My current DD is a 94 Z. Have pacesetter LTs and was wondering which exhaust setup is better? I was planning on true duals but I'm curious if I would be losing too much back pressure?

I've done a search for this but haven't found anything specific.

Thank you.

 

From what I've gathered, true duals do not offer any more flow than a bigger Y-pipe into a nice catback. They offer you being able to say you have true duals, and a different sound

 

Depends on how much power you are making.

 

IMO if it's a daily, stay away from duals. I did them for a while and ended up going back to a single, sounded great but way too many negatives for a day-to-day vehicle.

Lots of interior noise, lots of interior vibration, always loud (you won't fit a full size muffler, best you'll get is a single chamber or glasspack/bullet style), less ground clearance that is already minimal to begin with, and gas smell inside the car. These of course are issues only when dealing with a dump setup, out the rear is a whole nother animal.

Unless it's a weekend toy or you're a teenager, you'll likely get tired of it.

Yes a dual setup will be able to flow more but if you're in the same boat as a majority of this board, you're likely not near maxing out a 3" single setup, let alone a 3.5" setup.

 

I ran full size Flowmasters Delta 40s with cutouts. True Duals can give you a 6in of clearance just needs to be worked.

Also you don't get a gas smell because of true duals. Its from generally be axle dumped and removed cat.

 

That's what I said

As for this:

That's pretty amazing you were able to tuck full size flowmasters in there, I had ground clearance issues just with single chambers and the prior bullets setup. Had a hanger get broken by the exhaust hitting a gas fill cover at a gas station. Also had many other scrapping issues when driving over speed bumps, steep incline exits/entrances, etc. Hell even a stock exhaust factory ride height fbody is best served by avoiding these things, suprised a full size muffler dual dumps setup would be any better.

Regardless though if the OP is considering a dumps setup, imagine any clearance issues you have right now, then take away a few inches of clearances to get an idea of where you will be at with them.

 

Yupp I agree with you on a DD do not run duals.

 

My first set up many years ago was true duals2.5" X pipe off the manifolds and 10-series flowmasters sounded AWESOME noise at speed was NOT an issue I don't believe I gained very much if anything. About 2 months later I put longtubes on and that was the gain I was looking for! So all in all I think longtubes are WAY more important than duals. My new set up on my TA will be 3"X and dual magnaflows since I will be heads and can this time around..........

 

Big single. Good flow and weighs less.

 

So what power level is recommended before a car needs true dual

 

A single 3" will support around 380 hp, dual 2 1/2" around 500 as a rule of thumb.

 

so all these 500hp+ 4cyls need dual 2 1/2"?

That information is silly.

 

this stuff is mostly for N/A cars ... ive never seen a 500hp N/A 4cyl lol

and those are just numbers on paper. there is variables

andd you can exceed those numbers it just bottle necks at the exhaust at that point and robs a little bit of power. imo those things are things people trying to get that last .03 of a sec are looking at

 

Someone did tests on duals vs. a fat single Y-pipe setup and the performance differences were very minimal... I can't seem to dig it up though was a few years back

 

The reason duals are better than a single is because of scavenging and reversion.

 

Duels might scavenge better, but you have to not only make them fit. But then worry about the extra cost (usually irrelevant) the extra weight and lost room. I run a single 3" and it not only sounds great but it performs very well. Ill most likely be going to a forged NA 383 in the next year or so and I doubt ill need to upgrade my exhaust. And if in the far chance that i do. Itll be a single 3.5" or 4"

 

I run a single 3" with an electric cutout. Problem(s) solved.

 

I have had long tubes and a texas speed & performance 3" true dual x-pipe setup since sometime in 2004. ran it on a bolt on camaro until I wrecked it. transplanted it on my new car (heads and cam now), and I'm still happy with it. There's more cons than pros for having it but, those few pros are to fun to give it up yet. There's some clearance issues as mentioned although, the pacesetter headers hang just as low as any low part on the rest of the exhaust and THEY are what have been scraped the most. My current car is at stock height which is nice... the first car was an SS and I had to be alot more concerned with speed bumps and driveways. This setup is loud although, in my case, I have put quite a bit of stereo preps in the car for sound dampening/deadedning and it significantly decreases the noise inside the car. Being loud is the double edged sword though... sounds awsome with or without a cam and I get thumbs up and plenty of looks from folks when I'm out and about.... similarly though, any cop in the area will know your coming if you get on it... I mean, its REALLY F'n loud at full throttle 4k-6k RPM!

I have thought about switching back to a stockish setup but, have held off still simply since it sounds great and I have had no major issues with it. The only clearance problem i still am concerned with is the torque arm as it almost rests on the X piece... it should never be an issue as long as I dont go and pull a dukes of hazard stunt but,... eh,... its in the way when I have to do anything that requires unloading the rear suspension and dropping the rear axle (so I usually just pull the exhaust first).