3" exhaust w/ flowmasters too loud! Ideas?

[mike b]

Trying the keep the peace with everyone from the local police, neighbors, wife, kids, etc. The car is pretty loud! I can not set the timing in my driveway without someone wining. Motor is a 406 with 215 intake runner heads, 1.75" primary tube chassis headers, 3" mandrel bent exhaust with h-pipe. The exits are behind the tires. I have a set of the 18" glass packs from summit and wondering if putting them in front of the flow masters would quiet the car down at all? And also, How would it effect performance? Thought about changing the mufflers altogether but do to the variations in size and shapes, it would be a lot more work.
What do you guys think?

[gg64ss]

I don't know if you would be willing to experiment but, I have heard that aiming exhaust at one another will cancel out excessive noise. I saw a car at the Turkey Rod Run in Daytona last November that had the tailpipes going over the axle, run straight back and then use dumps that face each other. I heard the car idle and it wasn't the bad. Something about sound waves and whatever. From what I have heard, it will be very difficult to quiet a 3" or larger exhaust. If it's quiet, performance will suffer. I have a house for sale in my neighborhood. I'd love to hear that sucker.

[mike b]

That is an interesting concept. I thought about turning the tips down as well. Down side of that is the dust it stirs up. I think I will try messing with the tips- We have a big swapmeet/carshow happpening this weekend in socal, I will have to look for ideas there. I read the parts list in your signature. You drive that monster on the street??? How does it hook up?

[Mike Goble]

I would think the easiest thing to do would be to put some quieter mufflers in place of the loud ones. I wouldn't worry about the power loss, Flowmasters are nothing magic in that department.

[Carl 66]

Try the quiet Spintech mufflers, A friend of mine had a radical BB Chevy 496 loud as heck. Put the Spintechs on it and it sounds great with a 3" exaust.

Carl

[new2novas]

spintech makes a quiet muffler, we put a set on a BB camaro and it was just about the same as open headers

[gg64ss]

The car is still in the finishing stages. I have not fired it up yet. With the low compression I should be able to drive it around without any problems. I will keep my fellow members posted. It looks like this 3 1/2 year project will finally fire up this summer.

[MelloYello]

So instead of just header-pipe-flowmaster, it would be something like header-pipe-glasspack-flowmaster

That is a similar setup that i use. I had just the 40 series Delta Flows with turnouts in front of the rear tire and was very loud. I added a set of Dynomax Bullets that slip on the collector then they are welded directly to the Flowmasters then the turnouts. Adding the bullet's did tame down the sound and took out that ringing open header sound that the Delta Flows had, it made the car more bareable at idle especially, but in noway is the car considered quiet.

[mike b]

That is a similar setup that i use. I had just the 40 series Delta Flows with turnouts in front of the rear tire and was very loud. I added a set of Dynomax Bullets that slip on the collector then they are welded directly to the Flowmasters then the turnouts. Adding the bullet's did tame down the sound and took out that ringing open header sound that the Delta Flows had, it made the car more bareable at idle especially, but in noway is the car considered quiet.

This is what I had in mind just back wards. glas packs first then fm probably doesn't matter. and yes only the flow masters are installed currently. I think I might try it just for fun. It sounds nice the way it is at idle but crack the trottle and it shakes your fillings loose- all the neighbor kids duck!! I have managed to change my driving habits to get in and out of the neighborhood with out anyone throwing stuff at me.

gg64ss,
Sounds like a very stout set up!! Keep us posted on the trials

What would be a quiet muffler in the same demensions as a 40 series?

[1965proSTREET]

theoretically if two "mufflers" are placed in a system, its twice the muffling power....but thats just in theory. whos i dont know. i would think it may make it quiter, but also may increase backpressure to an unsuitable amount, chokin the engine. i'd maybe switch to a turbo muffler or something of that nature...my wifes camaro has a 408 sbc and 3 inch exhaust into a vforce muffler and dumps in front of the rear end. its loud, but not bonejarring, teeth rattling loud....id say go quiter muffler...

[Scooter]

You could try some sound dampening inserts. I think they just slip into your tail pipe. They are cone shaped and made of a metal mesh. I guess the mesh dissapates the sound. Justa idea.

-Aaron

[Steves 70SS]

Mike, I also have a 3" system on my car with flowmasters.I just bought a new set of hooker comps headers because the old ones were leaking at the heads.The guy I bought the car from didn't upgrade the headers when he put in the new crate motor.The pipes were not big enough.I too love the sound but it does get loud.I'm not sure which flowmasters I have but thinking about changing them.I'm not sure if changing to a different flowmaster will do it.
Don't get me wrong the sound is great but when you want the family to go for a ride it won't be a long one!

Steve:D

[FunkyNova66]

:D Piss on your neighbors. Tell them to find something else to whine about.:D geeez...what a bunch of crybabies.

[Scuncio]

Try a crossover pipe close to the headers.This will help dampen the exh. pulses and will not hurt HP. either it works!!! and its cheeeeeep. Doug

[LIL NOVE]

an x-pipe, not an h-pipe, and 3 chamber flows, what is it, like a 50 series?? and definitely pipes all the way back. a lot of my friends run this setup, its quiet enough to think they dont have much under the hood. and if they whine over that MOVE.........J/K! just my 2

JOHN

[Bigd70ss]

I have 400 hp and run headers, 3 in mandrel, x pipe and 3 chamber flows 50 series that dump before the axle. some om my neighbors don't like it but the cops think it's cool.
Pi$$ on the neighbors.

[69NovaSS]

Am I wrong or didnt the factory do some setups with 4 mufflers...except they called the one set of mufflers resonators? (I believe the job of the resonators was to tone down the note of the exhaust somewhat before the mufflers (hmmm..or was it after the mufflers???)...either way they ran both mufflers AND resonators on the same car...they must have severed a purpose of somesort...anyone have thoughts on this? :)

[Mike Goble]

The job of the resonators was to modify the sound of the exhaust from really quiet to barely a whisper.

[69NovaSS]

The job of the resonators was to modify the sound of the exhaust from really quiet to barely a whisper.

so where they behind the muffler then?

[Nova_Guy]

What about those mufflers, I can't remember the name that use disks that you can add or remove to change the level. They were really big in the Pro-Street era. They went right on the tip of the exhaust.

[69NovaSS]

What about those mufflers, I can't remember the name that use disks that you can add or remove to change the level. They were really big in the Pro-Street era. They went right on the tip of the exhaust.
I believe they were called SuperTrapp...they were big with motorcycles too:)

[ChevyII MD]

On my 94 Caprice (ex cop car) I'm running full lenght headers, To Flomaster H pipe Flowmaster muffler over the axle and resinator.
It has 50 series mufflers with resinators out by the back. Maybe its called Force III
Its pretty quit. But sounds good when you stab the pedal.
I'm going to go with something like that on my 63, but not as quit...
I want them to know I'm there!

Mark

[Targetmaster]

Will two 50 series flowmasters fit under the 3rd gen? Just measuring they look a little long at 23 inches overall.

[Jason628]

Greetings,

I have the 50 series 3 chamber flowmasters on my car...Header, pipe, muffler, then exahust pipe all the way out to under the bumper. The mufflers are underneath the driver and passenger seats. It's very quiet, but sounds good when you put your foot into it. When I first got my car going I just had dumps right off the muffler and it was way too loud for my liking. You might just try having exhaust run out underneath the bumper. A good exhaust shop can make it happen, even if you have a ladder bar setup like I've got.

Jason

[Chilly]

I have a 3.5" exhaust and I use Borla XR-1 mufflers. They get it as about as quiet as a 3.5 will get. I recommend those over flowmaster any day, especially in terms of sound and performance. Personally there is none better.

Chris

[Nova72]

I changed from Flowmasters to Borlas on my 468 (3" exhaust). Definately quiter at idle and cruising speed. But, hammer it and they come alive. :)

[burningsquirrels]

there's a lot of material on the net about how dynomax hemi super turbo mufflers are quieter and flow better than 40 series mufflers. i don't know if they are made in 3" though.

[1Bad'66]

Hey guys, with my old big block set up I was running Flowmaster 3 chamber 50 series with 3.5" pipes. Ran Hooker Super Comp fenderwell 2" primary 3.5" collector and dumped right before the rear wheels. I could'nt hear myself think. I thought about running another pair in series but did'nt want to choke the engine. I called Flowmaster and they said the only thing that I could do was dump them out at the rear bumper. He said that tailpipes really make a huge difference in sound reduction. (I just don't have room with the mini tubs, ladder bars, etc). So I lived with it and drove it with earplugs. I hope my new small block combo will be a little quieter. I am thinking of using Spintechs with the oval tubing for some more clearance. Later.

[simmondj]

My two cents . . . flowmasters are notriously noisy. My friend had a set on his 88 chev truck while I was running dynomax with almost the same setup. Both were smaller than 3 inch, but even still the dynomax were a lot quieter. I am not sure about performance though. Still driving across the country was a little noisy.

[NovaNate]

I second the vote for adding tailpipes to go out back behind the bumper. I can't tell you how much of a difference this made from when I used to just dump the exhuast out of the muffler before the rear axle. Those tailpipes play a big role in adding "tone" to the exhuast note.

[Dan_Lebherz]

Tail pipes make a huge difference in sound. If you already have a full system and just want to quiet it down some. Buy some Summit 3" turbo mufflers. They cost about $15 each but sound good and will probably be the same size as the flowmasters so for $30 you're in business. I have 2.25" ones on my car and I like the way it sounds. It was almost too quiet with full tail pipes though, so I pulled them off. My tail pipes had very tight bends I could have sworn were restricting flow, however, I've picked up no performance without them.

[fastcar]

Summit makes a cone shaped 3" piece that you put in your collector and it dissipates the sound without the loss of power or backpressure. cost about 80 buck a set. I have been thinking about adding them to my nova.

[Dawg]

FWIW I put a glass pack on the end of my old truck's tail pipe which had a Flowmaster 40 series....the fiberglass in the glasspack absorbed the drone from the muffler so it didn't sound as loud.

From what I've seen almost anytime 3 inch exausts are very loud.

[Chilly]

fastcar

Save your money. I tried those on my old exhaust, which was Dynomax bullets. They didn't make a bit of difference. I think they are for the track when you are trying to meet a certain decible requirement. Maybe they change a few decibles, but nothing real noticable. Unless you have a meter you won't see a difference.

Chris

[NovaStar]

I hope someone comes to your rescue, I have 3.5" out the sides with Dynomax Ultraflo's and its ridiculous. I was found headers inserts by Car Chemistry and was thinking of giving them a try.

http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2000/09/ccinserts/index.shtml