3 inch Muffler Options

[brushmore]

I acquired a 2014 SS last year with BBK long tube headers and 3 inch pipes back to Flowmaster mufflers. AFM has been disabled. The problem is that under the right circumstances the drone is horrible. Right now the only mods are the exhaust, CAI, and a custom tune but I would like to add some type of force induction in the future. So I am thinking I probably best just to stick with the 3 inch exhaust? Does anyone still make mufflers with 3 inch inlets that are better for drone than the Flowmaster? My searches came up empty. Don't need it loud but a nice exhaust note would still be nice.

[Trawz]

Corsa makes a great system that doesn't drone.
I have the Corsa Extreme 3" cat-back system with LT headers and I have zero drone.

The Corsa Sport system is quieter then the Extreme system if volume is an issue.

[1JEWLDSSRS]

Originally Posted by Trawz

Corsa makes a great system that doesn't drone.
I have the Corsa Extreme 3" cat-back system with LT headers and I have zero drone.

The Corsa Sport system is quieter then the Extreme system if volume is an issue.

I have the Corsa Sport ZL1 3 inch catback on mine with LT's and no cats, loud, but sounds great, and as mentioned, ZERO drone!! If you just want mufflers, I did at one time have the Dynomax Ultraflow Welded 3 inch mufflers on her that sounded great, nice and deep and not as much drone as the Flows I had before. I took them off when I went with the Corsa catback.

[SSE 4 2SS]

Two things… Decide what forced induction you want before spending money on mufflers. If you opt for a turbo system, turbos chop up the sounds waves a bunch… The drone might go away…or diminish a bunch…

To save a bit of money you can also go the way of Helmholtz chambers… A good muffler shop can build them, after you determine the RPM the drone is at its worst….

They are very effective….

I ran Magna Flows with 3.5 inches/out piping… Very little drone, usually drowned out by the fuel pump noise…

[RupertPupkin]

I had bullet mufflers on my cammed G8 back in the day. Those droned like crazy, but I just tuned them out or I just drove faster. They sounded killer though during cold starts and WOT.

Like SSE said, J pipes help A LOT! There's a company called SOLO worth looking into which does catback/mufflers with J pipes.

[brushmore]

Thanks for the suggestion everyone! I had a laugh at the "driving faster" option, it's been my fix too for the time being.

[InFiD3ViL]

I agree with all of these Corsa recommendations, as they sound amazing and have near zero drone. I am running the Corsa Xtreme 3 inch cat back (very loud!).

The problem is that Corsa doesn't sell just mufflers or axle backs for our cars, and a Corsa cat back is freaking $2000 now.

[TheBrightSide]

I mean, honestly, anything that’s fiberglass packed and is either large enough or set up to actually absorb sound(s), will do a lot more than Flowmaster’s in my opinion… The generic Flowmaster’s and other cheap metal chambered mufflers, sound even worse and more “tinnier”, with lots of rasp if you don’t have some resonator(s) at least.

Seeing as how a lot of full sized rear mufflers have an offset inlet and offset outlet, that’s also the best way to go about it; you still get near straight-through exhaust flow essentially. The most restrictive, but most quiet option is turbo mufflers, the ones that are both chambered AND fiberglass packed. Only thing is that a lot of them are aluminum instead of steel, and I have had some of them moving and shifting as high heat flexes the shape a bit.

Also, look into glasspacks rather than resonators, if you don’t want full sized rear mufflers. the only other alternative to glasspacks would be larger resonators, basically with a larger overall diameter size. That might be a clearance issue, and you probably won’t be able to fit a pair next to each other. I know a friend with an x-pipe and a pair of 20” overall length glasspacks down his mid pipes; absolutely no rasp and/or whatsoever, although he does also have Magnaflow rear mufflers.

[pyroguy]

Corsa makes a drone free exhaust system as does Solo Performance. Solo will also sell you their J pipes which cancel out the drone sound waves. On Solo's website they only talk about 2.5", but will make you a 3" version for just a small upcharge. With the upcharge they're still cheaper than Corsa.

[TheBrightSide]

Originally Posted by pyroguy

Corsa makes a drone free exhaust system as does Solo Performance. Solo will also sell you their J pipes which cancel out the drone sound waves. On Solo's website they only talk about 2.5", but will make you a 3" version for just a small upcharge. With the upcharge they're still cheaper than Corsa.

Is it just the quality of the metal piping or the resonators? Maybe it’s a certain thickness that the exhaust piping is. I saw roughly how big the resonators were on there, so I guess you could just run a similar pair of resonators.

I forgot how much exhaust piping varies in quality, but I do now there’s generally stainless steel and aluminized steel. I think I’ve had custom exhaust setups with a mix of both materials; although having resonators that were partially aluminum, led to them warping and shifting the alignment of the rest of the exhaust setup.

I’ve also had aluminized steel (rear) mufflers, which were okay, since they didn’t really throw off the alignment of the rest of the exhaust if they warped a bit. Most of the mufflers were like turbo chambered mufflers, with fiberglass packing, which kept them from sounding “tinny” and/or hollow. They were fairly excellent at reducing overall volume, and lowering the amount of drone and rasp. And as far as I’m concerned, they actually don’t make any turbo chambered mufflers in a center inlet/oulet version, probably because the design only works with an offset inlet or outlet combo.

The only other chambered mufflers I’ve ran, were Flowmasters or replica ones. The real, authentic Flowmaster mufflers were okay, since I assumed the metal wasn’t cheap and thinner, unlike the knock-off versions. Also, depending on whether the inlet and outlet of the muffler was offset, centered, or a combo of the two, this would further lower the volume and reduce drone. Rasp still unfortunately occurred, since there was a lack of fiberglass packing.

Anything else outside of that, as far as “full-sized” mufflers, would be like Magnaflow style straight-through, fiberglass-packed mufflers. Those pretty much are what most of the catbacks with full-sized rear mufflers have. My Borla Touring catback basically has that kind of rear muffler, and I’m sure all the flames and catless soot it’s taken, it’s probably been worn out. I’d love to replace them with some Borla XS mufflers or some cheap Magnaflow replicas.