Cbird

Snappy as in like a redneck truck. Or straight pipes.

I just got my GT and LOVE IT! Still getting the manual transmission down (Sometimes shift to 5th instead of 3rd and of course 1st is still a small obstacle on hills. ) but having a lot of fun fixing her up and getting her looking new.

Anyway, when I really get on the gas you can hear that snappy noise. It sounds to be coming from the front of the car. My very LIMITED mechanical experience tells me its a cracked manifold and the loss of back pressure causing the noise, But it also appears to have some sort of muffler on it. If that is a glasspack (Which I can't tell, its not red, the usual giveaway) then that could cause it too.

Any ideas on what to check?

Thank you very much guys!

Luke13

The easiest things to check are your mid pipe and catback. Check for any obvious leaks and poor connections between the joints.

Do you have cats? Off road mid pipe? X or H pipe? Some times aftermarket midpipes will give a loud cabin noise.

Cbird

I checked it but I didn't see any leaks. It is an x pipe but there are cats attached to it. I saw a place where it was patched up and covered it with a tiger patch (Some sort of patch that melts to your exhaust pipes and covers leaks). When I go driving tonight I'll check and see if that helps.

Luke13

The x pipes will have that popping noise to them, but with cats it should be toned down.

Definitely keep an eye on that spot, and it may be a clue to other leaks... I've used that stuff before, it was no good and at the most just a temporary fix.

Make sure the mid pipe is securely mounted onto the studs at the manifolds/headers. I had a off road BBK x pipe and the bolts holding the pipe to the manifold would slowly but surely loosen. The driver side was the worse, and the gasket between the mid pipe and manifold on the passenger side gave me problems. High temp thread lock would have solved the problem but I shortly went to long tube headers.

Cbird

Yeah it still makes the snappy noise. I can tell that it is coming from below me so after reading this I'm quite sure its the mid pipe. Ill check that out tomorrow.

Thanks for the help Luke. I feel confident I'm getting close to the bottom of this

Cbird

Ok a little update to this.

I took my car to the exhaust shop yesterday and found out that my car has a aftermarket exhaust system on it already.

High flow cats, headers, magnaflow everything else.

I had them put on Flowmaster super 44 mufflers because that's the sound I wanted.

I consulted the exhaust guy about the noise and he said its probably because of the X pipe. He said he could put on an H pipe for a fair price but it would change the sound a bit.

While I HATE the snappy-tingy sound it makes at high rpm/throttle ranges I LOVE the sound at low ranges. Does an H pipe change the sound that much? Youtube videos only go so far ya know?

Would an exhaust "resonator" or lower-flow cats help?

Thanks guys

Luke13

Yeah the H pipe does tone it down a bit. I went from stock manifolds, BBK x pipe, and 40 flowmasters to Long tube headers, h pipe, and same cat back. I noticed less popping across the board, and it's really toned down in the lower RPM. I don't think it's the long tubes work, more in the h pipe. Both mid pipes were off road, no cats. I'm probably going to a more aggressive muffler to get what I want.

Go with what you want, but I think you'll be happier with your current set up. Most of your driving (I assume its your daily driver) will be in the lower rpm range.

Cbird

Is the sound difference between a X and H that dramatic? I gotta get rid of that metal on metal redneck truck/Harley sound.

I'm wondering if it's the high flow cats. My friends 4 Cyl makes the same noise when he removed his cats.

I might just live with it. It's annoying but it sounds pretty muscular :-P

Luke13

The high flow cats are helping to reduce that noise you don't like. Cats tone down all the noise and popping.

Cbird

Well I'm wondering about high flow cats vs regular cats. They sound pretty hollow and I doubt they are toning down anything. I'll see about replacing them. Getting pretty pricey lol