bbrown7888

I was told by mayhem motorsports (my local tunner) that an aftermaket exhaust would not do so much for HP gains as much as just make noise and that the manifolds and cats are the restrictive parts. He says the stock cat back system is just about as good as it gets with staying inside inspection regulations. After reading the thread about the OBX headers and the gains to the rear wheels I will defintily be purchasing a set of those soon however If im not going to get big numbers off of a $1,300 exhaust system why buy one? I do NOT want this car to sound like a Camaro, I have a camaro for that, I like the quite idle. Does anyone have evidence to confirm this or prove this wrong?

07CTS-V

iTrader: (6)

That is the general consensus. The headers and cats are where the power is gained. The cat-back is pretty much only changed for sound. It's maybe an additional 5 Hp with a center resonator and 10 with an x-pipe.

LegacyGTBiggie

in general... Most catback exhuasts on modern cars.. Are fairly good at flowing for a near stock setup. And most gains are well under the 10hp mark. Now start adding boost or something that really ups the breathing of the engine, and a better flowing catback MIGHT be more warranted.

IMO... nice quiet or stock catback. With good headers(catless) and just put a E-cutout in front of the catback... Undiluted obnoxious mean sounding goodness when you want... and quiet burbbling stock sounding when you DONT..

willsol

Or you could do the poor mans Corsa/magnaflow...whatever it is. I liked that idea and most did it for right around $300

DMM

I had Magnaflow both before and after my headers, thought it was too loud after the headers and went back to stock cat back with no loss of performance. The headers give it a growl, and if you drill a hole in the mufflers and cork-screw the insulation out of them they sound near stock at idle and normal driving and just right under full throttle.

I would def mod the stock before buying something else.

ColeGraham

iTrader: (8)

once again...what everyone had said is bang on. the only reason i have a magnaflow cat back is because i didnt buy the headers until i had the Cat Back for a couple months. and i had a little extra $$ from staying in Afghanistan for extra time.

headers with unmodded stock cat back sounds VERY nice. very quite at idle, not a lot of nice when on the throttle, and cut out will give the noise when you want and not when you dont.

IMO, headers with stock exhaust and cut out is great way to go.

bamacaddy

iTrader: (1)

I'm running the muffler delete.....Got about $50 in it...I wanna do a set of electric cutouts now. When I first did it I thought it was WAY louder than stock...Now it's not near loud enough at times

adanieljohnson1

iTrader: (1)

Yup, I have the same thing! Muffler delete with magnaflow tips.. sounds good but id love to have it louder so electric cutouts sounds like the thing to do...

Fuzzy_Wuzzy

iTrader: (8)

some of us don't have a Camaro to be loud in...

I was going to do the muffler delete until i found a great deal on a used Corsa system. it sounds great on the car, and is fun to surprise people in how good a caddy can sound

itsslow98

iTrader: (18)

Once you add long tubes that corsa is gonna sound like **** IMO, unless you like ungodly loud cars that you cant hear the radio.

cbloveday

iTrader: (1)

I originally had corsa sport axlebacks. I loved the sound but knew they would be too loud when I got headers. I immediately did the AR Header straight 3 inch to oem mufflers. Overtime the header/oem mufflers have gotten louder

.Houdini.

iTrader: (1)

Don't forget the weight savings you get from magnaflow (the lightest of the catback systems) haha. Seriously though, the stock system is just way too heavy. I was going to do muffler delete and get some nice tips and have a shop weld them in but I figured that would at least be $150ish parts and labor and I would still have a heavy system with a resonator that I didn't like. When I came across a new magnaflow system for 539 I couldn't pass it up. It weighs so much less than stock.

itsslow98

iTrader: (18)

Your seriously concerned about the weight of a stock exhaust system over a magnaflow in a 3900lb car? Holy ****

shadyLS6

/\ lol...

+ one on stock exhaust + LT headers. cats or no cats is up to you...

if i were to to it allover [mods in the sig] i would keep the stock exhaust and just add LT headers.. The stock exhaust is money!! no chance for exhaust leaks.. all mandrel bent.. the mufflers suck but you can always swap them out..

don't get me wrong i love the SW full KIt[ the tone is perfect and there no drone] but i wish i could still creep away from a chic's house at 4am without waking her up.. i think the stock cat back would let me get away with that

.Houdini.

iTrader: (1)

I guess you didn't get the joke ... did you miss the 'haha'? Joking aside, the stock exhaust is one heavy beast. I couldn't believe how heavy it was when I took it off of my car and carried it over to my other garage. It felt like I shaved 50lbs compared to the magnaflow. Who knows what the real weight savings were (probably not much but it was enough to justify the joke).

punishmentcycle

iTrader: (6)

i actually just went back to a stock catback.. man is it 100x better to hear urself think.. the drone i had was horrible with my xpipe and flowmasters

SimplistikTA

For those who have heard LTs with Magnaflow is it more volume or bass? I guess its hard to explain but I had Kooks LTs with a catted Y and a Magnaflow cat-back on my TA and it sounded just right to me with no drone and barely any sound inside the car when not on the throttle. I previously had just the Magnaflow on there and while the volume level was about the same, it just didnt have the bassy "growl" that it had with the headers. I understand that while it's a whole different exhaust configuration in the V, will I get more of that low car alarm-triggering bass with LTs without a major increase in volume? The Magnaflows were already on the car when I bought it, so I would have to pay or go through the hassle of a trade to go to a stock setup. I guess the point that I'm trying to get to after all of this rambling is: What is the difference between the cross flow Magnaflow muffler on a F-Body versus the straight-through type on the V in terms of sound levels?

06vLo

I got to say after comparing my stock exhaust to the magnaflow catback it really doesnt look much different restrictive wise. I was a week away from just doing the muffler delete and got a stern talking by my wife and a friend...(yes i said my wife) of " Its a cadillac, you dont just cut the exhaust and reweld it you buy actual aftermarket equipment" lol...and at the end of that week i got 1500 givin to me for a gift and decided to buy the magnaflow. But like i said...the $885 i spent on the magnaflow could have been spent on headers and deleteing the mufflers and the car still would have sounded good.

IMHO its gonna be you listening to which you like, or just doing what you can afford.

whisler151

I have Magnaflow and Kooks. I'm not sure if its more volume or bass though. Here's an old video of my car before cam.

http://www.youtube.com/user/whisler1.../3/NlOVr4wFch4

supergeess

iTrader: (1)

Can you elaborate on this? Sounds interesting. I have never heard of this being done, but sounds good.