Confused about exhaust

Don't make to much out of all the choices. For a stock to street performance pick what sounds best to your ear. Every company will tell you the make more power/torque/flow than someone else, but for the most part its only talking fractions of a horsepower. A typical full cat back system only adds

5hp at the wheels so if you are looking for power there are better places to spend your money. You can check out for sound clips so you can find what sounds best to you. If you are looking for power the stock H pipe is the biggest bottle neck on a stang. Get yourself an off road pipe or a set with high flow cats and you'll find the stock mufflers sound pretty good.

MadDAWG

Interesting.... a thread about computers and networking generates more feedback than most Mustang questions.....

Amusingly, most real ISPs have a FAQ that will talk about usenet in some detail...... including how to go about searching for special interest newsgroups.

Ooops, here I thought people actually read the directions on the box....... me bad...

-- Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net

So, are the cats the bottleneck for airflow? I mean...if I want a new exhaust to give me a meaner sound AND more power, can that be done with the stock cats, or do those need to be upgraded?

The stock cats are the biggest bottle neck for sure. Going to an off road pipe would give you the most power as well as making it louder. If you have emission checks in your state then you will want a high flow converter pipe. If you don't have emission laws I'd suggest going for an off rad pipe with stock mufflers for starters. You might find that gives you what you want. You could go with a MAC Pro Chamber or an X pipe too as the will give their own spin on the sound. You really have not said what you are looking for as far as sound levels so its kind of hard to say for sure. I'd goto

and check out the sound samples to see what you like. Then you can use go by the parts used in the that sound clip.

MadDAWG

I checked out some clips....I love the deep rumbly sounds such as Quiet Thunder with Bassani catalytic X.

I'll do some more reading...thanks!

One thing to keep in mind is you will probably want to avoid putting a chambered muffler such as a flowmaster and X pipe together. You will get some odd sounds out of it. My guess is that the X and the chambers in the muffler start fighting each other. The also get really tin can sounding. Which is what I like so I deal with the odd sound.

MadDAWG

So if I only want to change the pipe right now, keep the stock cats and mufflers, and get a deeper sound....tell me what to buy and where. :-)

On a side note, my friend just took me out in his Corvette C5 (heavily modified) to man the stopwatch. He wanted to get some baseline 0-60 times before having new headers and chip put it tomorrow.

Fun fun stuff. And talk about a deep sound.

I heard the Mustangs are better than 'Vettes in some ways, but I'm still too much of a newbie to know exactly how.

I wish I'd known more 20 years ago, I may have gone in a whole different direction.

Well, you're still a tad bit confused on the nomenclature, but you've definitely made progress!

The exhaust system consists of 3 basic sections; Headers (which bolt directly to the heads), Midpipe (whcih bolt to the exit of the headers), and Cat-back (which bolts to the exit of the Midpipe and includes everything from the Midpipe to the tips). The catalytic converters are part of the Midpipe so when you change the Midpipe, you change the cats.

The stock midpipe is of the "H" design and will have either 4 or 6 cats. Aftermarket H's and X's can be ordered either with or without 2 Hi-Flow cats that perform much better than the stockers with way less restriction. This is indeed the most restrictive area of the stock exhaust system. The stock mufflers really aren't all that restrictive but I found that I didn't like the sound of mine with the Offroad (no cats) Bassani X-Pipe.

Typically the X designs have better airflow characteristics than the H's and help free up quite a bit of mid to upper RPM power while the H gets a little better torque numbers in the lower RPM's. X's tend to be more popular with the Mod-Motor crowd (96-up GT's and Cobras) since the OHC motors tend to like the higher revs and benefit most from the better flow, producing more top-end gains.

Although I sprung the $$ for the Bassani system, which I'm totally happy with, if I were to do it over again I'd get the Magnaflow X system. It's stainless steel like the Bassani but costs less. Unfortunately they didn't have an X available for my model when I bought my exhaust. So, in the bang-for-the-buck department, check out

and order a Magnaflow catted X from Steve Dryer. He's always super-competitive on his products.

Good Luck!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tom

1998 GT Coupe 5-spd. Bright Atlantic Blue K&N FIPK, Tri-Ax, 3.73's, FRPP Coated Shorties, SpeedCal, P&P 2K Heads, 2K Intake, Bassani X-Pipe and Cat-Back, Subframe Connectors, JMS Chip, Eagle Alloy Wheels

Your post was the FAQ I've been looking for. THANKS!

One more stupid question...how much does it normally cost to have this installed (X-pip with cats)?

It all depends on where you are and who you know. I'd be surprised if someone tried to charge you more than $50.00 and that's probably a bit on the high side. For someone with a lift and the proper tools it should take less than an hour unless you're handwiring some MIL elims.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tom

1998 GT Coupe 5-spd. Bright Atlantic Blue K&N FIPK, Tri-Ax, 3.73's, FRPP Coated Shorties, SpeedCal, P&P 2K Heads, 2K Intake, Bassani X-Pipe and Cat-Back, Subframe Connectors, JMS Chip, Eagle Alloy Wheels

Check this movie clip out for the sound of stock mufflers with an off road pipe. The car does have some pretty good mods, like a supercharger.

MadDAWG