my exhaust experience and thoughts

choate

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I'm a little bored this morning and I was thinking about the recent changes I made to my exhaust, and thought I'd share my thoughts so hopefully it can help someone else who may be thinking of trying different set ups and how it may affect the noise level / drone etc. Gonna be a little lengthy to provide all my thoughts/experiences because the way my car sounds to me is almost as important as it looks. I like talking about exhausts as you can probably tell.....

Stock is too quiet, I think almost everyone feels that way so I originally ordered some GT500 mufflers because I heard they sounded good. Put those on and it was a noticible difference and did sound good but I wanted more so I had a shop put 3" resonator deletes in place. I didn't wait too long to do that and it again made it a little louder, but more of a throaty sound than before. No drone at all and it got a little louder over time but still wanted more so next was a Pypes OR X.

On start up VERY noticable difference. Growl sounded crazy and I loved it. Until the car gets warmed up this set up is very raspy. Cold start can be neighbor waking (I start my car w/ the garage door shut just in case lol). Once it gets warmed up it's not as loud and putting around or normal driving isn't loud at all. Sounds good though. You can for sure hear it in the cab but it's not annoying at all. Once you get up to highway speeds anything under 80 you can't barely and I mean barely hear it in the cab and that is with zero radio or conversation going . If you are talking with someone or have the radio on at all you won't notice it. 80mph and over you can start to hear it more but honestly who drives 85mph steadily for very long and even so there is still no drone, you can just hear it. Again, 80mph and under on cruise you won't even notice it. Next up was I wanted to try another muffler so I picked up some Kooks.

They were about half the size of the GT500s so I thought they'd be much louder. Put them on and on start up noticed right away WAY deeper sounded. Super deep. That sound stays with it and on my set up with the OR X and resonator deletes this just wasn't going to work. The deep resonating drone was crazy. 2k RPM was SUPER annoying. It was like having a fog horn inside your head. What's odd about those is under throttle (moderate to full) they actually get quieter after about 2500 and I think decible wise are quieter than the GT500s under moderate / full throttle and lack that hard growl the GT500s have.

The next day I put the gt500s back on and immediately started smiling and was just like being home after a long time away and just felt right. Put a big smile on my face b/c it just sounded and felt right again. To me this is about the best of a set up you can get. Under throttle (moderate to full) it sounds really mean. Like people go man that sounds good! It's just got a crazy gurggle sound/race car/kind of exotic sound to it. And the best part is under normal driving and cruzing it's nothing that would turn heads at all - really tame. I've even had people compliment me at stop lights from light to light normal driving say how good it sounds and ask if it came that way stock. If you give it the beans though they will quickly know it's not stock and that's the best part.

Well, thats my story. Thanks for reading and if anybody has any questions for me I'll do my best to give you my honest feedback
 
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nate714

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Good thread. I have GT500 with resonator delete and 3in H/OAP. Love the sound, just wish it was a little louder. Considering cat deletes.
 

Stang Lover

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Glad I switched back to GT500's. I"m probably gonna end up deleting my resonators also. I'll probably do an X-pipe before that happens.
 

choate

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Good thread. I have GT500 with resonator delete and 3in H/OAP. Love the sound, just wish it was a little louder. Considering cat deletes.
One thing I'll tell you is it is a real pain to get them to not leak. I ended up having someone weld mine. I had cat deletes given to me then put those on with a pypes after cat X pipe. Where it mated almost always leaked. The only thing that made is stop was a lot of exhaust gasket sealer but I knew that would eventually come loose and leak again so I just had it all welded together. The only thing with yours is if you are using the stock H you might need that to come a part to swap back for inspection. Just something to think about. If you want more sound an OR set up will do it. Its not that loud at all except on cold start up

Sent from my SCH-I545 using the svtperformance.com mobile app
 

Jumpmaster2015

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I thought deleting the resonators produced minimal results, but it was the last exhaust mod I did. I have off road H, stock manifolds, and FRPP sport axle backs. It wakes up my neighbors after my camshaft install (yes it increased exhaust volume and pitch).
 

choate

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I don't have anything to record with unfortunately. I have been thinking of getting a Go Pro so if I do I'll definetly post a video
 

Canadian5.0

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Had my car for a little over 2 years now and gone through a few different setups myself.

Started out with a Magnaflow muffler delete and it sounded pretty good, not stupid loud but it did drone some and anything above 4k all had the same tone, just noise. Found a set of used Borla Atak's and was pretty happy with them overall and had zero drone. Wasn't quite loud enough though so I tried having the resonators cut out and wow it made a big difference in volume. Cold starts were a little loud but I don't leave the house before 7:30 so I figured the neighbors should be up by then anyhow :).

Always had the plan of doing long tubes so I went with 1 3/4 BBK's with catted X and it turned out to be ear bleeding loud with the atak's. We literally took the mufflers off for a start and there was basically no difference in volume. 1/4 throttle could be heard blocks away.

Had to do something so that lasted 2 days before putting the stockers back on while I waited for some Magnaflow Streets to show up from AM. They sound good and I can see how some people would like them but it's prob the same as you had with the kooks as there's just not enough volume at full throttle that I loved about the Borlas.

Again I ordered another set of mufflers but this time Borla S-types. Couldn't be happier. Its still on the too loud for most side because of the headers but unlike the Atak's I can cruise around town under 100db yet when I get on it the sound is race car.

Luckily enough I was able to sell all my used mufflers pretty quick so although it wasn't cheap going through a few I got most of the money back.
 

Stang Lover

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Save yourself some coin and get some GT500's. I promise you'll love them! I just put in LT today and they sound wicked and I still have the resonator still in place.
 

Paul.

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I love my 100% factory exhaust. It's super quiet, and no one would ever expect my car makes near 600 rwhp. I hate noise.

Paul.
 

fuelforfire87

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I had gt500 exhaust and didn't care for it. Don't get me wrong, there was no drone, which was great, but it didn't sound deep enough for me, and made this weird popping noise on cold start. This was with bbk headers, offroad x-pipe and lethal over axle pipes. I switched to the single tip magnaflow streets and it was awesome. Deep but not loud at idle and screamed at WOT. Then I got the Idea to get quad tips, so obviously I got the magnaflow street quad tips assuming they would sound the same as the single tip ones. Dead wrong, the quad tip droned significantly more than the single tip at about 2k rpm, which to me is a big deal, because that is when I am cruising at 75 mph on the highway. I have since placed an order for corsa sport quad tips. I am hoping they arrive soon because I am told there is zero drone with them
 

1 Alibi 2

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2011 - Kooks 1 3/4 LT's, " green " catted X pipe, stock mufflers.
2014 - Kooks 1 7/8 LT's, " green " catted X pipe, stock mufflers.
 

jsquared_25

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I had gt500 exhaust and didn't care for it. Don't get me wrong, there was no drone, which was great, but it didn't sound deep enough for me, and made this weird popping noise on cold start. This was with bbk headers, offroad x-pipe and lethal over axle pipes. I switched to the single tip magnaflow streets and it was awesome. Deep but not loud at idle and screamed at WOT. Then I got the Idea to get quad tips, so obviously I got the magnaflow street quad tips assuming they would sound the same as the single tip ones. Dead wrong, the quad tip droned significantly more than the single tip at about 2k rpm, which to me is a big deal, because that is when I am cruising at 75 mph on the highway. I have since placed an order for corsa sport quad tips. I am hoping they arrive soon because I am told there is zero drone with them
I went from the quad tip gt500 mufflers to the corsa quad tip sports and I could not have been happier. There is absolutely no drone at any rpm and they are considerably louder than the gt500's. You should be pretty happy once you get them on your car.
 

Acunamatata

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I went from the quad tip gt500 mufflers to the corsa quad tip sports and I could not have been happier. There is absolutely no drone at any rpm and they are considerably louder than the gt500's. You should be pretty happy once you get them on your car.
Video?
 

Mat5.0

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devil's advocate for noise here, I have stainless works 1 7/8 longtubes, OR X, borla OTA, and corsa extremes, and its LOUD. cold starts are loud, warm starts really aren't too bad. idle once warmed up sounds deep and fantastic in my opinion. you're able to go up to about 2500-2700RPM without it getting, what some would call, insanely loud. at WOT its utterly ridiculous. I personally am a fan, I'm sure the cars I pass by are, by no means, fans.

My car was loud prior to the swap, but not nearly this loud. I swapped out the OTA pipes and axle backs at the same time, so not sure exactly how much noise the OTA pipes comtributed, but I did have resonator deletes on my stock OTA so probably not all that much.

someday I may try the GT500s but if I'm being honest, I do like it loud. I will say, its barely louder than stock at highway speeds but when you put your foot into it to pass someone on the highway, they'll know.
 

Acunamatata

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devil's advocate for noise here, I have stainless works 1 7/8 longtubes, OR X, borla OTA, and corsa extremes, and its LOUD. cold starts are loud, warm starts really aren't too bad. idle once warmed up sounds deep and fantastic in my opinion. you're able to go up to about 2500-2700RPM without it getting, what some would call, insanely loud. at WOT its utterly ridiculous. I personally am a fan, I'm sure the cars I pass by are, by no means, fans.

My car was loud prior to the swap, but not nearly this loud. I swapped out the OTA pipes and axle backs at the same time, so not sure exactly how much noise the OTA pipes comtributed, but I did have resonator deletes on my stock OTA so probably not all that much.

someday I may try the GT500s but if I'm being honest, I do like it loud. I will say, its barely louder than stock at highway speeds but when you put your foot into it to pass someone on the highway, they'll know.
Post a video
 

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