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Does any exhaust sound good without cats?

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Old 12-23-2010, 01:46 PM
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Default Does any exhaust sound good without cats?

I have been through alot of different sounds of exhaust on my ls. First I had stock headers and cats and put on a magnaflow. It was really quiet of course, but sounded good when you stomped it. Than I had stock cats, and I put a cutout back at the end before the muffler and it sounded PERFECT. Pretty loud, nice deep tone, and not way to loud. Than I got my headers and ory, so than the cats werent there and it got raspy. I tried electric cutouts with magnaflow and didn't like it. I tried just the magnaflow and it was to quiet still. Than I took out the magnaflow and put a borla bullet and ran it like the slp system. Very raspy and sounded like **** to. So now I took the borlamouth off and its running straight pipe and it still is extremly raspy and sounds like ****. Sooo is there any muffler I can put on there that will have a deep none raspy sound and still be loud enuf to sound good all the time? I just can't find anything that sounds good without cats
Old 12-23-2010, 02:21 PM
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I think you Want your cake and eat it too! Haha! No offense! .. Just sounds like you've been through enough exhaust systems.

... It's not going to be easy if even possible to have a "deep" drone and "rasp" at the same time. It's either one or the other. If you found a happy medium, stick with it. ... But that's just my .02
... Sounds like the only thing left for you to try is a true dual set-up.

Goodluck!
Old 12-23-2010, 02:21 PM
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Pretty much any catback besides the LM1 sounds fine without cats...
i currently have a Magna-quiet cat back...Its a love hate with it. ive been thinking of swapping out a Flowmaster 40 series muffler to get a more deep muscle car sound.
Old 12-23-2010, 02:37 PM
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Originally Posted by WS6 Rampage
I think you Want your cake and eat it too! Haha! No offense! .. Just sounds like you've been through enough exhaust systems.

... It's not going to be easy if even possible to have a "deep" drone and "rasp" at the same time. It's either one or the other. If you found a happy medium, stick with it. ... But that's just my .02
... Sounds like the only thing left for you to try is a true dual set-up.

Goodluck!
I don't want rasp lol. I want it to go away. Rasp sounds horrible
Old 12-23-2010, 02:41 PM
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Originally Posted by desertLS1
Pretty much any catback besides the LM1 sounds fine without cats...
i currently have a Magna-quiet cat back...Its a love hate with it. ive been thinking of swapping out a Flowmaster 40 series muffler to get a more deep muscle car sound.
The magnaflow is to quiet though. I had it at one point where it sounded great with no cats. But I had the magnaflow on there with a cutout before it and half kinda went out the muffler and half out the cutout and it had a good sound, but when you got on it it is VERY VERY LOUD. Im gonna go back to that probably since it does sound good. Eventually I will probably have to do what was mentioned above though and go with some tsp true duals or somethin
Old 12-23-2010, 02:55 PM
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I think my "factory" CME with 224 cam, long tubes and
ORY sounds pretty damn good. Mellow at idle & cruise
but bad-*** when you give it any gas. I got to listen to
it from outside at the tire place when the alignment dude
was test driving it. I shoulda had him open the cutout.
Old 12-23-2010, 04:01 PM
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i love the way mine sounds with no cats and the stock muffler, not quiet but not loud
Old 12-23-2010, 04:55 PM
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I would get a Flowmaster merge installed on the Y pipe. This really helped alot take the rasp out of my exhaust. Check out the Borla exhaust, they sound really good. You could even install an electric cutout in the exhaust and make it quiet or loud as you like. My buddy had a Borla w/ his LTs and ORY and it sounded great. He always run at it with no plates, and it made my Magnaflow at the time sound like I was stock.
Old 12-23-2010, 05:21 PM
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Originally Posted by z99ls1
The magnaflow is to quiet though. I had it at one point where it sounded great with no cats. But I had the magnaflow on there with a cutout before it and half kinda went out the muffler and half out the cutout and it had a good sound, but when you got on it it is VERY VERY LOUD. Im gonna go back to that probably since it does sound good. Eventually I will probably have to do what was mentioned above though and go with some tsp true duals or somethin
i like the hooker exhaust. but it may be along the same lines as the magnaflow, its fairly quiet. at wot it opens up a lot more tho. but other people's idea of loud and mine are pretty different
Old 12-23-2010, 05:38 PM
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Yes mine

see sig
Old 12-23-2010, 05:53 PM
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I main problem is I like it quiet and loud somtimes probably lol. I think im going to get a smaller 2 1/2 cutout or something and put the magnaflow back on
Old 12-23-2010, 05:55 PM
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Mac mids, ORY, Dynomax dump, sounds amazing, I will run it out the back to reduce drone, but I love the sound. It's mellow at idle, and powerful but not overly so at cruise/part throttle. But WOT, it sounds like a damn top fuel dragster! I definitely love the dynomax sound. Even catted the dynomax sounds awesome but not annoying inside.
Old 12-23-2010, 05:57 PM
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Originally Posted by z99ls1
I main problem is I like it quiet and loud somtimes probably lol. I think im going to get a smaller 2 1/2 cutout or something and put the magnaflow back on
yea me too haha. i like the way mine sounds, would just like it louder sometimes. once i get a cutout it'll be perfect haha
Old 12-23-2010, 06:49 PM
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I have hooker and it sounds amazing, but on another note if your looking to get rid of your borla xr1 i have a brand new slp "dual dual" muffler i bought 3 years ago from SLP right before they stopped making them. I never got around to installing it so if u want to trade shoot me a pm.
Old 12-23-2010, 07:00 PM
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lt's, and a muffler connected to them is pretty non raspy...
Old 12-23-2010, 09:38 PM
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Originally Posted by Titanws6
I would get a Flowmaster merge installed on the Y pipe. This really helped alot take the rasp out of my exhaust. Check out the Borla exhaust, they sound really good. You could even install an electric cutout in the exhaust and make it quiet or loud as you like. My buddy had a Borla w/ his LTs and ORY and it sounded great. He always run at it with no plates, and it made my Magnaflow at the time sound like I was stock.

The Borla is LOUD w LTs. But with the c/o it would help shut it up when you don't want to hear it. I had one on my car for a while w/o the cutout and no plate. Had it with stock manifolds and Y, LT's and catted Y and LT's and ORY. LT's and ORY it was just loud and no real sound it it (no tone.) No muffler, really, and just raspy as hell loud. No tone. Mind as well have been a LM1 or !muffler.

But the Flowmaster merge was said a while ago in an exhaust thread to help eliminate a LOT of rasp. IMO, that an cats will kill a LOT of it.. And a good exhaust. I think the Kooks TD's with cats will be PERFECT. I'd like to do it, but it's gonna be till summer before I can afford it.


I've got the TSP Rumbler CB now with catted Y LT's and it has a pretty bad drone on the HW. Kinda loud at idle, enough to know it's there during cruise, but LOUD up top. It's just a bullet muffler. But my Y is fuekd up too, so it's prolly making more rasp than it should be.

As it is now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-MIjMj4QaE

Last edited by bayer-z28; 12-23-2010 at 09:43 PM.
Old 12-23-2010, 11:53 PM
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I vote for the slp 2otl catback. But I'm partial. It may not look the best but sounds great IMO.
Old 12-24-2010, 01:53 AM
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I have the slp powerflo setup with bolt ons and no cat and sounded great. Loud at woman enough at cruising without being annoying and no Faso. When I did the cam i did install some tiny bullet cats since it sounded great but got a little too much unwanted attention and now sounds just like it did before but with a little lobing.
Old 12-24-2010, 07:03 AM
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I have to fine tune cracking the cutout just enough to get the sound/db level where I want it with a Hooker catback, LT's and ORY. If I'm feeling conservative, it's barely open. If I fell like an *** and want to scare old ladies and make babys cry, I'll open it up and it sounds like a chorus of a thousand errupting ********.
Old 12-24-2010, 10:36 AM
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I have a Borla on mine. I custom made a blockoff plate from 16 gauge sheet metal, put a 1" (maybe a bit bigger as I opened it up to a larger bore a few times) hole in it, and it sounds great. Catless these cars always seem to sound kinda crappy from 2-3k, but sound great everywhere else in the RPM range.



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