Bark too much for bite! Which Muffler?

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seabee

seabee

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Hi gang. When I recently bought my Cuda it had brand new 2 1/4" exhaust with Flowmaster 40's. It still had manifolds and it's original mild 273 with a mystery cam. It is my weekend cruiser and I love a loud Muscle Car and have had a beast Charger in the past, but this thing is way too loud for what it is. When warming it up in the garage it shakes the windows and pictures on the walls of the entire house. Living in a Southern California Suburb where the houses are 10' apart makes me cringe when I start it up before 9am, especially since I complain so much about the neighbor's kids behind us bumping extreme bass in their POS imports. The sound doesn't really fit the car and I would like to get a nice deep tone without all the loud, loping, in-your-face noise. Besides, the more stop light challenges I get, the more inclined I will be to totally turn this thing into a bolt-on-behemoth and loose my cruiser.

Any suggestions into a good muffler that is quiet when it should be?
 
The Dynomax Super Turbo makes a good sound when you are on it, but pretty quiet while cruising. It is a lower note making it sound like a bigger motor.
 
I run Dynomax Ultra Welded with a X-pipe and it is considerably quiet in my opinion. Make sure you install a X-pipe if you don't have one..... it will make any exhaust not as loud AND benefit the exhaust system. I was amazed of the difference when I had the X installed.

Pick your poison: http://www.dynomax.com/soundsofdynomax.php
 
I just swapped out the compression bent x-pipe system with Flowmaster 50 series mufflers for a mandrel bent x-pipe system with turbo mufflers. The turbo mufflers have a smaller case than the 50 series Flowmasters so I was not sure what to expect and though I might re-use the flowmasters.

Anyway, the turbo mufflers have a deeper smoother sound at idle and cruise that overall is quite a bit quieter. Also, there is no difference in the power as measured by the butt dyno. I drive the Cuda a lot ~7.5K miles per year so the lower overall sound level will be a welcome change.

I also had a flowmaster 50 series cat back system on my Dakota that rotted out after 7 years and was replaced last year with a Dynomax cat back system that included the turbo muffler. Though the overall volume of sound did not change much (it was relatively quite with the 50 Series SUV muffler) the turbo muffler on the truck had the same deeper and smoother sound.

The other thing you can do to take a lot of bark out of what you have is to install a cross over. An H-pipe kit is about $40 from Summit or Jegs and is a fairly simple install, just cut the pipes slip in the tees and the cross pipe and you are done. An x-pipe will give you more power but is much more involved and will require some welding.
 
Super Turbo or Magnaflow is my opinion.
Dynomax has their Thrush family of mufflers, that has a few 3 pass "turbo" style of mufflers that would do well for what you want.
 
Thanks for all the input guys! Looking underneath it (pic below) I see that there is no H or X pipe and that will be my first point of attack. I saw some for <$40 at Jegs. After that, I want to throw on some Dyno Turbos. My neighbors thank you too!
exhaust.jpg
 
Oh wow&#8230; Tail pipes first and a cross over.

That alone will really clean up the sound, then Super Turbos if you still find it too loud.
 
Man first you have to finish the exhaust with tailpipes. When they dump like that it resonates and sounds terrible. A full exhaust is much more refined and has a much better sound.
 
71duster06 said:
Man first you have to finish the exhaust with tailpipes. When they dump like that it resonates and sounds terrible. A full exhaust is much more refined and has a much better sound.
Click to expand...

I agree with this too......although, I DO like mufflers that are dumped under the car, I dig that resonance but you need to have quieter mufflers. I'm running hemi mufflers dumped before the rear axle......with my cammed 340, it just sounds bad-***......sort of whispery and raspy.
 
Yes, you do need to take the exhaust out the back. That alone would
help. If the mufflers are the orignal 40's, they are alot louder then the
newer 40 series deltaflows. Try installing some tail pipes first then go
from there. I have the delta flows on the Duster with no problems.
How did we do it back in the 70's with just headers and header muffs.
I guess I'm getting old. LOL!
 
1968FormulaS340 said:
Oh wow… Tail pipes first and a cross over.

That alone will really clean up the sound, then Super Turbos if you still find it too loud.
Click to expand...

Gotta agree. Get some tailpipes on there and see how much it quiets it down. If not enough add the crossover. Then finally the mufflers. You could probably get some coin back from selling the FlowBastards.

Btw, my Demon dumps the FlowBastards like yours does. I find it way too loud too. Maybe we're just getting old! I want to put tailpipes on but with my springs moved in, it'll be a job putting on 3" pipes out back.


Wylde1.
 
The Hell with the mufflers.... your car is beautiful! =P~
 
Another option is to use extremely quiet mufflers and dump them before the axle or go all the way out the back. Then install the X-pipe and a set of cut outs on the front. That way you can have total adjustment of your sound.

When in the neighborhood you shut the cut outs completely....want a little sound? open them up a little bit. Want to blow the chevy guy sitting in the car next to you out of his seat? Open them up all the way and mash the throttle.

I don't think this is what they mean by a tuned exhaust but it should be.

Mop

100_2184w.jpg
 
Nice looking car by the way.....your neighbors should be happy that your raising their property value just by living by them.
 
Oh thanks Momoparman! I guess the "Classic cars fever" is spreading since the neighbor behind me just got a 69' Nova. If I could get the rest of them to get one then no one would care about the noise.
 
Dynomax Super Turbos and tailpipes.

2 1/4" on my 318, with a medium cam, in my '64 Valiant.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud8mci4rjFU"]YouTube- 1964 Valiant dual exhaust[/ame]
 
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