ORIGINAL: F1Fan


Hi baha,

I don't know how loud is too loud for you but if you actually have to drive the car on a daily basis LOUDgets real old really fast. One of the best sounding exhausts I've heard on out cars was a set of full length long tubes with a custom made stainless steel H-pipe with high-flow "race" cats that look just likebullet racing "mufflers" (which are usually hung on the end of the header collector)and the stock Ford rear mufflers with4" double wall tips welded on. That car wasLOUD but still sweet sounding whenfloored and reved up but had a surprisinglymodest sound levelwhen crusing around on the street.All of the cars with long tube headers and off-road H or X-pipes were IMO reallytoo loud and not good sounding no matter what mufflers they had on. These cars sound obnoxious all the time an usually have horrible resonances from the X-pipe.But I can tell youthe stock rear muflers sound great with traditional long tube primariesand an H-pipe with high-flow cats or resonators in line right after thecollectors asseen inJBA's setup. That system is incredible sounding and I almost bought it just for the sound!

Um, Kook's are not really "long tubes" per-se but mid-length primaries. Given the small displacement of the engine a smaller tube diameterwitha shorter primarytube length should work better for the upper RPMrange the 4.6l 3-valve motorslike to run in rather thanthe traditional"full length' long tube headerson the market. Kook's mid-length headers and matching catted X-pipe would be my firstchoice in a"long tube" header right after JBA's LT's and catted H-pipe setup. The reason I prefer the JBA system is forthe slip-fit collector to catted H-pipe fitting which makes for a completely "above the frame rails" installation which is even tighter than stock and because I hate the old school header flangeconnectors Kook's uses whichtend toleak. I think the Kook's "system" out-performs just about anyother header system on the market with cats on a N/A stock displacement 3-valve.

Trust me when I tell you that you WANT the kook's catted X-pipe! Without the cats your car will not sound and perform as well as the system WITH cats. The only reason to go with an O/H pipe setup is if you arerunning a blower on your engine. The absolute quietest mufflers for the S197GT are MagnaFlow's full sized mufflers. I had a pair and they were way too quiet even after they were broken-in!

Oh, and don't forget to installfirmer engine mounts! This is good for longevity of your headers and power delivery to the drive train. I like both the Steeda and Prothane designs but prefer the Steeda design for it's unique ability to tune the engine mount firmness bychoosing the urethane pucks used in the mountsif you are using the car as a daily driver.

Cheers!