My car needs an exhaust but I do not know what to put. I go to the swap meets to check some cars, and see what they got.but im confused if its performance or sound as my choices. I have something in mind like staright h pipes exiting on the sides... Maybe the same thing only with flowmasters... or maybe a full exhaust straight with or without flowmasters? I need to know because Im getting deaf of the loud noise. I only got my headers bolted. What is the exhuast that helps the performance of the car? is it performance or sound? let me know muffler brands. if its both Please let me know. Loud enough for me not to get a ticket  

H pipes are there to balance pressure variations between the left and right exhaust banks.  X pipes do it without abrupt 90 degree turns.

Most "performance" systems are loud.  You're only squeezing out a tiny bit of horsepower by choosing between super-loud and relatively quiet performance systems.

Resonators can quiet your exhaust system down.  They're like second mufflers.

Terminator boxes are one option that make your exhaust pipes feel shorter.

Side pipes are awesome, but you burn the living crud out of your leg if you touch them with shorts on.  An alternative is to have side pipes that run under your car and then exit before the wheels at an angle.

Go to www.summitracing.com and use their shopping function to find if there are some bolt-on exhaust systems for cars.  Don't forget about eBay.  You'll find all the brand names you want between the two.  

I've got 40 series Flowmasters on my Cutlass, and Borla on my IROC.  I like them both.  Both are loud, but not nearly open header loud.  If you want quieter than the 40 series you can go 50 or even 70 series and not lose a ton of performance.

Here in Missouri you cant pass inspection without a muffler...so running straight pipes of any kind is out of the question  

I just ran purple hornies right from the headers with the turn downs built into them. Sounds really good, and I can even talk on the cell on the highway if I want. I have a sounds clip of it somewhere...  

I have flowmaster Super 40's on my dodge and it sounds mean, I'll post a video of it. Now remember, it's a built motor with a huge cam and dick landy heads, so it's built to rev, Im not even getting close to hurting it, so don't post your worries. and it was cold, thats why it almost died right there.

here's the link

Flowmaster Super 40's  

I have 2 1/2" Flowmaster Delta Flow 50-series mufflers, running through Dynomax cats (required in Maine...bummer.) and a mandrel-bent 2 1/2" exhaust system. At idle, it's very quiet, as a matter of fact, you can barely hear the exhaust over the noisy gear drive. But with a touch of the loud pedal, it's effin' snarly and sounds incredible.

 Dodge Miradas are awesome, by the way! Especially ones with steelies and dog-dish caps! Two thumbs up!

-Drew  

FLOMASTERS ARE A COPY SEEMS TO BE THE WAY TO GO. SAVE YOURSELF AND RUN THE EXHAUST ALL THE WAY OUT. THE EXHAUST DRONE INSIDE THE CAR WILL DEAFEN YOU SLOWLY AND VIBRATE YOU INSIDE OUT. SHOP AROUND, FIND THE SHOP THAT WILL DO THE BEST JOB WITHOUT ROBBING YOU. FIND THE GUY OUTSIDE TOWN THAT HAS BEEN BENDING PIPE FOR AWHILE.  

Not a fan of flowmasters myself.  Might as well run a pair of tin cans.  I'd look into magnaflow or dynomax if you want something fairly quiet.  Otherwise go race muffler.  I've heard spintechs are pretty good.  

Americanmuscle13:
Not a fan of flowmasters myself.  Might as well run a pair of tin cans.  I'd look into magnaflow or dynomax if you want something fairly quiet.  Otherwise go race muffler.  I've heard spintechs are pretty good.

I agree, my friend went from the Magna flows to the flow masters on his 383 2nd Gen Camaro, and the car went from sounding great to sounding like all other Camaro's out there (which wasn't bad, just generic).  

When the exhaust choices get tough, the tough cut holes in their hood and install zoomies.  

Not always true.  I had a guy weld a cut piece of tubing to my $500 race headers once to get it to pass inspection.  I almost nailed him in the head with a muffler.  I should have taken him to small claims court.  

I know a lot of folks are going to think I'm crazy but have you checked out JC Whitney.  I don't know what kind of car you have but I was looking for SS exhaust for my 79 Camaro and that was the ONLY place I could find one.  2.25 in. mandrel bent with exits in the stock location.  I believe they also sell SS pipe in various bends etc if you want to go the custom route.  If they don't I know that Headers by Ed does.  I also saw recently that they have SS reducers to go from your collector to the exhaust sustem.  The only thing I couldn't find was a completely SS muffler that would fit the exhaust system they sell.  But then again I didn't call them.  From what it looks like you can have a completely SS exhasut system for around $500 plus headers.  That's a pretty good price in my book since you would only have to ever buy one.  

My car that needs an exhaust is a 69 cougar with a 351w in it.  

Your 69 Coug is really cool. It only needs a couple of things to make it roadworthy.

I would go with either 2 1/4 or 2 1/2 pipes with the muffler of your choice. If you like how a car sounds ask the owner what muffs he's running. Most guys seem to like Flowmasters, that the reason I don't run em. Have a exhaust shop custom bend the pipes but buy your mufflers from some place like summit. Most exhaust shops charge 50% more than summit for mufflers. My mufflers cost 120 for the pair and 300 for the pipes.

I got mine done by Billie at Kartech in West LA. He's a real artist. If he doesn't like the way the pipe comes out; he'll pull it and start over.

 

Those are nice, snug pipes.

JCWhitney has some really nice complete pipe sets.  If you skip the clamps and weld them up yourself, you'll be way ahead of the game.