Different exhaust systems for TBI engines?

[6chevy9]

i have had alot of different mufflers, flowmaster is just my fav sound. i will never have anything other than a flowmaster, unless its on a diesel in which case i would not have a muffler at all. like i said its all about what you like. weather or not you care what other people think of your truck...well thats also up to you. if your happy with that sound go with it... F*** what everyone else thinks, thats how i roll when i put somthing together, if i like it than thats all that i care. but as far as exhaust goes i figured you would also like flows, so i suggested them to you!

 

[DriverSideImpact]

The first truck I posted was sort of a mistake. It was obvious he had nothing but pipes under there. Hell, I used to have nothing but pipes had some shady place cut my only cat off in high school but I was 16 and didn't know how ignorant it was and sounded. I want the new setup to be relatively quiet actually but im looking for the right tone and confused on what mufflers, cats, pipe combos make what sounds. I just don't want the new setup to be a steady drone. I want it deep and choppy I guess is the best way to describe it. I hear alot of the vortec trucks, I love thw way they sound. Most the TBI setups I hate I see exactly what you mean by the "kmart" popper style. Sounds like high school all over again.

Hey, new guy to the site. I have a 97 Tahoe, totally stock engine/exhaust-wise. This is the big question I have with the exhaust too. What to put on??

For starters I plan on putting on a better intake, TB spacer, and changing up the exhaust seeing as these are the cheapest ways to get a little more sound, power, and mpg.

I am a big straight-pipe guy. I have a 98 Grand Marquis with no mufflers and x-pipe, and it sounds great (I used to have an 83 Caprice 305 with high-flow cats, no muffler, single 3 inch out to dual tips before the rear tires. Was the best sounding stock SBC I've heard), however I hate the way the TBI and Vortec 5.7's sound straight-piped. I'm also kinda sick of the really loud vehicle thing.

So I'm trying to find the best sounding exhaust I can put on the Tahoe. I want it a little bit on the quieter side (vs. like Super 40's or straight-pipe) and deep with little or no popping, while still providing good performance. I have some cherrybomb glasspacks laying around, but I think they will be too loud and really poppy. Anyone run a Cherrybomb Turbo muffler on a 5.7 Vortec? I've heard they are fairly quiet and sound nice.

Any recommendations on pipe sizing, single vs dual, x-pipe vs h-pipe, etc...??

 

[6chevy9]

well how much money are you willing to spend man? thats where it all starts. i would ( like mentioned above ) run a flowmaster. get a quieter series, duals you could run 2.5 inch and be pretty safe as far as not losing power but for a stock motor i wouldnt go over 3 inch, especially if your running true dual! single then yeah i might go for 3 which is what i run. as far as a straight piped ford motor sounding good....i doubt it lol really i do not to make fun or be a dick but i have had a stright piped ford and its really gay IMO. but im a chevy man myself so maybe its just me. sorry for ripping you a little on that one i noticed this is your first post! nobody here is mean or going to tear you down about your chevy here bud! everyone is friendly, welcome to the site! i just had to tear ya up a little on the ford thing is all

 

[DriverSideImpact]

Haha it's all good. I'm ok with a little ripping. I'm not a huge Chevy guy myself, but I traded a guy for my old M1008 Chevy pickup with the 6.2 Diesel (true dual no mufflers) for the Tahoe. Figured I'd been trying to sell the M1008 for a while and I'd get more use out of the Tahoe... and parts and mods are decently priced and easy to find. And I kinda like the way the gmt400 trucks look.

Its hard to look at youtube vids, cuz they all seem to sound so different from truck to truck even with the same muffler/setup.

I spent a little something like $230 on the Grand Marq. for the full system-- 2.25" back to 2.5" exiting on the side behind the rear tires the first time around, then spent another $100-ish for 3 inch from the axle back. I know a good exhaust shop. So I'm sure for something easier like the truck not including mufflers it wouldn't be as much or at least a similar price to the Mercury's exhaust.

As far as mufflers go, I think I'll stay away from Flowmasters. They are overpriced and they drone, and IMO they only sound good on old school muscle (plus almost everyone with a V8 has them). Anyone have firsthand experience with turbo mufflers? Or other good inexpensive mufflers?

I'm not too sure what size... I'd probably stay away from 3" just because its a lot more expensive than 2.5" ...although a single 3 inch system would probably be about the same price as or less than a 2.5 dual and it probably wouldn't have as much snap/pop sound, huh?

I'm thinking for right now I'll hack off the muffler, see how it sounds, then throw on the those glasspacks and see how it sounds and then when I scrape together some more cash I'll get a legit system made up... I mainly want to get rid of all the ****** tiny stock piping from the manifolds to the cats. So probably 2.5" pipe back to high-flow cat(s) is most likely the beginning of my exhaust... the rest is questionable yet.

Now that I'm thinking about it I had to get mufflers put on my old Caprice because the Five-Oh didnt like it that loud and those mufflers sounded pretty nice, but I have no idea what brand or type they were... I told the guy at the exhaust shop I still wanted a little rumble and he just threw them on.

 

[6chevy9]

well from my experience glasspacks pop and snap alot and are still really loud because the go straight through. idk if you need cats where you live for emissions but where im at we dont have them so mine are gone! 3 inch shouldnt pop with the right muffler but if its a straight through it prob will. turbo mufflers ha umm well on my 88 when i bought it from my friend it had a turbo muffler im about 95 percent sure atleast, but yeah it sounded awesome nice rumble pretty loud and it had side pipes so that made it sound louder inside, but when i got my flowmaster for that truck i found that the turbo muffler had a huge hole on top of it ( thats why it was so loud ) and supposidly it was a quiet muffler to start with. the only other muffler that might be nice is SLP loudmouth, i have heard alot of good and bad things about them. i was gona try them but stayed with my flows. but a good friend has them on a 300c with shorty headers and it sounds sick as all hell the best i can tell ya is to play around with a few mufflers till you get the sound you like. and about the M1008, man i love them trucks! thats the K30 with the D60 front corp 14 rear and 456s with a locker right? my friend has one and its just awesome, he stole that thing for 1700 bucks with 30k and a rust free body, i mean just spotless, we did the army star on the hood and kept it looking military, black offsets painted flat like the rest of the truck and 285/75/r16 mickey thompson MTZ tires. other wise its still military all the way no radio or nothing. i tried to give hime my banks sidewinder but he refuesed to turbo that truck. anyway thanks for sharing and taking the little bit of ripping well!

 

[DriverSideImpact]

Yeah I had the glasspacks on the army truck. but they made it pop like crazy. Yeah it was an awesome truck. Ex-Illinois Nation Guard truck... 5/4 ton Dana 60, Corp 14, with the detroit lockers. I got it with 29k miles on it. 2 color camo. Even had the D-rings and Mil-spec rifle rack. Only some surface rust from where the paint faded off. Interior was kinda torn up though.

We need emissions on all 96+ gas vehicles. So cats will stay. The SLP loudmouths do sound badass, but I think they are basically just a straight through bullet muffler but they are $100/ea. :/

Idk I guess I'll just have to play around with setups. I found a few vids on youtube of a nice sounding 96 1500 straight-pipe w/ x-pipe. So I'm just not sure what I want. haha. So I'll figure something out... thought I'd get some firsthand experience/preferences first.

Thanks, yeah I'm liking this forum already. Lots of good, and detailed how-to/custom/etc stuff.

 

[6chevy9]

yep thats the one! my buddy drives his everyday lol. it had the bench seats and canopy in the back but we got rid of that. but yeah whole truck had everything it should have back in the day. i dont know why more people dont buy them for as cheap as they sell! but yeah play around with that exhaust a little till you get what you like. and check out the LED gauge install thread, super cheap way to make your interior look sick!

 

[DriverSideImpact]

and check out the LED gauge install thread, super cheap way to make your interior look sick!

Yup already checked that out. I might just have to do that. That looks sick! And I think one of my HVAC control panel lights is out anyways.

 

[90'rado]

Low end power is the only thing good about the TBI's performance wise.

Off idle torque on up to 4-5k RPM is the powerband typical of TBI's So it's not just low end. If you still have stock exhaust then that's the No. 1 reason why your engine falls down flat on it's face after about 3k RPM. By the way, 193 swirlport heads that come equipped w/ TBI engines outflow the vortec castings up to a certain point, this is even more so when the heads have been ported and polished. The vortecs do shine in the upper RPM ranges tho.

 

[6chevy9]

yeah read the whole thread to get all the bulb sizes man! i def could tell a difference from my 88 tbi to my vortec, the tbi seemed to have a little more bottom but my vortec just hits a powerband that wants to slam your head back at about 4k on up to the rev limiter, even when it was still a 305. but in the end i would rather have vortec anyday. i like the high rpm range more than bottom and since mine is a stick its easy to keep it in the range where it makes the power at