. Now long-tubs are NOT an option. I don;t want to have to deal with NJ inspection and b/s. Eventually i'm thinking about getting Mid-length (better then nothing). Also, i'll prob adjust the exhaust once and leave it alone, so an adjustable one might not be right for me.

I obiously want a HP gain, but more importantly i want it a lil louder. I have heard the SLP Loud Mouth and it sounds like 2 monkey's ******** a tin can while screaming. And every manufacture has their own "flow patent" to make more power and less back pressure. it is like buying a vaccume, all vacumes suck, it is just which one sucks more.

Borla has a non-adjustable one, magnaflow is supposed to be sweet, flowmaster, ect.

what do you guys think? Is the Borla adjustable exhaust worth that kinda money for that power rating? i know a cat-back system won't add like tons of power, but at $54 per 1 HP?? That seems a lil steep. I could install a cut-out for less then 1/3 of that. Is there something else about this exhaust I'm missing?

[karr95]

On my 350 I went with a SLP loudmouth 2 muffler, single in/out (no dual exhaust) and the exhaust place tucked it up in the body so you don't see anything. I really love the way it sounds...

-Little louder than stock at idle
-Nice sound for normal driving
-Mean as hell under hard acceleration

My setup wasn't that expensive either. I got the muffler brand new off ebay and the rest was the muffler shop. They also fixed the heat shields on my cats.

My Mustang has flowmasters and they do sound good however, they have a tendency to drone a bit when cruising on the highway.

[Tru2Chevy]

The reason that the Borla is so expensive (besides the name) is that it's all stainless steel, and basically warrantied for life.

- Justin

[NightRydaSS]

So it is like comparing a '07 Lamborghini w/ 600HP @ $350K to an '07 Viper w/ 600HP @ $95K? Gotcha.

i want "loud", but i don't want the car to sound louder then it should (i.e; i don't want to be like a Civic with a loud ass exhaust that is slow as balls). IMO; if a car is super loud, it should be super fast. And i tryin to make my car well-rounded. I want as much handling as HP. I don't want just a 1/4 mile car.

I think I'm going to go with a cat-back Magnaflow for like $399. Then ill have money left for the SLP cold/ram air intake (the one that goes infront of the radiator), panhard bar, and LCA's.

What do you guys think?

[Tru2Chevy]

Magnaflow is a good choice :)

- Justin

[Savage_Messiah]

http://photos-900.ak.facebook.com/ip002/v62/30/108/1096260009/n1096260009_30096900_4022.jpg

[NightRydaSS]

got my magnaflow exhaust in today! didn't kno it was a "flow through" type tho. thought that was pretty cool. should give me "moe power!". lol. and a nice tone. getting it installed on fri. I got under the car a looked at it, dodesn't seem like it would be a hard issue to do it myself, i have a blow tourch to heat up the clamps to get the rusted bolts off...but then i thought that more then likely the pipes themselves were rusted together, so sliding them out with about 12" of room might be harder then i think.

[NightRydaSS]

I got my exhaust installed yesterday and it sounds pretty good. It is louder then stock, but not obnoxious. I know "normal" muffler's have a slight break in period to burn off the oils inside (god that smell smells like *****), and it seems that everytime i drive it it get slightly louder. I think i have only put on between 50-75 miles on it since the install and i can still smell that sh*it burning off. Reminds me of that rotten egg smell u get with new cats. It took 3 days for that damn smell to go away when i had my GTA (rip). It is louder tho since when i first started it up yesterday at the shop.
so right now, here is where it is at for anyone else looking into Magnaflow:

- idle is a lil louder then stock
- cruzing is def louder, i notice it more
- full throttle is louder then stock. Ppl will know you are there.
- Interior sound isn't much louder then stock. Which is good b/c i didint want a "drone" in the cab. But, you DO notice there is an aftermarket system on. My other one was quiet at highway speeds.

The "sound" is that mellow rumble. no raspy-ness at all. which is what i was worried about (IMO SLP loudmouth had that when you rev'd it.) My GTA had an 80 series on it and this sounds kinda like that. For someone who doesn't have $1K+ to spend, this is a great choice! Just a much better sound.

I figure i have maybe >100 miles left on "break-in" (i hope, b/c that smell irratates me). So i'm expecting a slight increase in sound, but not much.

Well, i hope this helps someone who is thinking about Magnaflow. I say go for it, you can't beat the price.