aftermarket muffler dilema
 

I have an 02 SSEI with a few mods..smaller pulley,fwi,colder plugs,tuned pcm,colder t-stat,high flow cat. I would like to change the sound of my exhaust to a deeper little more aggressive sound. When I hit the gas I would love to hear it more in the cabin or when I let someone pull off I would like to be impressed by hearing it roar down the street. If adds a few more hp I'm for it but I can accept just sound. What kind of muffler could give me what I'm looking for and where could I find it? I may be being picky but I would like something that doesn't consist of a bunch of cutting and fabrication,just ur basic tactics of installing a muffler. I have duels.

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Welcome to GM Forum! If you have a minute to spare, why not introduce yourself to us? :thumbup2

Seems like you've got a good start, with a FWI and a high-flow cat. Your next step would probably be researching mufflers and resonators. Other members have YouTube videos of their new exhaust systems (the audio is rarely great, but it gives you a good idea of what to expect from certain parts).

Many members here swear by the Flowmaster mufflers; I've actually got one waiting to be installed.

You have dual mufflers on yours, so the series40 is what your going to want. Gives a bit more throaty sound. Don't remove the resonator, that will make it raspy, although V6 engines tend to be a bit raspy no mater what. Another thing that will deepen the note is a free flow cat. A set of headers, like speed daddy, or pacesetters will richen the sound a bit as well. Another option is 1.9:1 rockers, or better yet a cam. Each step will deepen the tone a bit.

Thanks SIGNOFZETA!

Danthurs...can u explain what all these parts actually do? And what would be the cheapest mod or the best mode vs the cheapest...what tires would be a good fit for the mods I have added.

A good set of 245s is about as wide as your going to get away with.

Think of it this way, what goes in your engine needs to come out. And it can only come out as fast as the slowest part will allow.

Cam or rockers will open the valve further and longer letting more air in and exhaust out.

Headers will allow the exhaust to move away faster.

The cat is a rather restrictive part of the exhaust, and is one of the cheapest exhaust mods, perhaps $75 for a free flow cat plus install.

The mufflers will only give you sound, no performance gain with a muffler.

Doesn't Bill have that exhaust cutout on his car?

It's a thing where you flip a switch and a valve opens up allowing exhaust to exit before the rest of the exhaust system. One minute your purring like a kitten, next your blattin like a Harley.

He took his off. I'm planning to get one of those.

I actually HATE the sound of the Flowmaster mufflers on our cars. They sound great at idle, but any kind of throttle and it's horrible.

I prefer the sound that my Thrush Turbo's have. They aren't raspy at all, and they deepen the tone.

I've yet to hear an exhaust on one of these cars that sounded good wtih different mufflers. There's MagnaLoud and RaspMaster brands .. plus a few others. Guys say the borla and corsa are some of the best sounding. Yet I can't quite embrace any that make the car louder. It's a V6 and will always sound like a two stroke weed wacker when you get on it after removing the stock mufflers.

Might be why my 450hp beast wore a stock replacement the whole time.

My muffler didn't make my car any louder. It actually lessened the rasp that the stock mufflers had and deepened the tone.
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yymUAq_CwUQ[/YT]


The only time it gets raspy is at the very tip top of the RPM which is right at the limiter. It isn't raspy under load at all.

Hey Mouse...where did u get ur clear headlights from...I'm looking everywhere. Are they factory lights?

Nice Intake! haha

And I can concur with Mouse..I have the same mufflers and I love the sound. It gives it a nice deep tone and no rasp at all. The car had more rasp with stock mufflers on it, and the new mufflers got rid of that.

It is just a little louder, but not much so it may not be what the original poster is looking for, but the deep tone is what I really wanted.

In case anyone wanted to hear those mufflers on another car, here is mine:

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3okpUHcEILg[/YT]

Is that from a cold start?

this dilema doesn't seem to apply to any of the 60V6 motors(at least any of the MPFI/SFI ones, the TBI and carb models i can't speak for).

No, those are not factory lights. They started that way though. Yutzybrian made those custom for me. They're factory housings with the reflector removed and Acura TSX projectors put in.
Mine is from a cold start, that's why the intake is so loud.

Ya I think that was a cold start..as cold of a start you can get in Florida at least. I can hear my intake roaring/echoing in the garage, so that just confirms it.

Only difference in the sound when warm vs. cold is the idle is a little quieter..and you can hear the exhaust better cause the intake isn't being so noisey hehe

Here's mine, series80, S1X can, TOG headers, 3" free flow cat 3" down pipe.
http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/u...h_P3080332.jpg

And this is what is sounds like with a cutout bypass.
http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...h_M4H03566.jpg

Sorry Dan, but in my honest opinion, that sounds like shit. Even worse with the cutout.

To me the only part of that that sounds good is right before takeoff when you were double-footing it. That rasp is horrible.

Put on head phones, it sounds very different.

I don't think headphones will sound any different than my quality speakers, but I'll try it since it's you.

I have good speakers, and headphones are way better. Although I have a good set of sound canceling headphones. And even that don't quite sound the same as live.

You don't wanna know what I have hahaa. I haven't figured out what I spend more money on, my electronics, guns, or car.

I have a long glasspack on my car and there is no rasp whatsoever. It sounds amazing and it's straight through so youll lose a tiny bit of back-pressure. But since you have dual exhaust you could run two shorter one's.

Has anyone thought of using a crossflow style muffler (like the 82-02 Firebirds and Camaros use) on their car instead of the dual mufflers?

I know I never thought of it, dunno about others.

I have a 92 Seville and it came stock with a crossflow muffler, but I put on a Dynomax Super Turbo muffler, for a Firebird/Camaro, on it. The funny thing is the 93-97 are the same cars as mine except they had Northstars and had a y splitter pipe with dual mufflers, like how some of the other GM FWD had it too.

actually my 98 bonnie sse came stock with a single muffler dual setup like my firebird had. the piping is a little different but the muffler may fit.
i like loud cars (ive got no mufflers on my firebird) but the 3800's dont sound good loud, ive got a sightly upgraded muffler on my bonnie and it sounds pretty good low tone at idle like a stock v8 car would and then just loud enough when getting on it to make it sound powerfull

Lol iono if you wanna do what i did but i just took the mufflers off and put pipes instead of mufflers normal 2.5 i think pipes it sounds like this in the cabin if you want ill make an exterior vid : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTrTT...el_video_title

We run the same setup. Dynomax on my 1993 SSEi. I love the sound of it, although I sometimes wish it were straight pipes. I love the noise.

I like my Dynomax muffler because I couldn't hear the motor at all before that muffler. Hardly any drone and has a smooth sound.