LivingCanvas

iTrader: (4)

I would say not going with duals in the first place. I had the LT/ORY/Loudmouth, and I grew to hate it. Not the loud, but the ugly ugly rasp.

Now i have the TSP duals and they sound much much better. It even feels much stronger in the low to mid rpms.

Now, if I had it to do all over again, I would get some custom fabbed duals. With an X pipe like I have now, and a three bolt flange to the headers. We have a really sick exhaust shop around here that can do anything, they even build custom headers. That way I would have the best ground clearance possible, and no slip fit joints.

JScamaro

iTrader: (6)

I went all stainless with a gmmg cat back and American racing long tubes w/catted y pipe. So far I love the sound of the gmmg and I'm looking forward to installing my headers when they come in the mail.

Cost a pretty penny but I'm sure if will be worth it in the end.

thislswon

iTrader: (5)

my mistake was going with a catback over TD's from the start

sixvi6-camaro

iTrader: (9)

hmm... well I bought my car.. put on a TSP rumbler. year later I cut the exhaust off from the muffler back and welded a turndown on. loved it a ton better and kept it for around 6 months. then I cut the bullet muffler off and put a Flowmaster 1 chamber on with no turndown and ran that for around 6 months. all three exhausts sounded geat on stock manifolds and cats and Y....

Flash to 2 weeks ago.. I put on Kooks 1 7/8 Long tubes with an ORY. It sounded like *** with the single 1 chamber flowmaster dumped that lasted 2 days. In went a dynomax bullet dumped in place of the flow and it sounded like *** too and lated 2 days. so I put the stock cat back on and sounded like a silent but deadly *** fart but it wasn't all raspy sounding.. So then I tried a cutout in the I pipe and it sounded like *** with the cutout open and was too quiet with it closed that lasted 2 days.

So I got sick of it and simply clamped a Flowmaster 1 chamber on each header with 16" extensions and turndowns with no Crossover and it sounds wicked! No high pitched rasp at all and strangely the car is not that loud inside with the windows closed. windows open is another story.. lol.

moral of the story ORY pipes just sound horrible and I have yet to hear any ORY's that are even halfway decent sounding. If I want something quieter to run it will be a catted Y and a full cat back because I've heard many LT header catted Y cars that sound great.

Strahley

iTrader: (4)

Headers are Mac mids, no cats

Y pipe/Hooker Aerochamber - sounded nice at idle, but the yawning cat rasp sucked
Y pipe/Flowmaster 80 series - same as above, but not as deep as the Hooker
Y pipe with a cutout - idle wasn't bad, but WOT was Yawning cat on steroids
Y pipe with GMMG style catback - sounded good at idle, but still had that yawning cat rasp, and sounded hollow at WOT

H pipe duals dumped at the axle with Sweet Thunders - way too loud. Sounded exactly like the Y pipe cutout, but without the yawning cat rasp

H pipe duals dumped at the axle with Spiral Flows - Sounded about the same as the Sweet Thunders, but a slightly deeper tone...still too loud

H pipe duals dumped at the axle with single chamber Flowmasters - awesome & unique sound, but still too loud for me. Cats or a CC insert may have saved that. Sounded kind of hollow though

No H pipe duals dumped under the seats with Flowtech Raptors - deepest idle of the duals setups, but a bit of drone due to the dumping at the seats. Slightly too loud for what I wanted. Very deep tone from the outside of the car

H pipe duals dumped on passenger side axle - Damn near perfect for what I want. Same deep idle, but now it's very quiet on the inside while cruising Still has a very deep tone from the outside of the car. Doesn't sound like an LS1 driving down the street. 3k rpm on the highway (~70 mph, 3rd gear) and it's not even very loud on the inside. I might route the duals all the way out the back to make it even quieter on the inside, but I don't know yet

rel3rd

iTrader: (43)

Never liked the Borla sound, and swore I'd never own one, but scored a deal on a nice one ($200) and bolted it up to my stock setup...With any of the open plates in the adjustable part, the car was no quieter or louder, which told me it was severely congested further upstream.

It did sound good though, IMO, with the stock cats, manifolds and Y.

I went ahead and installed the JetHot Longtubes and ORY (also scored for $200) and immediately hated the way the Borla sounded. I was almost resigned to the fact that it was what it was, when I decided to go ahead and sell the Borla and try the stock catback with the longtubes/ORY setup.

Much better sounding IMO, but almost too quiet at cruise rpm's.

I saw a used Magnaflow catback for sale for $100. So I bought the Magnaflow and that's what I have now. I read that some say they are too quiet? I must have a different Magnaflow than everyone else then, because mine is very loud when at WOT, and louder than stock at cruise. And I'm not too giddy about the bigassed tailpipes that come on the Magnaflow.....looks like a pickup truck exhaust.

I'm still not happy with how it sounds, so my next attempt will be a simple 3" single inlet/single outlet muffler with one tailpipe to eliminate the "crossflow" muffler style and see how that is. Going to look like the Mufflex setups, but I need to figure what muffler to use.

I don't want true duals because I don't like "dumped" exhaust setups on any car, regardless of how they sound. I know Bassani makes a true dual setup that has tailpipes, but hate the way that one looks...not to mention Bassani is way overpriced IMHO...

So, as far as exhaust mistakes are concerned...I'm still making them, lol...

SuperSweet

iTrader: (3)

I had shorty headers, stock y-pipe with gutted cats and LM2 catback= WAY to loud and raspy. I was too embarrased to drive the car. It sounded that bad to me.

Now I have shorty headers, Stainless Works Y-pipe, Hi-flow mini cats, and Flowmaster cat-back= sounds 100% better. I HATE the tips, so I'm going to change them so you can't see any tips at all.

As far as comparison goes......my first set-up felt like it offered more top end and quicker throttle response, but the new system feels like it added more torque down low.

Since my car is a convertible and would probably only be allowed to make 1 pass at the track before they stop me for no rollbar, I'm not concerned over getting every once of HP out of it.

tripps

iTrader: (7)

Had a flowmaster muffler put in when I bought the car, and then a 2.5" cutout. This cutout sucked tho, because the stock piping is 2.75" and so it made my tips hang really low.

Now I have Jet Hot LT's and ORY, with a Magnaflow catback, all 3". Friday the 3" stainless steel QTP cutout gets welded in. I love the sound, couldn't be happier.

radz282003

iTrader: (1)

1) OEM = too quiet!

2) Manifolds + Borla (open plate) = Better, but not great

3) MACs + Catd' Y-pipe + Borla (open plate) = Better, but want more power!

4) MACs + ORY + Borla (open plate) = Too raspy

5) QTP (standard collector) + Catd' Y-pipe + Borla (QTEC) = SWEET!!!

6) QTP HVMC + Catd' Y-pipe + Borla (QTEC) = Happy as a pig in sh*t

Money is what kept me from jumping right into LTs. I wanted the HVMCs but at the time they were still like $1100. I sold the standard-collectors for HVMCs and couldn't be happier. Eventually, if I could find a nice stainless merge collector for the Y-pipe, I might do that with a 4" I-pipe to the Borla.

NBM99SS

iTrader: (33)

1. Bought car with stock manifolds,ypipe, and a hooker catback with cutout welded in. Sounded like any ls1 with a muffler
2. Stock manifolds, ypipe and LM1. Pretty loud at all speeds, too much drone
3. QTP Lt's w/HVMC's, ORY, and LM1, Absolutlely HORRIBLE
4. Same as above with the Hooker back on sounds very good just quiet
5. Same again with a LM2, sounds awesome at WOT, but still slightly loud for just cruising around
6. Same again with a SLP DD. SOunds great around town, but needs a little more at WOT.
7. Planning to swith to a Hpipe with single chamber flows in the future or just add a electric cutout to the current Dual/Dual setup

68birdls1

iTrader: (46)

My main exhaust mistake, was that I thought I just had to had true duals on last trans am, 3in, x pipe, dumped at the axle. Yea it is nice because you get a little bit more than a y pipe, but the loudness and the drone drove me crazy, especially on a road trip OMG!!! But you can do it and make it so that it isnt as annoyin, but the main thing you need is money lol.

Galen

iTrader: (3)

I only regret a couple of things with my exhaust system. First, I went cheap on the XS headers and feel I left some hp on the table by not going with the QTPs with a merge collector. Probably not much, but I just like to do it right the first time and not have to do things twice.

Next issue I have with my exhaust is the way I made my Y pipe. I used mandrel bent 3 inch pipe going into a Flowmaster 2x3 inch into 3.5 inch merge collector followed by a 3.5 inch cutout. I now would have gone 4 inch instead of the 3.5 inch.

Other than these minor issues, I am happy with the Flowmaster reducer going to the 3 inch for my Hooker catback. Sounds nice , not much drone and can open the cutout if I want to play.

If you want to see a nice Y pipe/exhaust setup with results, look at PatrickG's 500 hp thread in the internal engine section.

matt94z

iTrader: (49)

I started with a Flowmaster muffler, sounded nice, but very quiet. Then I added a cutout, I liked it, but after adding LT's it had lots of rasp. I then bought a Hooker CB and love it. It has no rasp, quiet enough for my son while cruising and sounds great/loud at WOT.

transam69230

iTrader: (49)

First i started by just cutting off the I pipe put a turn down on it, i just wanted it to be lound because i was 16yrs old with a Trans am. Then i got some money put headers and 2.5inch crushed bend true duals. I wanted to go fast and that required suspension duals sucked and i couln't run a aftermarket trq arm or a ds loop. That was a was of $500. Then i went with a mufflex catback $750 then i had a custom y pipe built to go from the headers to the catback well then with that i bought a $80 merge collector. and then it was $230 for the y pipe. But i happy now the mufflex has a mean aggresive tone that is badass at wideopen and quiet enough not to **** my dad off at 12 in the morning when i come home from racing.