Muffler recommendation for LS swap

[FLYNAVY53]

Im posting this in the LS section as Im specifically looking for recommendations based on muffler sound with an LS, not exhaust system routing for a specific platform.

Ive got a '72 C20 Suburban with a 6.0L LS swap with a decent size cam and Holley fuel injection. Right now, Im running Flowmaster's 2.5 inch dual exhaust system with H pipe and 40 series mufflers. The system overall is fine for my daily driver application....my big complaint is the 40 series mufflers. They sound great at idle and really low RPM. Above 2100, they drone horribly up to 3000 RPM where they start to sound like a fat guy farting through a Tuba.

I'm looking for a recommendation for mufflers that have a deep, mellow rumble at idle, quiet and no drone in the mid range cruising RPM, and sound good at WOT without sounding ridiculous.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

[130fe]

I have a mild cam ls3 in my camaro and love the magnaflows I have now. Nice idle sound, no drone at cruise and nice WOT sound.

[408maro]

I was litterly thinking about this! I have borlas on the car now and curious to hear how she sounds when ls is in my car

[sheck44]

Borla or Magnaflows ... can't go wrong (I've had both)
Steve

[plick1221]

I have a pair of the new Hooker Blackheart 3" mufflers, but have yet to fire it up since the car is still in build mode. I am very interested to see how they sound.

[FLYNAVY53]

Yea, a lot of the guys over on the Chevy Truck forum recommend either the Borla or the Magna Flow....may give the Borla's a shot....just need to find something in the right dimensions that will slip into my system without any major modification

[chuckd71]

I have DynoMax Superturbos and they are just about right in terms of noise/ cam sound. Kind of big though, at least they seem big to me (but I'm not an expert).

[XLexusTech]

on a related note research tells me an ls376 that hit ~6K rpm and makes ~500 hp is on the cusp of needing 3" pipe... sound right ?

[DJW32]

On my 70 C-10, I had an x pipe and magnaflows. Truck sounded perfect.

[astroracer]

One more vote for Magnaflows. My '02 Collector Edition Trans Am sounded HORRIBLE with 40 series flowmasters. Swapped them out for Magnaflows and the sound was much better.
Mark

[XLexusTech]

Which magnaflows?

[ah64pilot]

Pypes Race Pro...

My Cutlass isn't an LS but I can safely say for performance and sound quality the Race Pro has beaten everything else I've ever tried. They really let the cam noise through without the volume of the Flowmaster 40. And wide open they rip! Part throttle cruise is a dream in my car. Couldn't have ask for better.

I have the whole kit from Pypes... 3.5" X pipe with 3.5" race pros dumped before rear axle, all stainless.

[Nick_R_23]

Dynomax Race Bullets. Best sound ever :naughty:

[DT69Cam]

The Flowmaster series 40 you guys are referring to, You sure its not the super 44's ?? The 40 series is the Delta Flow (reduced interior noise). Just curious.

[FLYNAVY53]

Yes, you are correct....they were actually the 44s. I just got them pulled off this weekend and have the Borlas ready to go back on....I went with the Borla over anything else based on recommendations and the size was almost an exact match for the flowmasters, so no need to reconfigure the rest of the exhaust set up. Ill post impressions once I get this thing back on the road. Right now Im in the middle of building the entire brake system.

[sheck44]

Yes, you are correct....they were actually the 44s. I just got them pulled off this weekend and have the Borlas ready to go back on....I went with the Borla over anything else based on recommendations and the size was almost an exact match for the flowmasters, so no need to reconfigure the rest of the exhaust set up. Ill post impressions once I get this thing back on the road. Right now Im in the middle of building the entire brake system.

You will love the Borla's ... great choice
Steve

[stuckonstupid]

Black widow are good for ls motors, they sound good.im running spin tech and I'm very happy. Everyone runs flow masters or magnaflow

[icemanrd19]

Mufflers thay came with my dynatech exhaust sounds great. Not loud at all but when your getting on it then it opens up.

[MAGONSTERZ68]

Stuff the Largest walker dyno max you can fit under it, X-pipe, j-tubes, and add elec cut outs for when feeling rowdy.

[FLYNAVY53]

Well, I finally got the car back on the road and went on a 6 hour road trip this weekend with the Borlas.....not a fan. They sound terrible at idle. I don't know what it is, but there is a horrible reverberation below 1000 RPM that you can feel in your ear drum....almost like when someone only has one window cracked in the car at highway speed and you can feel the fluttering in your ear.

They're good for putting around town but again, once you get up to cruising RPM, they're still very loud...although at least they don't drone. They sound great on acceleration, but the noise at 2000 RPM at 65 mph is still waaaaayyyy too much for what Im looking for.

Any other suggestions? I've heard multiple good reviews of the Black Widow mufflers, but I'm concerned that those might also be too loud for a long distance driver, and I hate to gamble another $300 on mufflers I haven't heard in person.

[eupp]

I have the Magnaflow 2 1/2 x pipe system on my Chevelle. Not too many miles on it but on trips you will have to talk really loud to hear your rider. Great in town and idle and on the dyno from the outside

[TBART70]

Black widow are good for ls motors, they sound good.im running spin tech and I'm very happy. Everyone runs flow masters or magnaflow

Sorry to hijack, what motor do you have them on and what size pipe/ position in vehicle?

I have 4 Spin techs on my 548 BBC, car sounds great, no drone. Even with windows open not insanely loud, thinking of taking two off and putting higher flowing in place.

[David LaBuda]

I'm happy with the Dynomax Ultra-Flows I installed on my Chevelle. They took away all of the drone I was dealing with and sound great when you get on it.

[67rally]

Muffler sound is really subjective, the best thing you can do is go to car shows/cars n' coffee's and see who's running a similar setup and what they have for an exhaust.

With that said, I have a 2.5" Magnaflow X-Pipe system and it sounds really good to me. Mellow at idle, and pretty loud at WOT, you can talk over it when cruising, but it's definitely still there.

Here's a youtube video from a track day last fall when I had a mic near the exhaust, you can hear it at wide open, vs off the gas, cruising, etc.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UESJKj3MW_Q

[KB Camaro]

Maybe I'm alone on this but I love the flowmaster sound on an LS swap. I'd try the 50 series delta flow.

[sheck44]

I have Black Widows Pro-Venom 250's now on my camaro ... WAY louder than the Borla's
Your like getting some kind of bad resonance that is causing vibration which may not be a muffler issue

Steve

[rennat_2006]

Hooker maxflow mufflers. I put them on everything i own after trying just about everything out there. Everything from a 4.3l s10 blazer (rock cralwer), chevy pickups of various years (ls and sbc), 2007 suburban with cylinder deactivation (notorious for drone), 66 chevelle with 6.0 swap, and many more. Got a set waiting to go on my 71 nova with a 6.0 here shortly also.

Great tone at idle, not super loud but you can definetely tell they arent stock mufflers.
Great sound while accelerating
No reasonance or really any noise for that matter at cruise
Get nice and loud when you really nail it.

Best of both worlds in my opinion, i cant stand the drone at cruise that 98% of aftermarket mufflers have.

[ORBandit]

I'd say MF as well. You might like their XL. I run one of their XL's on my 5.3 Tahoe and it sounds really good. More aggressive chamber sound compared to their standard muffler. If you get drone, the easiest way to get rid of it is to run another smaller diameter MF more towards the rear. Sadly, it's going to be very hard to get an aggressive sound without any drone. Gibson used to claim very thick shells to kill drone, not sure if they still do. Another option as well.

[l2azorback]

Well, I finally got the car back on the road and went on a 6 hour road trip this weekend with the Borlas.....not a fan. They sound terrible at idle. I don't know what it is, but there is a horrible reverberation below 1000 RPM that you can feel in your ear drum....almost like when someone only has one window cracked in the car at highway speed and you can feel the fluttering in your ear.

They're good for putting around town but again, once you get up to cruising RPM, they're still very loud...although at least they don't drone. They sound great on acceleration, but the noise at 2000 RPM at 65 mph is still waaaaayyyy too much for what Im looking for.

Any other suggestions? I've heard multiple good reviews of the Black Widow mufflers, but I'm concerned that those might also be too loud for a long distance driver, and I hate to gamble another $300 on mufflers I haven't heard in person.

Why not add some Vibrant Performance Resonators to the system. I added them to my 3" system behind my Shafiroff 540 Ultra Street with Black Widow Pro Venoms. Really did a nice job, and very good looking.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2017/10/rqAZgsx-1.jpg (https://imgur.com/rqAZgsx)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2017/10/DyPVaUP-1.jpg (https://imgur.com/DyPVaUP)

[oldstv]

Have any of you guys heard a ls without a h,x, or y in the exhaust?

[rennat_2006]

Have any of you guys heard a ls without a h,x, or y in the exhaust?

Yes sounded like a old farm truck.

[oldstv]

Yes sounded like a old farm truck.

Did it really? I was thinking about trying it....maybe not.

[SSLOW6.0]

Yes sounded like a old farm truck.

Can attest to this.

I hate exhaust crossovers though, lots of work for 0 performance gain.

[oldstv]

I did a Holley fuel injection and exhaust system on my 1970 Buick GS. The car had 2.5 from the headers back with FM and a x pipe. It now has 3" from the headers back with no crossover using Dynomax mufflers and I kind of like the way it sounds. That system makes the engine sound like the compression is much higher than it is and less even from side to side which I know is the way engines sounded before corssovers became so popular.

[DT69Cam]

Anyone use Venom 250's ??

[rohrt]

I agree Exhaust is very subjective. Just because one guy loves his sound doesn't mean you will. Just like no two people like the radio volume at the same level. Then there is the fact that every tiny change in the exhaust effects the sound. Pipe size, muffler length, car body type, crossover type all play a role in the sound. The only advice I can give is keep trying stuff. Good luck.

[icemanrd19]

Why not add some Vibrant Performance Resonators to the system. I added them to my 3" system behind my Shafiroff 540 Ultra Street with Black Widow Pro Venoms. Really did a nice job, and very good looking.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2017/10/rqAZgsx-1.jpg (https://imgur.com/rqAZgsx)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2017/10/DyPVaUP-1.jpg (https://imgur.com/DyPVaUP)

Would love to hear the sound of this. Would adding these cause alot of restriction and go loss?

[another69]

I have Borla pro xs behind an LS3. Replaced Magnaflows with an H pipe when I did the torque arm rear. Currently no H pipe. Both on the same engine, no changes other than exhaust. I really hate the Borlas at this point, there is a really loud popping sound at certain points during hard acceleration. I chased the issue, and even replaced a muffler that was thought to be faulty. I may try to add an H pipe or just go back to the Magnaflow.

[Gmachine1911]

I have Borla pro xs behind an LS3. Replaced Magnaflows with an H pipe when I did the torque arm rear. Currently no H pipe. Both on the same engine, no changes other than exhaust. I really hate the Borlas at this point, there is a really loud popping sound at certain points during hard acceleration. I chased the issue, and even replaced a muffler that was thought to be faulty. I may try to add an H pipe or just go back to the Magnaflow.

I've got the Borla Pro XS mufflers in 3" behind an LS3/525 with an X-pipe and full exhaust. I love the sound. In the city the sound is mild and on the highway, the same holds true but there is a point where some resonance is inevitable. You might check your tune as some if not all of the popping might possibly be "tuned out". I had my engine tuned and afterwards had no popping, however, I needed to reroute the air intake which resulted in some restriction which introduced some popping on deceleration (the more severe the decel, the more popping occurred). I opened up the air intake and that drastically decreased the popping but I need to have the tune adjusted and I believe it'll all go away again. Below is a link to one of my YouTube videos...

https://youtu.be/1Uhm-MHwkdc

[another69]

1st off, your car is really nice!

I think I may have heard some popping in the video but hard to tell - can you confirm? I took some Gopro videos & the popping sound is way more apparent inside the car than outside of my car.

[Gmachine1911]

167779167780
1st off, your car is really nice!

I think I may have heard some popping in the video but hard to tell - can you confirm? I took some Gopro videos & the popping sound is way more apparent inside the car than outside of my car.

Thank you! I don't hear the popping in the video but at that time I had a short air intake tube that put the filter right behind the radiator. During tuning, it was recommended that I get the filter farther away from the radiator and over towards the driver fender for cooler air. I bought a custom setup that was a great fit and looked amazing and closed the filter off under the fender but restricted the airflow enough to make it noticeable and resulted in quite a bit of popping. To remedy it, I removed the block off panel and the filter is now open and resides under the front fender support brace. The popping is much better and it runs strong as ever but it could probably benefit from a re-tune.
For reference, the top pic shows the current setup although you can't see the whole thing while the bottom pic shows the original "short" air intake setup with which the original tune was done. Hope the info helps...

[another69]

My air intake is almost identical to yours already. I spoke to Borla, and according to them an H or X pipe is needed. So I'll try that now and see if it helps...

[another69]

My air intake is almost identical to yours already. I spoke to Borla, and according to them an H or X pipe is needed. So I'll try that now and see if it helps...

[another69]

My air intake is almost identical to yours already. I spoke to Borla, and according to them an H or X pipe is needed. So I'll try that now and see if it helps...

[Snowcatter]

Curious why would you need/want a crossover or H pipe, or why you would claim they sound horrible without it? Or why so much hate toward flowmasters? I have an LS3 in my C20 with true dual 3" exhaust through Flowmaster 44's and it sounds amazing. I get compliments all the time on the sound of my truck. And I couldn't be more satisfied with it. It sounds healthy at idle and demands respect at WOT lol