antwaan

so i recently bought a 96 gt and the seller said it had flowmaster exhaust (she was a girl, age like 22, and had only owned it for like a year). anyways, it sounds pretty good, mainly when i really get on it. it is quite loud when i rev it up. now i just looked under the car and noticed this: starting with the last cat on each side, its a straight pipe going back to the bend near the back. i can tell the pipe is fairly new(2-3 years it looks to me). then the bend is clearly the factory original(it looks crappy like the mid pipe). then after the bend it goes out the rear with new pipe and the tips are cut angeling downward.

so, im not looking to race this thing. its a daily driver. i just want my car to sound great and mainly impress people and sound good to me more than perform better. so, what should i do with my exhaust? leave it the same? get a new cat-back system? get a new mid pipe? or try to save up for a whole new header, mid pipe, cat back, set up? keep in mind im low on cash so any money i put into my stang i want to be worth it.

mvr

start by takin those cats off with a o/r midpipe, pick your poison x or h.

antwaan

will that make it too loud?

str8wick3d

If your looking for a decent exhaust system without spending alot of money forget headers. They are usually around 300 to 800 dallors, and usually for performance and not sound *they will give a meaner sound though*.

You already have flowmasters, inless you want to change them, all you really need is a good midpipe... And sense you want loud just go with a O/R H or X. It's personal prefrence with that decsion, people claim H for horsepower, and X for torque but that isnt your goal here.

My set up is stock manifold, O/R X and weld in flowmaster 40s. My exhaust is not quite... you can hear it from blocks away. heres my exhaust clip, hope this helped a little.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...ideoID=7821598

antwaan

i'll check that clip out tommorow when i go to my friend's house ( i have dial up..)

my concern with just getting an o/r x or h pipe is that with out mufflers, my exhaust would be too loud. but i guess sticking in flowmaster(or whatever) mufflers along with it wouldnt be to expensive would it? do i want the long or short mid pipe? and i should go ahead and keep the stock headers then?

antwaan

oh, and i dont have flowmasters as she said. when i looked at it, its just a straight pipe going from the cats. no mufflers. its the same thing i did to my grand am back in my high school days

str8wick3d

ok, maybe I read your post wrong. after the cats you noticed the pipe, so are you saying the car is mufflerless now?

if so, to awnser your question my mufflers brand new are about 80-100 dallors, your O/R pipe would cost anywhere from 200-400, check prices on some of our sponsers. so your looking at around 600-800 dollars for everything installed, assuming your not doing it yourself, price should include MIL eliminators.

you should also look into a cold air intake, for the growl under the hood

antwaan

right, its mufflerless. how expensive is labor for putting on an o/r pipe and installing mufflers? my dad is a welder, but i dont know about our acess to being able to get the car in the air

antwaan

as for the intake- right now i have a k&n cone filter and the air silencer removed. i dont know how much better getting an intake would sound over that and if its worth it. my friend has a bbk in his 98 gt and it made it sound decent- you can hear it sucking from outside the car when he drives by.

2000GT4.6

Assuming they didn't do anything stupid like weld on the midpipe to the manifolds, its a really easy install you can do yourself on jackstands. The midpipe is bolted onto the factory exhaust manifolds by a coupler, all you have to do is remove 2 bolts on each side of each coupler (4 total on the car)and it will be unhooked from the manifolds. then, since they welded the midpipe onto your mufflerless catback, all you have to do is cutthe pipeapart there, and then probably again around the wheelwell, and remove all of it (it unbolts/unhooks from the factory hangers) You can cut the pipe really easy with a sawzall, or do it the hard way with a hacksaw.

What you need is a full length midpipe and a catback exahaust with mufflers. You can choose either a X or H, and catted or off road, depending on your taste and budget, and on what mufflers you decide to go with. Generally speaking, you want to stick with a X if you have straight thru mufflers like a magnaflow, and a H if you have a baffled muffler like a flowmaster.

Midpipes run anywhere from around 180 bucks for a off road version to 300-400 for a version with cats. If you get a off road pipe, you will need to buy some MIL eliminators to remove the signals from the rear O2 sensors, otherwise your check engine light will come on. the rear o2 sensors don't do anything except make sure the cats are working.

Its worth noting that if you live in a state like california, or any other that does an inspection, your car will not pass without a catted midpipe.

Catbacks run anywhere from around 400 to 600+ bucks, depending on brand and where you get them.

To help you choose, you will just have to decide what sound you like. No midpipe/catback combo is going to dyno more than 2-5 more horsepower than any other, so its all up to personal taste and how you want the car to sound (quiet at cruise if drone annoys you etc).