I'm thinking about changing up my exhaust a little. I've currently got a bassani catted x-pipe and IMCO glasspacks. It sounds good under acceleration, but in my opinion isn't loud enough at idle. I like the performance of a straight muffler but really want more volume. Basically, I want more heads to turn when I show up at car shows and the drag strip! Replacing my mid pipe is not an option because that bassani wasn't cheap. Also, I don't want anything that sounds like trash. I do like a lot of rumble and some pops on deceleration. I'm about to buy some cams here any minute, and I want to be able to hear them chop loud and clear at idle. I figure since they will have to take down my exhaust while they put in my new TC it would be a good time to swap mufflers. Thanks!
an o/r mid pipe will def do the trick. maybe you could get a shop to replace the cats with straight pipes if you're on a budget
I'd rather not take the cats off for emissions reasons. Any suggestions other than SLP ? Are the Pypes Violators any good? Thanks guys
Well most catbacks will provode good tone but whats holding back most of the sound is def your carts. Your car should be OBD2 so having cats wont matter because they just plug it in to the scanner to see if everything is cool.
I have thought about that. However, I hear a lot about this causing valve damage. What about having them installed right after the X in my mid pipe? i also hear a lot about our cars needing back pressure and that open headers are bad? Can someone go into a little detail on this? Will the Dynomax bullets be that much different from what I already have? I've never heard them before, can some one describe how they might sound on my setup. Thanks.
Are the glasspacks straight threw with no restriction? If so then yes they will probably sound the same.
No engine dammage will occure with cutouts. It might loose a little torque and idle a little ruffer but wont hurt it. My father and I have the same mufflers and h-pipe (bassicly) but he has longtubes and to me the car is obnoxious when idling but it sure does turn heads and always has people comming up to him about how "racey" it sounds Long tubes will louden up the exhaust too But then you would have to replace that Bassani mid pipe anyway. SLPs are supposed to be really loud from what ive heard
the cats in the midpipe are what is keeping your car from being as loud as you want it to be. I have a feeling that no matter what catback is on there with that midpipe it won't be loud enough for you.
Dont Bassani midpipes have slip in cats??? My old bassani catted X had removeable cats & it came with extra straight piping to swap with the cats...U should just remove the cats & when its time for smog, just put em' back in.... Removing the cats is the only thing that will make it alot louder, & its the cheapest way IMO....
The way I see it, you really dont have many options. Cutouts would sound like crap. If the cats HAVE to stay, the absolute loudest muffler I can think of putting on there would be SLP LM1's (the "shotgun" mufflers). I just took a set of them off my car and swapped them with the LMII's. The LM1's are simply way too loud with no cats...they just might work for you.
I've been running my car at the track with cutouts right after the headers for years now. At my most recent dyno session, I gained 7 hp and 7 tq by opening them. My tuner said that most of the time cutouts won't give you any more power, but he thinks my cams might be why it is actually beneficial for my car. Cutouts can't possibly cause any damage to your valves. Here's a video of my car at the track with long tubes, cams, and cutouts. (Please note, it's no longer a 13-second car. ) http://videos.streetfire.net/video/2002-Mustang-GT-pulls-the-front-wheels-barely_128685.htm
I say junk the garbage glasspacks for some real mufflers. Look into Magnaflow magnapacks...a set can be had for 120 bucks on ebay. Yes they are straight thru and "resemble" a glasspack but are from from it,last 1k times longer and dont sound like crap.
I have a set of the magnapacks on my cobra. It is loud loud! I've almost decided to ditch them for something else but I don't have the cash. Another thing is my car has a catless x-pipe so I'm sure that adds noise. On my 5.0 I had BBK headers into a O/R H-pipe into Flows and my cobra is louder from all points of the powerband.
Dec weld in a set of bullet style highflow cats into your xpipe...you MIGHT lose 2hp and it will tame the sound down a bit for less than 100 bucks
