I prefer the sound of Dynomax mufflers over the Flowmasters, and actually the sound of almost anything over flowmasters. They just sound like a tin can with a pebble or two stuck in there bouncing around. Tink tink tink tink tink...

The funny thing is the exhaust system I get the most compliments on isnt very loud, but you can hear it when the loud pedal is mashed. Plus it was cheap. I got a couple pieces of 3" pipe that are 4' long and put Summit mufflers on the ends, it would sound a bit better with tailpipes but I have it dumping ahead of the wheels. You would be having a hard time getting the 3" pipe under your stang without some bends in it. Of course I have a 455 Pontiac in that car that is making 500ftlbs of torque and around 450hp but the cam is pretty mild with a small lope. The bigger and engine is the more cam it can handle, and a 7.4L engine can take quite a bit more cam than a 4.7L engine.

Summit and Jegs sell an exhaust kit to fit your car, the cheap one will do ok and a 2.5" pipe would work, its a little big for a 289 but hey why not right? A set of headers and Summit turbo mufflers with one of those kits sounds quite good and doesnt cost a fortune. I have Hooker headers, Y pipe and cat back on my 98 Formula and it sounds good, its the 3rd and 4th gen F bodies that have single exhausts that somehow manage to sound decent, it is a bit different though. That could be where Camaro is getting his info, and really no need for a single exhaust unless you have space limitations like the 3rd and 4th Gens do. Headers and exhaust shouldnt be that difficult, just find a system that has tail pipes and doesnt dump ahead of the rear wheels that you can afford. With the power levels you want almost anything will work for you, just dont go over 2.5" pipe.

Now for the engine, well about the only heads that would make a difference would be some aluminum heads that flow better, like AFR, Edelbrock, etc. Your stock heads will still work though, and pretty much any iron Ford 289 or 302 heads is pretty close to the same thing with some changes to how the rocker arms mount and chamber sizes. Some are better than others, but none are stellar, Explorer heads are about the best, but they still fall way short of aftermarket aluminum heads for power. Unless you want to go racing your heads will be fine for a cruiser with a nice sound to it.

A cam that isnt too large but gives it just a bit of a lope. One way to get the lope without a huge cam is tightening the LSA, or moving the lobes closer together so there is a little bit of overlap (they can only do that when it is ground). Keep the duration and lift somewhat low so you dont end up with an engine that needs 9000 rpm to move something.

218/224 cams Of these the Comp K31-412-8 Has all the valvetrain parts you would need to upgrade everything, and it would sound pretty good in a 289 without losing a ton of power under 3000 rpm.

Also the Crane 130032 and the Summit SUM-K30032 appear to be the same cam, and since Summit doesnt grind their own cams, they are probably selling Crane grinds under their own name. I have Summit cams and intakes on some of my engines and they work well for as cheap as they are, but you wont be showing John Force your tail lights. Those two cams will work well for the right sound too, they are ground on a 110 LSA so it will have a slight lope to it and make decent power from idle on up.

 

Yes, you describe the sound of flowmasters very well. It's hard to describe sound, but I think you nailed it. I have a set of Dynomax on my Vette and they sound pretty good in its true dual exhaust (no crossover) configuration.

It's funny that you would say that about straight pipe "mufflers."

I think that the best sounding exhaust system I ever heard was in the mid sixties. It was on a Model A with a 55 Pontiac engine. This was in West Texas where scraps of oil field pipe were abundant and free. A friend of mine made "mufflers" out of a couple of sections of casing that was about 4" in Diameter and about 3 feet long. He tacked in a half circle baffle about 6" from each end with the open portions 180 degrees opposed to each other. He then welded in some ends for 2" pipe which was the most common for the time.

You could hit those "mufflers" with a hammer and they would ring for 30 minutes. Yes, they were loud, but they had the sweetest, most mellow tone of any exhaust system I ever heard.

In those days the Police were all over any kid with a car that was loud and/or looked fast. I was with him one day when a cop pulled us over for no reason except to INSPECT the car. He checked horn, wipers, signals etc. and could find no reason to write a ticket. All this time the engine was idling and the exhaust was rumbling. The cop then asked what kind of mufflers it had. My friend replied, I don't know, my Dad put them on, which was technically true. The cop then looked underneath and said with the voice of an expert "they're Smithy's." Smithy was a popular glass pack muffler manufacturer of the time.

We both managed not to laugh. Seemed like a small price to avoid a ticket. At that time mufflers were required. Luckily the cop thought that those pieces of rusty pipe with the ragged ends cut with a torch were mufflers.

I wish everyone could hear that old Model A. I doubt that anyone would not agree that it sounded great. Again, exhaust tone is a taste thing.

 

My dad tells me similar stories of him in the 50's here in the NorthWest. He ran a couple of coupes in the stoplight drags here in Yakima, but his favorite was his '56 Ford custom with the 312 T-bird motor. He ran the town for quite a while with that car until some farm kid with a desoto just pulled out of the weed patch wiped him out.

Oh, yes, exhaust note is a personal preference. Generally Im old school and like the sound of true duals, X or H pipes are nice but seem much more mellow; but once in a while there is a good sounding single exhaust and the claim is that it helps with low end torque.

 

Well you can use 302 heads but wyou will not gain a thing. However you can use a set of 351 heads and port match them and they will do well. However, (I personally went through this) you will be better off to buy a set of AFR heads or TrickFlow heads. Right now Summit has the Trick Flows for $959.
That is a goos deal. I spent over $600 to work over me stock heads and they are nowhere close to what you can get out of the worse aluminum heads.
Match either of theose heads with a big cam, ignition, and a good intake and you are golden.

if you want the exhaust to flow just run open headers! Its the cheapest you will find.

 

I also think Flowmaster sucks. It sounds hollow and resonates inside the car way too much. I like Dynomax and Magnaflow. I'll run glasspacks before I run Slowmaster. I think that straight through mufflers are better than chambered.

 

I assume that you mean that straight through mufflers SOUND better, and I agree. If you are saying that they FLOW better, however, ALL tests prove that be incorrect. Glasspacks flow worse than about anything except one of the old factory restriction mufflers of the fifties and sixties.

 

tx65 might be thinking of the oval case "Maximium Flow" line of Hooker mufflers, which does use a packing material of some sort. As I recall, the perforations in the central pipe are poked outward, and there is nothing at all in your line of sight if you were to look straight through them.

http://www.summitracing.com/search/B.../?autoview=SKU


OP -
I have a bit of trouble associating the description "ground pounding" with only 289 CID, no matter what you do short of maybe supercharging it. Starting at 100 cubic inches more makes for a different story (390/406/410 Fords, 396/402 Chevvies, 383/413 Mopars).

But what you can give the little engine is a little more "voice" with the things mentioned (though if a rumbly sound really is the absolute top priority true duals with no H or X is likely what you want).


Norm

 

I think that the term ground pounding is only referring to the sound. A small engine can be made to SOUND like a ground pounder. If you're into form over function, then the form (being the sound) can be achieved.

 

Not sure if you were referring to my earlier post, but these are the mufflers I run on the GTO. They used to be $19 each and they sound quite good, low rumble without the drone on the highway, and when you open it up they really talk. The straight pipe is just a piece of unbent 3" that is about 4' long that connects the header collector to the muffler, my engines are way to loud with straight pipes.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-630230/

 

Yes, those Summit mufflers are classic Turbo type mufflers. Coincidentally I have a pair just like them in 2 1/2" size that I'm putting on my '64 Galaxie this afternoon. I'm taking off a pair of old fashioned glass packs that sound pretty good, but they're so loud my wife won't come near the car. To some that might sound like a good thing, but I'm one of those weirdo's that even after almost 34 years I still love my wife.

I'm anxious to see what they sound like.