exhuast

[Raidervette]

I have been reading alot about the pipes and mufflers you all have put on your vetts and they all sound good. But most of you want the louder sound. I'm looking for the stock sound with just a little kick. I like the quiet of my stock exhast but could handle a bit more throaty sound when I kick it down. A friend put flo-master [I think] on his 74 and it is twice as loud as my 74 stock. All he changed were the mufflers. So any sugestions would be appreciated.

[Bob Chadwick]

Flowmaster comes in several varieties. The 40's are much louder than the 50's. The 50's come in two variations. I have the Delta 50's, which if I understand things correctly have an extra chamber and are quieter than the original 50's. I have a sound clip at my web site. There is a little resonance at 2500 rpm but otherwise they are not any louder than the stock.

[pws69]

Originally posted by Raidervette
I have been reading alot about the pipes and mufflers you all have put on your vetts and they all sound good. But most of you want the louder sound. I'm looking for the stock sound with just a little kick. I like the quiet of my stock exhast but could handle a bit more throaty sound when I kick it down. A friend put flo-master [I think] on his 74 and it is twice as loud as my 74 stock. All he changed were the mufflers. So any sugestions would be appreciated.

I don't like to make a lot of noise, either! I had a 2 1/2 inch system bent up (from the Heddman full length headers back) with an X-Pipe right after the cross member and Flowmaster 50's. It is a VERY civil system - a bit louder than stock (VERY little) and sounds sweet when you stand on it. Performance is excellent.

[jackofalltrades]

I put Headman full length headers, to 2 1/2" tubes with cross over tube to dual Flowmaster three chamber 50's. Idle is a little more rumble than stock turbos. There is some resonance 1800-2200rpm but that may be due to the larger pipe. Full throttle at 5000rpm my 383 has 80% of that pure Flowmaster sound. Still sounds like a Kodiac bear getting raped!

If you're keeping the 2 1/4" exhaust, stock manifolds and twin cats, people will just barely notice that you don't have a stock system.

If you're keeping all that through a single cat, Most people won't notice until you romp on it.

-Steve

I have RAVIN hi perf.mufflers on mine ; series 33 for the lowest flow resistance / greatest growl. These outflow Flowmaster and all the rest by a large margin according to the RAVIN spec comparision sheet. They are 16 gauge thick, black, and the exhaust travels thru them in almost a straight line for very low resistance. www.goravin.com for a sound bite. They also offer quieter mufflers with less growl. Midas Muffler carries them and they are high quality and a true hi perf. muffler.

I also have an 'X' just after the crossmember - this really quieted the exhaust at higher speed.

Dave

[Bob Chadwick]

I looked at the Ravin's as well. They were a good option though Midas liked them too much and priced them that way around here.

I have Magnaflow SS muffs and a HI flow cat, it's not too loud and sounds great.

[Raidervette]

Thanks for the input. I like the sound clip Bobchad put up. Do you have headers or are you useing the stock manifolds Bobchad. And did you go with 2 or 2.5 inch pipes. 74 had no cat. conv.

[Bob Chadwick]

After discussing with Flowmaster I went with 2 1/4 inch pipes using the stock ram horns.

[Tweek]

Bobchad, what did Flowmaster say to make you chose 2 1/4 pipes with the stock ram horns?

[Bob Chadwick]

With the low HP of the early cars that you wanted to be careful not to get too big, otherwise you would raise the sweet spot on the torque out of the bottom end of the RPM range. He said 2 1/4 was fine for an engine up to 350 or so HP and I never plan to get that high.

Others here have posted that the stock ram horns are fine for the low HP engines.