So ladies and gents, what the best sounding exhaust system you've ever heard on a stock 390fe? I've been tossing around using dual chambered flowmasters. I want it to be a nice low and throaty rumble and but be heard when it's punched! Let me know!
In my opinon Flowmasters don't sound that great on anything. I've never been impressed with them. (Too many bad 5.0 drone experiences with them regardless of Series) If you can find (and afford) some factory HP cast headers for your barge that would be a great start. Regardless of manifold or header type run an H-pipe to take out some of the harshness and tuck the pipes up into the driveshaft tunnel like Ford does. If you want it quiet and throaty I like to run a set of Cherry Bomb glass packs tucked into the driveshaft tunnel behind the H-pipe and mid-pipes (like the FOMOCO did with resonators on early big block Mustangs) then put a set of DynoMax Hemi SuperTurbo mufflers (20" case) behind them (ahead of the axle) and run tailpipes out to the rear of the car. A 2-1/2 inch diameter system would be plenty for the stocker.
Headers, Headers, Headers....oh yea did I say put headers on the damn thing. I ran 2 1/4 all the way back into 12 inch glasspacks and then into 2.5 inch rolled tips. It sounds very good, I put the glasspacks in the back so they wouldnt be too loud. I had 200 bucks in the pipes and tips and then 25 a pop for the glasspacks. Id love to try porters on an FE, but I cant bring myself to 100 bucks a pop for a muffler when I can get cherry bombs or thrush for 25-30 bucks. I hate chambered mufflers, but to each his own. To me it sounds like a soda can with rocks in it. This is what I did and is just my two cents. My buddys galaxie he kept the manifolds and ran 2.5 pipes into 12 inch cherry bomb glasspacks and it sounds good, but I definatly like the sound of my truck with headers better. And it definatly made a difference in power, those manifolds suck.
I put Flowmasters on mine. I like it . Sounds good. I have heard a lot of others mention Porters and Smithy's for Galaxies too. I think the Porter website actually has a video of a 64 on the home page. At least is used to.
check out brockman mellowtone glasppacks. deep mellow, and very classic sound. steel or glass packed your option. about 55 bucks for a set of 2. heres a vid on a real mild sbc......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQXNWWtbKZ0&feature=related
I used Tri-Y's on my '66 GTA Fairlane along with a 2 1/2" dual system with balance pipe and turbo mufflers. It also had a mild cam and sounded decent.
Someday I'll have to take a pic of the cannons on my 406 car- <!--[if !mso]> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif][if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <wunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif][if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif][if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> A few years ago I had the 406 car out, and at the time it had the 14:1 427 in it, .660 Delong cam, Milodon gear drive, cross-ram with two 650's, and the 3" exhaust with straight-thru truck resonators- it ain't real silent, and with a solid left engine mount, the whole car shakes at idle. So I'm stopped at a red light coming into town, and a Rabbit convertible pulls up behind me. After a few seconds, this incredible chick jumps out, perfect Farah Fawcett racehorse legs in very short side-slit shorts, short tank top, great tan, and comes up and starts waving her arms and yelling at me- "DO YOU REALLY THINK IT'S FAIR TO SUBJECT OTHER PEOPLE TO THE NOISE OF THIS CAR???" She was so mad she never noticed that "The Girls" had escaped from her skimpy top and were helping give me hell... Speechless, I was
My worn out 360 with almost 400k on it has a single 2 chamber flowy. I always get asked what I did to the engine...I tell them i put a muffler on it...