Pypes V. Magnaflow help!

aar0s

Founding Member
Dec 20, 1998
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Im wanting a new stainless cat back for my car (88gt vert) and am looking at the Pypes kit and the Magnaflow kit but dont trust internet sound clips. Have any of you guys heard both? what do you think? :shrug:
Im looking for something that kinda tame at idle and crusing around town but loud when i put my foot in it.
 
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I have the pypes catback, and it's in no way too loud at idle or under moderate acceleration. It took a while, but it has gotten louder under full acceleration now. I run an x pipe, so it's kind of raspy, but I have no noticable drone. All in all, I'm ok with the sound, but won't use them again. For whatever reason, they don't feel a need for hangers on the x pipe, and I believe they have fixed this now, but their old design x pipe was longer than the factory making it a real pain in the ass to install.
 
Ive noticed that the pypes kit is alot cheeper than the magnaflow, did the kit fit well other than the problem with the x-pipe? how was the quality of the kit? did it fit well together?

The catback kit would have fit well if I weren't running a pypes x pipe which is too long. I will say that Pypes provides excellent customer service. They did everything in their power to minimize the pain. And I got their catted x pipe very shortly after it came out. I have NO complaints about their catback. Just that it was maybe a little quieter than I wanted, but over time that problem resolved itself.
 
I like the sound of Magnaflows a tad better than Violators because my Violators are a bit louder at idle and cruise than they should be, IMO. However, the tailpipes on the Magnaflow cat-back look like crap. If you decide to go with Magnaflow, just buy the mufflers (2.5" offset/offset) and then get the tailpipes and flow tubes from another company (namely Dynomax).

Pypes uses the same crappy design for their X-pipes that UPR does, and I freakin' HATE my UPR cat'ed X-pipe with a passion. Glad I only have to use it for about 1 week out of every year. Jeg's off-road X-pipe FTW. :nice:
 
yeh this cat back will be going on my no name o/r h pipe.
hmm looks like i might have to look into the pypes kit. i dont mind if its a little loud, noise kinda flows through the top on a vert and the drone is not so bad, i just dont want johnny law giving me a hard time or be pissin off the neighbors.
 
I've had both the Magnaflow and Pypes FULL systems... not just cat backs.

Magnaflow costs more and has crappy tails, but fits better and is not very loud.

Pypes cost less and the fit is terrible, but with the Violator mufflers, they are loud as hell. Not just kinda' loud... I mean LOUD. At idle or half throttle it's going to get the attention of the PoPo... under load with your foot to the floor, be prepared to get arrested.
 
I've had the violators on for about a year now. first mated to a bbk catted h now to a o/r h.
Overall I'm pretty satisified with the quality.
Sound wise it's kinda blatty at around 3000 rpm when standing on the throttle with the o/r h. It is pretty loud at full throttle too. It isn't very loud at idle at all even what is basically straight pipes all the way back. As already stated drone is nonexistant.
Drive smart and you won't have a problem with the popo
 
The trick to avoiding police attention with Pypes Violators, I have found, is keeping the RPM's low and acting like you have an egg under the accelerator pedal. Shift at no higher than 2,000 RPM and no more than 1/3 throttle whenever you pass by The Man and you should be fine. As an added bonus, this will often also help you get better gas mileage. :D (With an AOD, though, the RPM's won't be an issue so much as resisting the urge to give in to the leadfoot urge.)
 
The trick to avoiding police attention with Pypes Violators, I have found, is keeping the RPM's low and acting like you have an egg under the accelerator pedal. Shift at no higher than 2,000 RPM and no more than 1/3 throttle whenever you pass by The Man and you should be fine. As an added bonus, this will often also help you get better gas mileage. :D (With an AOD, though, the RPM's won't be an issue so much as resisting the urge to give in to the leadfoot urge.)

I had to do this last night in Teh Notch. A cop followed me THE WHOLE WAY HOME. :fuss:
 
I have the violator cat-back with stock h-pipe. I had to cut about 4 inches off each side to get them to fit - and of course that changed the angle of the pipes...so yeah, the fit sucks. I wouldn't recommend them. If you're only buyin the muffler, maybe - but I wouldn't buy the kit.

I know a guy who had similar problems on his SN95 as well.

They sound good and aren't too loud with the stock headers & h-pipe, but when I change my headers and h-pipe I'll probably switch them out...
 
I would steer clear of pypes completely. Horrible fit your gonna have to pay someone to weld and straighten the system up if you cant do it yourself from your back. However when installed they sound great. Magnaflow however is amazing.
 
Hey just a couple of points I thought I would mention in regard to this topic.

1. You can special order a Pypes CatBack with the Race Pro (same sound as Magnaflow) or Street Pro(chambered sound).
2. All of the fit issues have been addressed and corrected. If anybody is having fitment issues on a system purchased recently, just give us a call and we can help you figure out why.
 
Hey just a couple of points I thought I would mention in regard to this topic.

1. You can special order a Pypes CatBack with the Race Pro (same sound as Magnaflow) or Street Pro(chambered sound).
2. All of the fit issues have been addressed and corrected. If anybody is having fitment issues on a system purchased recently, just give us a call and we can help you figure out why.

Is that something that would have to be ordered from the factory or could i call up a vendor and get the street pro mufflers instead of the Violators? how much more would that cost?:shrug:
 
NO! not that swill! Its more like crown royal extra special reserve, yummmy. three fingers in a glass with one cube of ice :drool: well, it could be like the captain if yer into that.
Called LMR and the dude on the phone there didnt know anything about replacing the violators with the street pro's, I might be interested in doing that...