headers is the way to go!!!

 

I have the same system on my truck, and as far as I can tell it didn't get any quieter (had it a little over a year), it's still loud as hell in the cab and out. They may not be the best muffler for power building, but IMO they do sound the best on a stock/mostly stock engine, at least without stepping up to the big buck Corsa systems. The Magnaflow systems cost a ton of money, stainless isn't worth the extra cost. I've had aluminized systems on all my trucks by a bunch of different manufacturers and they all held up fine with the winters up here.

 

old cam setup with headers/ORY pipe and the same catback you have
http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...F01F09C6A0.htm

http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...B8A49D0860.htm

stock 5.3 with ORY pipe stock manifolds and same cat back
http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...2E73321F88.htm


years ago with stock manifolds, stock Y pipe and same catback
http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...2E73321F88.htm

should give you an example of how a broken in muscle truck setup should sound

 

Well, I figured it out. It was so easy I should have already figured it out. Turns out I had an exhaust leak where the I-pipe connects to the stock y-pipe. Took me all of 5 minutes to fix. Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. My truck sounds BAD *** just like it used to.

As far as the Flowmaster VS everbody debate I'll chime in real quick. I think most aftermarket mufflers sound good under the right conditions. A magnaflow catback on a stock truck sounds like crap to me. The same truck with pacesetters, no cats, an x-pipe, 14" magnaflows and turndowns would sound wicked. Hookers are similar, except they sound a little better than magnaflows to me. Ultra flows fall into the same category to me.

As far as how restrictive they are.................I dont know. I'm not an engineer and I take magazine test results with a grain of salt. I know is my friend with 3" duals with Flowmaster 40s only drops half a tenth off his E.T. with he opens his cutouts on his 12 second Nova.

 

Got any soundclips?

 

I guess it's all a matter of personal preference. I don't really like the sound of any chambered muffler because of all the resonation fz (drones) in the cab. At a certain rpm a chambered muffler will get loud and then as you rev higher the muffler will quiet down the engine more. It seems like straight thru designs have a more consistent sound through the rpm range. Not that there aren't still some drones but they're not as obvious. Your tailpipe lengths have a lot to do with your drone rpm also and I think the header/cam effects has been covered already.

Now my main issue with Flowmaster isn't the sound, there are a lot of similar sounding/performing mufflers out there, it's the breaking of the welds inside the muffler. I know some of you guys have had good luck with them but there are just too many of us that have had bad experiences. I can't help but think Flos are so popular because of their well known name, reasonable price and the fact that they're readily available in just about any muffler shop.

 

ive been running flows on many vehicles for about 7 yrs now and not one has had an issue like you desribed. and yes they vehicles have logged over 100k worth of miles on flows and never an issue

 

I can vouch for flows as well. My friend put some Super 40s on his '96 P71 and they have never had a single problem. He has about 30K miles of driving on them. However, when he first got them put on the car, we were both really disappointed by the sound. About 1-2months later, the mufflers kept getting louder and louder, and then they stopped. I'm guessing it has to do with the warping and carbon deposits from heating up and cooling down, as mentioned before...