Question about potential exhaust setup.

[Xanthos]

So, I was underneath my 03 accent the other day, doing my first oil change since I bought the vehicle in April, and I noticed that my car has two mufflers. I did some research on this and found that the second muffler was a resonator (knew what a resonator was, just had never seen one before). This made me rethink how I was going to set up the custom exhaust on my V6 camaro. I know that I'm going to buy shorty headers for it from the first company to produce them, but from there I'm not sure what I want to do. I had originally wanted to run a true dual exhaust, but now I wonder if thats really the sound I want.

Looking at my car got me thinking. I used to own a 1986 IROC, and it had glasspacks. I loved the sound of them, for the most part, but I didn't like the difficulty it caused when I was tuning the carb (while I loved the performance the edel. got me, it did have a tendency to slip out of tune). But, since the only mod I plan on doing is an exhaust setup, I don't think I'll be doing much tuning. Thus, my theoretical setup would be:

Shorty headers, flowing into a single 3 inch pipe, which would lead to a magnaflow high-flow spun cat and a thrush glasspack. This would then split into two 2 inch pipes running to the back of the car, into two flowmaster delta flow 40 series mufflers.

So, whats the point of the thread? I'm not really an experienced engine builder/gear head, and I'm simply looking for an exhaust setup that will give my car a fairly deep purr at low RPMS but snarl like a beast at full throttle (I noticed, with the IROC, that the popping from the glasspacks was only really noticeable at idle and full throttle, and I have one of the two mufflers I'm going to need already in storage -- on my accent -- so I know it will give me the sound I want).

So - questions. Do you think this would work? Does anybody have experience using a glasspack in combination with a flowmaster muffler? What about a one-into-two setup? Do you think it would be good enough for the V6, bearing in mind that, although the torque increase will be nice, sound is all I'm really looking for? In general, I'm just calling out to those of you with experience designing custom exhaust setups, and asking you to share it.

- Xanthos

[Xanthos]

Actually, funny story - this is almost the exact setup I was looking at. Although this is a fuel injected 3.8L v6, not a direct injected 3.6L...

[CamaroSpike23]

i imagine the tone on the v-6 will have a decent growl to them, now the v-8 on the other hand is going to roar.

v-8 exhaust and v-6 exhaust will sound different all the time, it might be subtle but its there


now as for this...

Shorty headers, flowing into a single 3 inch pipe, which would lead to a magnaflow high-flow spun cat and a thrush glasspack. This would then split into two 2 inch pipes running to the back of the car, into two flowmaster delta flow 40 series mufflers.

depending on how they do the new exhaust, you could probably just do a catback setup and accomplish the same thing, from the looks of the G8 exhaust and similar Zeta frame exhausts, it will be true duals for the v-8. and possibly for the v-6 as well.

[radz28]

I agree with the post above. Magnaflow, Borla, and I think Corsa is now working on, and in the first two cases, already have catbacks for G8s. I think Magnaflow even has two size versions, 2.5-inch and 3.0-inch.

If you're going with the V6, I'd think that you could even go with dual 2.5-inch pipes and corresponding cats, mufflers, and so-on. I'm not sure it's going to be necessary to swap the cats' off though because shorties tend not to move the location of OEM cats', so keep that in mind when you start looking. I think the bigger the pipe though, the more resonance you're going to get.

It may just be easier to find your shorties, and go with a catback. Through my reading, I could've swore that older glasspacks didn't flow all that well compared to many mufflers nowadays. I'm not sure about the new Cherry Bombs, but that's what I remember reading.

I'm personally going to probably leave the manifolds on the car (because shorties on my '02 are no better than the manifolds and the smog laws I have to deal with won't allow long tubes) and just do a three-inch stainless catback. Probably something like an SLP Loudmouth-like variation where there are no resonators. Simpler is better

[myold88]

back in 1965 two of my buddies ordered two new excact hondorus maroon small block corvettes. i worked at a chev dealer at the time and saw in the chev parts book listings under exhaust parts: "off road exhaust" / "except off road exhaust" listings. my friend kenny asked about this when ordering their new cars and both were ordered with the "off road exhaust" option. when these two vettes were delivered they were the hit of our car croud- what a cool sound- and if my memory is correct the option was less than $20.00 !!. neither of my friend were ever ticketed for loud exhausts. wouldn't it be nice if g.m. had my memory and offered the same option on the new camaro- say @ $200.00 (inflation you know).

[CamaroSpike23]

^^^^^

that would be nice, but with emissions regulations like they are, i dont see an "off-road exhaust" from the factory. unless they did like chrysler and make a "race-only" version of this car

[Xanthos]

Well, I could probably get away with it (or at least doing long tubes and replace all the cats with straight pipe) because Oklahoma doesn't do emissions testing - no inspections, no testing, no stupid sticker requirement, nothing. I'll probably just stick with GMPP shorties (if they offer them, otherwise I'm going to stick with the stock manifolds) and magnaflow high-flow replacement cats. As for my original post, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to use two delta flow 40 series flowmasters and just delete the resonators.
- Xanthos

[Vash]

What normally happens is folks like Maganaflow will build and test prototypes then produce a specific upgrade for it. I know on a corvette forum they picked some people local to them and gave them free exhaust upgrades just to test.

[Xanthos]

Funny thought... this thread got put in the wrong forum when the reorganization happened - should be in the V6 engine and powertrain forum.
- Xanthos

[BowtieGuy]

Get long tubes, you'll thank me. Also, I understand that money is probably a deciding factor in your exhaust setup, but I'd recommend something other than flowmasters. They're loud of course, but there isn't really a performance sound in my opinion. Magnaflows would be the bottom line in my head, with some SLP bullets if money allowed.

[GTAHVIT]

Originally Posted by XanthosV6

Funny thought... this thread got put in the wrong forum when the reorganization happened - should be in the V6 engine and powertrain forum.
- Xanthos

Moved.

Thanks

[Xanthos]

Originally Posted by BowtieGuy

Get long tubes, you'll thank me. Also, I understand that money is probably a deciding factor in your exhaust setup, but I'd recommend something other than flowmasters. They're loud of course, but there isn't really a performance sound in my opinion. Magnaflows would be the bottom line in my head, with some SLP bullets if money allowed.

I like the way flowmasters sound though.
- Xanthos

[JEFF2010SSMANUAL]

What will be the best aftermarket exhaust for the SS LS3.

I want a great sound and maybe more HP.

[The_Beast_]

That sound awsome but you should definatly throw some cut-outs on her. Then you've got a decent groar (more than a growl, but not yet a roar.).