exhaust?

has anybody done any mods to thier exhaust?what were they and how do they sound? right now i have a glasspack but i want it louder without going to straight pipes.

All I've done to mine was replacing the factory cat converter with a high-flow magnaflow I got off ebay. My next step is to replace the muffler with a single inlet, dual outlet camaro muffler.

on my 95 custom... i and leaning toward a new wxhaust. i have this idea to put a flowmaster with dual ehaust but come out on the sides in front of the rear tire. i dont know if it will fit but i think it would look and sound sweet.

come out on the sides in front of the rear tire. i dont know if it will fit but i think it would look and sound sweet.

Might want to rethink that one, the fuel lines and brakes especially probably won't take to kindly to that. :2cents:

yeah, it probably wont fit, ive been underthere alot(working on stuff) hardly anyroom, but if it can be done, ima do it

a glasspack on a buick and not loud enough? What year is your buick and what engine do you have. I would think that would be really loud. Personally i want my buick to sound like a pontiac grand prix. What type of muffler would sound like that rather than pulling one off of a 1997 grandprix or up? thanks

i have a '92 with a 3.8. it is loud, but i want it louder!! lol. im gonna get it running and cut out the cat, put the glasspack where the cat was and run dual pipes out in front of the back wheels with a flamethrower kit.

Yea I plan on doing that too, cept I plan on getting a quad thing goin on. Two pipes on each side, can't wait til I can do that!

How's a high-flow cat converter improve performance? Is it noticeable? Does it get any louder? My cat just got plugged up and I had to put on another one from a junk yard (yes I'm broke, lol). Also about punching out the cat.. you must have seen that flamethrower kit for sale, I saw the same thing. But is it really worth it to punch out the cat? I mean.. every time emissions comes around you'll have to hook it back up to pass the damn thing.

Can anyone recommend a good place to find an intake btw?

i live in florida, we dont have inspections.

florida here too, i wondering if the cutting the cat effects performance or gas milage in any way??? anyone know. same question with a flomaster dual exhaust, doest it effect performance or milage? i know that no muffler hurts milage and performance.

Total waste of money to just gut a cat...especially one from a junk yard. Get a high-flow one off ebay--they run around 40-70 bucks shipped to your door. SHould be a 2.5 inlet/outlet size btw.

The cat that came off my car was the original cat and at 187k miles, it was plugged pretty bad. The new one sounds great when accelerating and should also pass emissions...but my state doesn't test so I wouldn't know for sure.

Gutting a cat generally decreases fuel economy and overall perfomance on this engine. GM designed the 3800 with a cat converter in mind and spent millions of dollars in development with all parts intact. They didn't design the engine to work correctly without a cat.

Edit: True dual exhaust isn't realistically feasible on this car either. It has come up several times with the same "nope" as an answer. You can try it all you like but good luck.

Total waste of money to just gut a cat...especially one from a junk yard. Get a high-flow one off ebay--they run around 40-70 bucks shipped to your door. SHould be a 2.5 inlet/outlet size btw.

The cat that came off my car was the original cat and at 187k miles, it was plugged pretty bad. The new one sounds great when accelerating and should also pass emissions...but my state doesn't test so I wouldn't know for sure.

Gutting a cat generally decreases fuel economy and overall perfomance on this engine. GM designed the 3800 with a cat converter in mind and spent millions of dollars in development with all parts intact. They didn't design the engine to work correctly without a cat.

Edit: True dual exhaust isn't realistically feasible on this car either. It has come up several times with the same "nope" as an answer. You can try it all you like but good luck.

Why no on the dual exhaust? If I can't get the "real thing" I'll just get them to split the pipes or something, I'll get the look at least if I can't get the real thing hooked up. Could you explain (technically) why a real dual exhaust hookup wouldn't work? I'd love to know, and I bet if your answer gets stickied the other 500 people who want dual exhausts will know too (and stop posting threads on the same thing).

But if not, you've been helpful anyway, thanks!

1. Go outside.
2. Look under car.
3. Examine Exhaust routing.
4. Note the lack of space to route another pipe.
5. Note how the pipes off the engine are shpaed and how they connect together via crossover pipe.

Basically, you would have to overcome the fact that, since this is a FWD car and the motor is sideways, you would have to custom make pipe from the front exhuast manifolds as well as the rear exhast manifold. You would also have to make a new bung for the O2 sensor if you couldn't re-use the old pipe. Assuming you can do this, you only have a space large enough on the udnerside of the car to run one pipe. You could go with two smaller pipes (maybe) but that would defeat the purpose of duals. The only other option would be to *maybe* get two custom pipes and just stick them out of the engine bay on the underside of the car, but you would still have problems with fuel and brake lines to go around not to mention the subframe.

I guess if you really really wanted to, you could. But the biggest hindrance is that there just isn't room to do this. If you tried to just dangle them under the car and somehow find a way to hang them, you still wouldn't be able to hang the pipes high enough that you wouldn't destroy them the first time you went over a bump (the reason why the stock pipe runs through the indent in the frame).

Anyone know what type of muffler would make my buick sound like a grand prix???? thanks

i agree you would have to downsize the pipe, and if you wanted them in front of the back tires you would just have to make a really short hanger that put the pipes right up against the body. and the deal about the gas and brake lines, put up some heat shield to protect it from the exhaust heat. or you could just run the pipes back through where the factory exhaust runs and put them out behind the back wheels with a lot less trouble with the lines. OR you could get a muffler with a single inlet/dual outlet and put it in place of the old muffler.

what is the approiate time, and miles to consider changing the cat. will a new cat help improve gas milage?

I vote single inlet, dual outlet.

Note the following: Singe pipe to dual outlet muffler: http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/stevexperformance/?action=view&current=6537.jpg&refPage=all&imgAnch=imgAnch97

Results (with other mods): http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/stevexperformance/?action=view&current=7b6e.jpg&refPage=60&imgAnch=imgAnch66

In conclusion, Don't bother with duals. (but do whatever you like)

Edit: Yes, a new cat will improve fuel economy assuming it is clogged. I'd say you ought to consider changing it @ 125-150k miles as preventative maintenance. Here is what I got off Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-25-Magnaflow-Carsound-Catalytic-Cat-Converter_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33629QQihZ003 QQitemZ130024561919QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

I incorrectly said above that the stock pipe size was 2.5, it is 2.25 instead. At least on my car so you ought to check with a dealer or somehwere online first before ordering but I'd guess it would 2.25 as well.

1. Go outside.
2. Look under car.
3. Examine Exhaust routing.
4. Note the lack of space to route another pipe.
5. Note how the pipes off the engine are shpaed and how they connect together via crossover pipe.

Basically, you would have to overcome the fact that, since this is a FWD car and the motor is sideways, you would have to custom make pipe from the front exhuast manifolds as well as the rear exhast manifold. You would also have to make a new bung for the O2 sensor if you couldn't re-use the old pipe. Assuming you can do this, you only have a space large enough on the udnerside of the car to run one pipe. You could go with two smaller pipes (maybe) but that would defeat the purpose of duals. The only other option would be to *maybe* get two custom pipes and just stick them out of the engine bay on the underside of the car, but you would still have problems with fuel and brake lines to go around not to mention the subframe.

I guess if you really really wanted to, you could. But the biggest hindrance is that there just isn't room to do this. If you tried to just dangle them under the car and somehow find a way to hang them, you still wouldn't be able to hang the pipes high enough that you wouldn't destroy them the first time you went over a bump (the reason why the stock pipe runs through the indent in the frame).

Now that's just seriously depressing, if I cant have duals I dont even want this damn car anymore. To hell with that, I'm getting duals SOME how.. hm.. I must find a way! I've seen it done numerous times on www.cardomain.com (http://www.cardomain.com) (but they usually dont respond if you ask HOW they did something.. aholes)

thanks for the input!

I can almost guaruntee you that the ones on cardomain are single pipe to a single inlet, dual outlet muffler.

But really, why do you want duals? There isn't that much of a performance difference especially when the 3800 was designed with a single pipe in mind. Even the extra noise can be simulated with the right combination of cat converter and muffler brand/types. I'd imagine a camaro flowmaster ought to work fine :)

I can almost guaruntee you that the ones on cardomain are single pipe to a single inlet, dual outlet muffler.

But really, why do you want duals? There isn't that much of a performance difference especially when the 3800 was designed with a single pipe in mind. Even the extra noise can be simulated with the right combination of cat converter and muffler brand/types. I'd imagine a camaro flowmaster ought to work fine :)

Actually I just want the look.. so whatever, settling for a "faked" dual is cool. I'm kinda shy on my exhaust knowledge.. so you're saying it's going to keep the same piping from the engine (well upgraded to something, but still one pipe) and split with some kinda.. J or V looking pipe to split it to two mufflers? Hm.. I've been looking for some kinda picture of this to give me an idea. I looked under my car and sure enough, its like.. no space.

well if it was designed to keep a cat, then what about straght piping it from there?

Straight piping would be way too loud.


:uhoh:What would be the best brand and size for a glasspack?

i have a 28 in. thrush glasspack. it vibrates the mirrors, floor, and seats during acceleration. i put it about 2 inches afer the cat and put a turndown pipe on the other end.:grinyes:

ima put a Y pipe on it for duals.