Thursday my father and I installed a Flowmaster 40 original series muffler on my 1979 El camino SS with a 305. It has a 2" exhaust system, and we replaced the muffler and tailpipe only. When we fired it up, we were a little dissapointed, expecting a loud, earshattering grumble. All we got was a little GRR added to the stock sound. It had the flowmaster sound, but was quiet. It has original headers/cat/pipes until the muffler. What can we do to get it to liven up a little.. LOT.

Thanks,
Aaron

If you are in an area where you do not have to pass smog testing you can take off the catalytic converter----it quiets the engine more than the muffler does..................Dan

I have twin 40 series flowmasters on mine, no cat and my wife tells me she can hear me a block away. And I don't even have to mash the go pedal. I have 2 1/4 in exhaust. I would suggest to you the same thing Old Coot says.
Get rid of the cat. Oh and by the way Flowmaster sells a muffler that has one inlet and 2 outlets so you can have dual exhaust. It's on my old man's 04 F-150. 3 weeks after he bought the truck brand new, he wanted dual exhaust and he came to me for suggestions. What blew my mind was he's almost 80 years old. So I guess he has a little bit of kid left in him.

Brian

Alright, thanks. me and my dad happened to stumble upon one of the "invisi-cat" systems. its actually 3 feet of 2.5 inch tubing. were gonna put her on tonight and see what happens.

Thanks again
Aaron

I have a 79 SS 305 aswell, we put on true dual 50 series delta flow and it sounds good. Just not as loud as it was when we put it on about 2 years ago, maybe I just got used to it......I think its time for some louder mufflers 8)

I vote open headers/cut outs, nothing in the world sounds like the early morning start up of a V8, unmuffled

^^^ 8-) ^^^

Oh and by the way Flowmaster sells a muffler that has one inlet and 2 outlets so you can have dual exhaust. It's on my old man's 04 F-150. 3 weeks after he bought the truck brand new, he wanted dual exhaust and he came to me for suggestions. What blew my mind was he's almost 80 years old. So I guess he has a little bit of kid left in him.

Brian

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b356/snaggleto0th/doubletime.jpg

Flowmaster 80 series with 2.5" pipes with a high flow 3" cat. Its not as loud as my previous flowmaster system...which started to melt brake lines...but IT WAS really LOUD. My ex girl friend would tell me she'd hear me coming coming around the block. it looks a little something like this.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b356/snaggleto0th/P2100003-1.jpg

Thats a 40 series. id recoment a 2.5" system, high flow cat, either 40 series with a single out let, or the 80 series with dual outlet and sound close to a camaro.

-Anduh

Wow, thanks a bunch guys. When i came here I figured i might get the usual new guy treatment, maybe one reply. But you guys sure are a bunch of wonderful folks. Thanks a lot, i really appreicate your effort.

Also we ended up just putting a pipe instead of a catalytic converter right behind the headers. come inspection time i think were going to invest in a magnaflow high flow catalytic converter for it.

Thanks
Aaron

I just installed the Flowmaster 2.5" A-Body kit w/o F-M mufflers on my 1970 Elky 350-TH350
I've read so many on this site complain of resonance with the F-Ms.
I went with the 14" case MAGNAFLOW mufflers.
Fairly quiet at Idle, powerful sound when on the road, pretty aggressive when on it. I think I feel some freed horsepower!
I can't wait to hear this with the 454 I'll be installing.

General thoughts.....
The bigger the pipe, the louder the sound.
Long mufflers are quieter than short mufflers.....

George

ANY muffler can cause resonance if it doesn't have tailpipes exiting from under the car!!!

At least that's been my experience!!!

I have 50 series Flowmasters with 2 1/2" pipes exiting behind the rear wheels, no resonance!!!

ANY muffler can cause resonance if it doesn't have tailpipes exiting from under the car!!!

At least that's been my experience!!!

I have 50 series Flowmasters with 2 1/2" pipes exiting behind the rear wheels, no resonance!!!

Your right. I dont have any more resonance with the pipe finish to the back.

-Anduh

Last Saturday I had an 80 series Flowmaster put on my 87 with a 305...I was disappointed that it didnt sound much better than the stock muffler...Im going to replace the stock converter with a Summit catco high flow one, and see what happens.. :)

it should make a world of difference.

Last Saturday I had an 80 series Flowmaster put on my 87 with a 305...I was disappointed that it didnt sound much better than the stock muffler...Im going to replace the stock converter with a Summit catco high flow one, and see what happens.. :)

the interior sound isnt that loud...I was disapointed at first when I fired it up and drove away from the shop. But once I had a friend rev it up for me in the back of the car. It sounded completely awesome. It has more exterior sound than interior. But I do have a high flow cat and new pipe from the cat out back.

-Anduh

Just came back from the muffler shop, had a universal Catco converter from Summit put on. Yes you can tell the difference from the stock converter, nice sound at idle and at slow speed, but not loud at all above 45. I thought about going with no converter, but our annual state inspection requires a converter (some inspection shops check for one, some dont) and cops around here look for later model cars and trucks with very loud exhaust as a sign of converter tampering. Thankfully they dont do smog tests here yet(Virginia) :-D

i have duals , no cats, and flow 40's with no pipe after them crusing around people in my neighbor hood can hear me clearly 1/2 mile away.
Any time I have a headache I wont drive my elk because it hurts.... bad

i have duals , no cats, and flow 40's with no pipe after them crusing around people in my neighbor hood can hear me clearly 1/2 mile away.
Any time I have a headache I wont drive my elk because it hurts.... bad

Ditto on the headache thing.....

I think my neighbors hate when i fire it up at 4am some morning to go to work early....lol