2015 SS exhaust,, What to do?? - Camaro5 Chevy Camaro Forum / Camaro ZL1, SS and V6 Forums

Moeman · 07-05-2017, 09:22 PM

Long time lurker, Infrequent poster here.

2015 2SS/RS A6/L99. Daily Driver, 60 miles a day, most of it hi-way miles,
So NO drone please. No track days, just running around, scaring the Rustangs away.

Only mod is a CAI Intake.
Have read, listened to YouTube videos till am blue from exhaust gas, and reread exhaust threads till I am confused as you can be. Have read 1000's of posts on here.

Want a great sounding and performing exhaust. Only sure thing is I want quad tips. I already have the ZL1 diffuser sitting here, waiting on a new exhaust.

Headers are probably a year away, and a tune.
What can I get now that I can add headers to later? Borla S-type, Hooker Blackheart looks interesting, Solo, MagnaFlo, Stainless Works Retro looks good as well, and whatever else.

Just say screw it and blow the CC limit to the max and buy it all now?!?!?!
Cat Back, X pipe, Hi Flo Cats, Axle back... J pipes......

Will a ZL1 exhaust bolt right up???

Don't want obnoxious loud, but that lovely deep rumble. I am almost 60 yo, and don't want to have all the neighbors bitching.
Only want to do this once.

I had a MRT V2 on my 2013 LS. That sounded good. Knew it was there, but could still have a conversation.

Sorry for the long post.
Please just good honest advice.

2010reddevil · 07-06-2017, 12:39 AM

Believe it or not, getting rid of the OEM cats and swapping to high flows or catless will make a huge difference. That and getting rid of the coffin resonator. The stock mufflers actually have a decent sound to them when everything upstream is uncorked.

Ashen L99 · 07-06-2017, 01:43 AM

Yeah a zl1 system will bolt right up. NPP from an ls3 car will bolt right up too. I've heard nothing but good things about the stainless works retro. I think Gunmetal speedster has it and he loves it because of its nice, deep, rich tone. If you are planing on doing headers in the future the car is going to get loud, regardless because the stock cats soak up a hell of a lot of sound.

CamaroFred · 07-06-2017, 02:39 AM

One good thing about getting old and the neighbors complain about the noise, you cup your hand hand behind your ear, look at them, and say "Eh?"

MrChrisLS3 · 07-06-2017, 02:51 AM

I did muffler delete and resonated x-pipe. I wanted something just a bit more aggressive than stock without being "loud". The Magnaflow resonator does nice job of giving that low rumble and smooth note on acceleration. I drove from Houston to Kansas City and back a couple of weeks ago, no drone issues at all.

Avenging Orange · 07-06-2017, 06:59 AM

Do it right the first time. Exhaust starts at the front. Start with headers and hi-flo cats....then see how it sounds. Next step would be replacing the clunky resonater with an H or X pipe....then re-evaluate. The stock exhausts flow extremely well.
Headers will really change the dynamics of your exhaust. You start getting drone when you remove too many exhaust components. Hence, if you read as many post as you said, you would see so many started with cat back or hacking up their stock system before headers.....then complain it's too loud and drones when they finally get headers.

Rob Russell · 07-06-2017, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avenging Orange

Do it right the first time. Exhaust starts at the front. Start with headers and hi-flo cats....then see how it sounds. Next step would be replacing the clunky resonater with an H or X pipe....then re-evaluate. The stock exhausts flow extremely well.

Headers will really change the dynamics of your exhaust. You start getting drone when you remove too many exhaust components. Hence, if you read as many post as you said, you would see so many started with cat back or hacking up their stock system before headers.....then complain it's too loud and drones when they finally get headers.

+1

Moeman · 07-06-2017, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avenging Orange

Do it right the first time. Exhaust starts at the front. Start with headers and hi-flo cats....then see how it sounds. Next step would be replacing the clunky resonater with an H or X pipe....then re-evaluate. The stock exhausts flow extremely well.
Headers will really change the dynamics of your exhaust. You start getting drone when you remove too many exhaust components. Hence, if you read as many post as you said, you would see so many started with cat back or hacking up their stock system before headers.....then complain it's too loud and drones when they finally get headers.

Hence the confusion. I Would still need to replace the stock mufflers, due to the quad tips not fitting on them.
Way too many options out there ,plus I don't know of any trustworthy shops here at the beach.

That's why I ask the most knowledgeable group I know for advice.
Thanks

Avenging Orange · 07-06-2017, 09:30 AM

Ok, then as others have suggested. ..an already equipped quad tipped factory system.
But you need to decide what you really want. You have to start slow and smart. One issue at a time.

The Wanderer · 07-06-2017, 09:44 AM

I would go with a Borla cat-back system with sport mufflers for now. After you add the headers and hi-flo cats and tune the sound should be just right. Personally I went with the Borla cat-back system and the atak mufflers, I will be adding headers and hi-flo cats with tune this winter. If it is too loud I can always change out the mufflers which I highly doubt that I will change. Right now it sounds great with the cat-back system, I installed it myself and it only took me about 2.5 hrs....

Strider044 · 07-06-2017, 09:54 AM

I bolted up an NPP from the 1le. It sounds amazing I think. Ill try and post a video If i can find it.

sinisterlsx510 · 07-06-2017, 11:57 AM

Muffler delete. Hi flow cats and resonator delete! Call it a day.

Tim417 · 07-06-2017, 12:11 PM

Ditto what Avenging Orange posted. I wish I would have listened to this advice posted by numerous other folks before I started modding. Modify the front of your exhaust first. Spend the money that would have gone to a cat back system on headers and a tune. It is going to change the tone, sound and make it louder. Aftermarket cat back systems do not add power (though they can reduce weight.) As Avenging Orange stated, a lot of times, people get a cat back, then get headers and discover it is too loud for their liking. A cam will also make your exhaust louder, and lopey.

Spend the money on headers and enjoy a more aggressive exhaust sound and get a performance increase to boot. Then decide on a cat back if it's not enough for you. If you end up happy with the sound, you can always just have a local exhaust shop install quad tips for you. That's a simple job any halfway decent shop can do for you.

If you want to only do it once, this is the path to take. Otherwise, you risk chasing your tail trying to quiet a noisy, droney exhaust.

chuckie669 · 07-06-2017, 12:38 PM

I agree with those above. I made sure to plan out ahead on what my end goals were. It's too easy to blow money and then regret on these things.

This being my 5th ls car I've been around the difference in sounds and have gone from super obnoxious to totally quiet and decided to settle in the middle here.

Since my car was an auto I went with the solo mach xl to keep the afm drone away. A week later the bug bit and I tuned out the afm anyways.

Car sounds stock at idle with the solo imo and has some growl once you push on it though still quiet.

Next I went with sw/sp headers which are full stainless and got them ceramic coated.

That gives the car a deep rich sound on start and then idles slightly over stock through the jpipes in the solo.

A press on the gas peddle instantly wakes up the beast and you can enjoy every decibel of your work.

Everyone agrees the 2 sets of cats block most of the sound in these cars. I was amazed at how quiet the catbacks are.

With the lts and solo i can start my car and the neighbors don't fuss like they used to with my cars or Harleys and you can easily get noticed throwing a rev across the street if that is your desire.

Again, this has been my experience.

07-05-2017, 09:22 PM	#1
Moeman THE Cone Killer Drives: 2015 2SS/RS BVM; 2016 Vette Z51 Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Myrtle Beach Posts: 114	2015 SS exhaust,, What to do?? Long time lurker, Infrequent poster here. 2015 2SS/RS A6/L99. Daily Driver, 60 miles a day, most of it hi-way miles, So NO drone please. No track days, just running around, scaring the Rustangs away. Only mod is a CAI Intake. Have read, listened to YouTube videos till am blue from exhaust gas, and reread exhaust threads till I am confused as you can be. Have read 1000's of posts on here. Want a great sounding and performing exhaust. Only sure thing is I want quad tips. I already have the ZL1 diffuser sitting here, waiting on a new exhaust. Headers are probably a year away, and a tune. What can I get now that I can add headers to later? Borla S-type, Hooker Blackheart looks interesting, Solo, MagnaFlo, Stainless Works Retro looks good as well, and whatever else. Just say screw it and blow the CC limit to the max and buy it all now?!?!?! Cat Back, X pipe, Hi Flo Cats, Axle back... J pipes...... Will a ZL1 exhaust bolt right up??? Don't want obnoxious loud, but that lovely deep rumble. I am almost 60 yo, and don't want to have all the neighbors bitching. Only want to do this once. I had a MRT V2 on my 2013 LS. That sounded good. Knew it was there, but could still have a conversation. Sorry for the long post. Please just good honest advice. __________________ ARH Full exhaust w/ HF cats CAI Cold Air Intake w/ scoop, Gears 3.73 BMR 1.25 inch lowering springs, Trailing Arms, Toe Links, Cradle and offset Diff Bushings, Bilstein Struts, front and rear ZL1 rear Diffuser, Rocker Panels, 1LE Front Splitter Z28 High Wing Rear Spoiler, Tuned by DynoSteve

07-06-2017, 12:39 AM	#2
2010reddevil Drives: 2010 Camaro 2SS Victory Red 6M Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Gulf Coast, TX Posts: 1,424	Believe it or not, getting rid of the OEM cats and swapping to high flows or catless will make a huge difference. That and getting rid of the coffin resonator. The stock mufflers actually have a decent sound to them when everything upstream is uncorked. __________________ 2011 2SS 6A Red Jewel Metallic, Vararam Tune CAI, Magnaflow 3" Competition c/b, Speed Engineering 1-7/8 LT's, Circle D 5C, M/T 275/40R20 S/S, HPTuners tune by Ryan@GPI 12.3 @ 112 ACM as of 12/22/19 Gone on 12/28/19 R I P 2010 2SS 6M Victory Red/Black (old ride) CAI intake, Speed Engineering 1 7/8" LT's, X4 base tune, Flowmaster Outlaw axle-back. 12.6 @ 115 SAR as of 9/19/15 Gone but never forgotten.

07-06-2017, 01:43 AM	#3
Ashen L99 Drives: Ashen grey, 1SS, L99 Join Date: Aug 2016 Location: Oklahoma Posts: 527	Yeah a zl1 system will bolt right up. NPP from an ls3 car will bolt right up too. I've heard nothing but good things about the stainless works retro. I think Gunmetal speedster has it and he loves it because of its nice, deep, rich tone. If you are planing on doing headers in the future the car is going to get loud, regardless because the stock cats soak up a hell of a lot of sound. __________________ Roto-fab CAI, Nick Williams 102mm TB, LOD X1 V3 intake manifold, GMPP LS3 heads, Night Fury cam, TSP 2” long tubes, Corsa ZL-1 catback, Nitrous Outlet 102mm plate kit/150 shot, NGK BR7EF plugs with Taylor plug wires, DSX flex fuel kit, ZL-1 fuel pump and injectors, B&M deep trans pan, Yank 3400 converter, 3.45s with BMR Delrin bushings, mishimoto 169° Thermostat, GM ground effects, T-Rex upper grill, Z/28 Spoiler, Lolly pop Lime brake calipers, ZL1 10 spoke wheels, 12” subwoofer, and custom paint matched interior.

07-06-2017, 02:39 AM	#4
CamaroFred Drives: Miss Con Ception Join Date: Aug 2016 Location: Chicagoland Posts: 2,998	One good thing about getting old and the neighbors complain about the noise, you cup your hand hand behind your ear, look at them, and say "Eh?" __________________ 2011 1SS/RS LS3 CGM

07-06-2017, 06:59 AM	#6
Avenging Orange Drives: 2010 Inferno Orange 2SS/RS Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Clermont, IN Posts: 3,297	Do it right the first time. Exhaust starts at the front. Start with headers and hi-flo cats....then see how it sounds. Next step would be replacing the clunky resonater with an H or X pipe....then re-evaluate. The stock exhausts flow extremely well. Headers will really change the dynamics of your exhaust. You start getting drone when you remove too many exhaust components. Hence, if you read as many post as you said, you would see so many started with cat back or hacking up their stock system before headers.....then complain it's too loud and drones when they finally get headers. __________________ 2010 Inferno Orange 2SS/RS M6 Black Leather, Sun Roof, OBX Headers, Borla touring axle back, Cold Air Inductions CAI , non synthetic fluids, BMR total bushing upgrade/1" lowering springs, DSE 32mm rear sway bar. GM fe4 shocks/struts/LCA's, AAM 3.91 diff, Vertini RFS1.8 20x9 +30. Conti ExtremeContact Sport 275/35/20. sjm autoprod ABL dash kit. Mike Norris tuned 413/419. Avenging Orange: 43 years of not buying into the Hype........and damn proud of it!! https://youtu.be/9JD9it6SmB8 https://youtu.be/xmelTlEzI34 KICKING CANCERS ASS SINCE 2015!!

07-06-2017, 02:51 AM	#5
MrChrisLS3 Drives: 2018 1SS M6 Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: Houston Posts: 2,617	I did muffler delete and resonated x-pipe. I wanted something just a bit more aggressive than stock without being "loud". The Magnaflow resonator does nice job of giving that low rumble and smooth note on acceleration. I drove from Houston to Kansas City and back a couple of weeks ago, no drone issues at all.

07-06-2017, 09:30 AM	#9
Avenging Orange Drives: 2010 Inferno Orange 2SS/RS Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Clermont, IN Posts: 3,297	Ok, then as others have suggested. ..an already equipped quad tipped factory system. But you need to decide what you really want. You have to start slow and smart. One issue at a time. __________________ 2010 Inferno Orange 2SS/RS M6 Black Leather, Sun Roof, OBX Headers, Borla touring axle back, Cold Air Inductions CAI , non synthetic fluids, BMR total bushing upgrade/1" lowering springs, DSE 32mm rear sway bar. GM fe4 shocks/struts/LCA's, AAM 3.91 diff, Vertini RFS1.8 20x9 +30. Conti ExtremeContact Sport 275/35/20. sjm autoprod ABL dash kit. Mike Norris tuned 413/419. Avenging Orange: 43 years of not buying into the Hype........and damn proud of it!! https://youtu.be/9JD9it6SmB8 https://youtu.be/xmelTlEzI34 KICKING CANCERS ASS SINCE 2015!!

07-06-2017, 09:44 AM	#10
The Wanderer Drives: Blaze Red 2014 2SS/RS Join Date: Sep 2016 Location: WV Posts: 85	I would go with a Borla cat-back system with sport mufflers for now. After you add the headers and hi-flo cats and tune the sound should be just right. Personally I went with the Borla cat-back system and the atak mufflers, I will be adding headers and hi-flo cats with tune this winter. If it is too loud I can always change out the mufflers which I highly doubt that I will change. Right now it sounds great with the cat-back system, I installed it myself and it only took me about 2.5 hrs....

07-06-2017, 09:54 AM	#11
Strider044 Drives: 2015 2ss/rs Commemorative edition Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Winter Garden, Fl (Orlando) Posts: 423	I bolted up an NPP from the 1le. It sounds amazing I think. Ill try and post a video If i can find it. __________________ 2015 2ss/rs Commemorative Edition - DynoSteve Tune, NPP, Hotchkis sport springs 19110, Zl1/1LE rear swaybar, VR-DRX CAI, VaraRam VRX-93, Z28 spoiler

07-06-2017, 11:57 AM	#12
sinisterlsx510 Drives: 14 ss camaro summit white Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: bay area Posts: 463	Muffler delete. Hi flow cats and resonator delete! Call it a day. __________________ 2014 ss camaro Stainless works long tubes , rotofab cai , vararam wedge , muffler delete,cat delete ,resonator delete , x pipe 2019 sierra duramax 2500 all terrain x 2001 trans am Lsx 408 ci rebuild in progress(dead project) 1967 camaro Sbc 327.

07-06-2017, 12:11 PM	#13
Tim417 Drives: 2013 Camaro 2SS Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Southern California Posts: 228	Ditto what Avenging Orange posted. I wish I would have listened to this advice posted by numerous other folks before I started modding. Modify the front of your exhaust first. Spend the money that would have gone to a cat back system on headers and a tune. It is going to change the tone, sound and make it louder. Aftermarket cat back systems do not add power (though they can reduce weight.) As Avenging Orange stated, a lot of times, people get a cat back, then get headers and discover it is too loud for their liking. A cam will also make your exhaust louder, and lopey. Spend the money on headers and enjoy a more aggressive exhaust sound and get a performance increase to boot. Then decide on a cat back if it's not enough for you. If you end up happy with the sound, you can always just have a local exhaust shop install quad tips for you. That's a simple job any halfway decent shop can do for you. If you want to only do it once, this is the path to take. Otherwise, you risk chasing your tail trying to quiet a noisy, droney exhaust.

07-06-2017, 12:38 PM	#14
chuckie669 Drives: 2011 ss Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: E-TX Posts: 764	I agree with those above. I made sure to plan out ahead on what my end goals were. It's too easy to blow money and then regret on these things. This being my 5th ls car I've been around the difference in sounds and have gone from super obnoxious to totally quiet and decided to settle in the middle here. Since my car was an auto I went with the solo mach xl to keep the afm drone away. A week later the bug bit and I tuned out the afm anyways. Car sounds stock at idle with the solo imo and has some growl once you push on it though still quiet. Next I went with sw/sp headers which are full stainless and got them ceramic coated. That gives the car a deep rich sound on start and then idles slightly over stock through the jpipes in the solo. A press on the gas peddle instantly wakes up the beast and you can enjoy every decibel of your work. Everyone agrees the 2 sets of cats block most of the sound in these cars. I was amazed at how quiet the catbacks are. With the lts and solo i can start my car and the neighbors don't fuss like they used to with my cars or Harleys and you can easily get noticed throwing a rev across the street if that is your desire. Again, this has been my experience.