smitty2919

AHAHA Rob if I was in the same room as you I would punch you right square in the nads...

JRad405

I would just get a chambered magnaflows, if you don't like that straight through sound.

My Uncle ran flowmasters and they rusted out on him, but I'm in NJ where there are snowy winters and salted roads so that probably doesn't help. So I'm never a fan of flowmasters, but I will admit they do sound nice.

ChrisIA

if there's any power gain it would be like 2hp that's it. cat backs are really just for sound. going straight pipe will give very noticeable gains, especially when coupled with CAI. careful though, i don't know New Hampshire emission laws but that could easily make your care illegal. if you truly want to see some gains for under $500 id go with a tuner.
http://www.americanmuscle.com/sct-x3...ash-tuner.html
and if later you add the cat back, they'll they update it for free. very good investment for any stang.

StriderTacticaL

Magnaflow does not offer chambered mufflers...they are all straight-through.

TRUEBLUE3934

He is correct! The Magnaflows are a straight thru design. If you look on the Magnaflow site, they have a cutaway picture that shows the straight pipe surrounded by packing material.

If you run chambered mufflers with an o/r X-pipe it will be raspy and drone like crazy. The 50 series 3 chamber Flowmasters are a little quieter than the 2 chambers and they don't drone with my o/r H-pipe. Removal of the cats will produce a different sound quality. 2 chamber Flowmasters with the factory catted mid-pipe don't drone either.

You will not see an increase in power with just a catback (maybe a couple of rwhp). The difference between chambered and straight thru mufflers on a 380rwhp car is only 2rwhp, so I would not buy a catback based on any idea that you will gain power. It is all about sound quality and sound level.

I have had 5 different vehicles with Flowmasters, and I have never had any rust on any of them. I would not worry about rust with a Flowmaster set-up.

First you have to decide what other mods you will do in the future. That may effect your choice of catback.

Another option for exhaust may be to keep the factory catback and simply install an o/r H-pipe. That will give you more power than a catback would and it will improve the sound of your car quite a bit. Only $150 for the o/r mid-pipe.

Just a thought...
Good luck!

school boy

smitty, why did you put your catted mid pipe back on? ky doesnt emission test

matt1990

thank you for posting up so much information on the magnaflows, but i think im leaning towards the flowmasters because i think they sound better and there still less expensive

matt1990

Thank you everyone thats posted in here to help me!

ChrisIA: yeah the emissions test up here is B/S i failed it in the camry i had before so i doubt i could get away with striaght through pipes. And yeah i was looking at tuners before but i was thinking exhaust first as its and auto with 105,000 miles and im not trying to put any unnesssary strain on the transmittion, drivetrain or engine and i assuming exhaust work wont strain the car lol. Thanks for recommending it tho

Trueblue: How would your future mods effect what type of catback to get? and how much louder the flowmaster catback then stock?

StriderTacticaL

no prob

for what it's worth, the AM is very expensive when it comes to the Magnaflow catbacks...I think there are a couple places that sell them for $299 plus shipping, I forgot where. But right off the bat, here's one on eBay for $425 shipped OBO:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Perfo...Q5fAccessories

Could probably offer like $380ish and they would probably accept that...

smitty2919

Sound reasons. I was tired of going half throttole on normal take offs and having it sound like I was WOT. Not to mention getting on the highway and putting it to 3/4 throttle it pulsed way too much and sounded like a truck. I didn't have a catted midpips put on, I just had cats welded onto my X pipe. It cleaned up/smoothed out the sound a lot. It's still on the louder side, but more refined. I'm even contemplating going to the regular magnaflow mufflers with the catted X.