95 Cobra 5.0 owner - Exhaust help?

[95 BLK Cobra]

Ok I am new here- and seeking advice. I bought a pretty much stock 95 cobra - (it has a shifter and 3.73s and Steeda lowering springs) Motor is box stock. I crawled under it yesterday and the previous owner did a NASTY job of creating an h pipe - man its ugly welded...but sealed. The mufflers are stock and the cats are gutted - the car runs well considering.

Ok the questions - Short or long tube headers? X or h pipe with cats or offroad? Cat back system or pro dumps? I dont want noise but breathing.

The car will have new heads and cam and nitrous in future. The goal is to go straight line as fast as possible on a reasonable budget.

Any suggestions appreciated- there are too many options.

 

[red95gtconvert]

If you live in a non emissions testing are I would by a Mac offroad H pipe , have some turbo mufflers welded in and call it a day. That is the setup I am running and it sounds subdued while doing normal cruising but when you hit the loud pedal it sounds amazing. I have my wife do drive bys for me so I can here the car You can do this kind of setup for about 250 dollars, at least that what it cost me to do mine.

 

[mgcook]

i'd go with shorty headers, long tubes will give you a little more downlow torque, but up top they are almost equal

if you dont have emissions and can get by with it, then go with an off road x-pipe or prochamber

as for the catback if you want it to breathe and not be loud, DONT go with dumps. get a good catback like a magnaflow or bassani

if you want cheap, you can go with summit/bbk shorties, bbk/summit x-pipe and summit catback.

 

[WHITE94COBRA]

While I agree with most of this, the shorties will do very little for you over stock, longtubes will do much more than stated though, the torque will move up in the rpm's but the top end is where they really help, and the sound will also change.

I have bbk shorties, bassani X pipe and Bassani cat back, and will soon be changing to bassani long tubes. My bassani X pipe is made with changeable flow tubes, so I have the option of w/ or without cats, or for long tubes with the short flow tubes. The sound is incredible too.

i'd go with shorty headers, long tubes will give you a little more downlow torque, but up top they are almost equal

if you dont have emissions and can get by with it, then go with an off road x-pipe or prochamber

as for the catback if you want it to breathe and not be loud, DONT go with dumps. get a good catback like a magnaflow or bassani

if you want cheap, you can go with summit/bbk shorties, bbk/summit x-pipe and summit catback.

 

[trav_19]

if you want a really free flowing exhaust theres no doubt to go with a o/r x it seemed to free up so much in my car it was crazy my o/r h and tails seemed to be really restrictive....i went with shorties o/r x flowmasters and dumps and i could not be happier with my set up.

 

[earleys94gt]

I've got BBK equal shorties, BBK catted x-pipe, 3 chamber Flowmaster's on mine. Something to consider here. The x-pipe make the car sound more "exotic" and "higher pitched", where as the h-pipe is more of that classic "american muscle" sound. I know this 'cause the other night I was driving through a parking garage, I could hear the "exotic" sound pretty well. If you want typical v-8 rumble, go h-pipe. If you want better flow, and don't mind a little less torque, go x-pipe. I have also heard good things about MAC cat-backs. Just my $0.02

 

[kck6894]

I would suggest BBK or Bassani. I loved all of my Bassani stuff. It was more expensive but worth the money without a doubt. I think long tubes would work best if you're planning on doing heads/cam. If you don't have to worry about emissions definitely go without cats. Go with a full cat-back I think the dumps will be louder than you would like and the full cat-back will flow just as well.

 

[RAD]

I think you have to look on some web sites for exhaust clips and videos to really see how this and that setup sounds

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z2fwBTw8eMo that guy is member on this site so hopefully he won't be upset on me for posting hes video here

 

[igotyofire]

will be posting the exhaust clip of my car soon, its a lil updated gonna add a clip to it that i just shot yesterday hehe

 

[wildsnake94]

While I agree with most of this, the shorties will do very little for you over stock, longtubes will do much more than stated though, the torque will move up in the rpm's but the top end is where they really help, and the sound will also change.

I have bbk shorties, bassani X pipe and Bassani cat back, and will soon be changing to bassani long tubes. My bassani X pipe is made with changeable flow tubes, so I have the option of w/ or without cats, or for long tubes with the short flow tubes. The sound is incredible too.

i would disagree with the shorties and long tube being so different. one magazine i know 5.0 mustang did a comparison on this and there was a little bit of difference in TQ. but as long as you get "equal" length shorties there is little difference in HP. in my opinion if there is not emissions testing in your state i would go with long tubes......now i am talking about equal length not unequal length headers.

 

[95_cobra123]

I will make it very simple.

BBK =L Shorty's !

Dr. Gas X-Pipe ! !

Bassani Cat-Back ! ! !

There you go. Make sure u go with that X-Pipe probably the best one out in my opinion.

 

[Methodical]

Here's my take

Long tubes - it depends on whether or not you plan to drop the car significantly (i.e. not much ground clearance so it will scrape). I personally got the stubbies since I knew I would be dropping it. Folks here seem to not like the stubbies because they burn plug wires and maybe hard to work with. From experience, I can tell that if done properly the correctly route wires would not get burned. I personally have not burned any wires. And I can easily work around them.

X pipe or H pipe - I have no experience with the X pipe. But as stated earlier if you want that good ole american v8 sound, H pipe is the answer. It doesn't matter if the state you live in has emission. If you can change your exhaust you would just swap to the stock unit for testing and then swap back - easy as pie.


Bottom line is there is no better sounding Mustang on the road than one that has 2 chamber Flowmasters and a H pipe (maybe a little old school), expecially with a cam. With these you know that a Mustang is coming without any doubt or 2nd guessing. They sound better as they get older too. Can't say that about the others and I know because I've heard them. They just don't float my boat. Oh I don't care about a 5hp (hyperthetical #) difference when the car will be pushing between 450-500hp but others may.

Oh check out DonJohn's - a stanget member - website it has exhaust clips. Then you can hear for yourself.







Check out these sites. Also do a search in google.com "mustang exhaust sound clips" and you will get some sites.

www.mustangspeed.com/mustang_exhaust_sounds.htm
www.proficientperformance.com/sound-clips.php
http://donjohnii.com/pages/exhaust_clips_page.html (I had problems getting here from work but if you get in they have sound clips for tons of different set ups) Peace

 

[maximos]

Longtubes are most definitely the way to go. I currently have BBK's on mine and I haven't had any clearance issues yet. You can see them just behind the tire in the front when it's sitting still which led me to believe I would scrape a lot, but like I said, not at all. The difference you will feel in torque will do nothing but put a smile on your face too.

Because of the T56, an X-Pipe was not an option for me. I have heard that they flow a little better than an H-Pipe but I believe it's all in the eye of the beholder at this point.

If you're looking to be quiet, try the Delta series cat-back from Flowmaster, they sound pretty good at WOT but not as loud as the American Thunder when cruising around. And just so you know, YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH FLOWMASTER.

 

[VIPRETR]

YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH FLOWMASTER.

I disagree, I couldn't stand the "Flowmaster Drone" for more than a couple minutes on the highway. If sound is a consideration, I would probably go with a Bassani catback first. How long before the H/C/I + N2O? If its in the near future, I would wait to do LT's and matching X-pipe with the head swap( LT's are a PITA, and not worth it on a stocker IMHO ) If it's farther down the road, I think I would change out the stock H-pipe, but keep the stock manifolds. You'll never miss the 5 or so HP from short tube headers on a stock engine and your wallet will thank you. Just my $.02

 

[WHITE94COBRA]

They really are different, if I didnt live in california I would have long tubes. I have dyno run's with the stocker's, to the bbk shorties, to the long tubes. The difference between the stockers and the shorties was seriously a handfull and it did add sound, the long tubes (wish I could have them) added tq but also moved the tq up in the rpm band, they also added hp in the mid and upper rpm range.
I agree the equal length ones are better than the unequal's. But different strokes for different folks.

i would disagree with the shorties and long tube being so different. one magazine i know 5.0 mustang did a comparison on this and there was a little bit of difference in TQ. but as long as you get "equal" length shorties there is little difference in HP. in my opinion if there is not emissions testing in your state i would go with long tubes......now i am talking about equal length not unequal length headers.

 

[maximos]

I couldn't stand the "Flowmaster Drone" for more than a couple minutes on the highway.

You just weren't going fast enough

 

[igotyofire]

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4dn5y5e okay guys added some extra footage of me being a bit hard on the car, hehe i love freeway underpasses, also gonna link in talk section

 

[1bad04GT]

couldnt be happier with my setup (see sig)

 

[legalize420]

check out the mac prochamber and catback. you will not be dissappointed.

 

[rj95svt]

I'm curious everyone keeps saying that shorty headers are not worth the gain on a stock car, but with the cobra having gt40 heads and intake factory does it not benifit more from the extra flow than a stock gt would. The reason I want to know is that I also have a stock 95 cobra and was planning shorty's and O/R X pipe on my car.

white94cobra how much did you gain from stock with shorty's.