[sexypizzaman]

Hey guys so I got pulled over by the cops yesterday (just a matter of time) for my exhaust noise. It is a 1980 camaro z28 with a 383 stroker full-length headers to dual 2.5" pipes to 2 flowmaster 40 series at the back and thats it. They told me it is way to loud for the street and I have 10 days to get it muffled down or else I get a nice $650 fine. I must agree at higher RPM's it does put out quite the resonance but at idle and lower RPM's it isn't all that loud. My question is how could I quiet it down some more. I just had the exhaust put on and it cost me over a grand with parts and labour. There are no cats or resonators (if thats the correct spelling) just the 2 mufflers. Would adding a resonator to each pipe before the mufflers help out a lot?? What about adding another muffler in each side about half way down the car, would this quiet me down some more?? Any advice here is greatly appreciated.

 

[Greg T]

Take two nice balls of steel wool, stuff them in the tailpipes and hold them in with a little wire through a couple of tiny holes. Have the vehicle inspected. Then, when ya get home just pull the steel wool out. Old trick I learned back in the early 70s with about 10 fix-it tickets.

 

[Jagman06]

I did the steel wool on a motorcycle once and actually liked the quieted down sound much better but even with retainers the steel wool would fly out at times when I revved it so I used stainless drain covers over the pipes (it worked on the bike)

 

[Chevrolet4x4s]

Do you have an X or H pipe?

Shane

 

[DoubleVision]

Install turn downs with a slightly smaller diameter. I did the same thing to mine when I got tired of the drone. It quieted it down considerably. If you don`t have a H or X pipe have one installed also.

 

[GenYnNC]

Well, I would personally find a friend that owns a automotive repair shop of any kind and get them to 'write an invoice' for some artificial work showing you added 'new resonators' and show it to the judge. I can't stand gov't infringing on my personal freedom. Cops should out looking for 'real' criminals not out patrolling for taxes. A 383 with 40 series flows might be loud but come on.

 

[Blazin72]

Cops should out looking for 'real' criminals not out patrolling for taxes. .

You mean like the ones that try to skate around the issue at hand by producing fraudulent paperwork to a judge? Yeah, that's intelligent. What happens if decide to measure the sound level from the car and find out it's no quieter than before? The car owner and/or the shop owner could get hefty fines. Or worse...

sexypizzaman,
I agree that it's a shame you got pulled over because of your exhaust. Can you review the laws for the area you were pulled over in and find out what acceptable noise levels are? After that get your hands on a decibel meter and measure it as prescribed by the law. If you come in under you could probably go in show that your car meets noise requirements.

 

[1969NovaSS]

Im not sure how it is there but in california you can go to the state referee and have it measured. It will at least give you a baseline of how much you have to go. I went to school at the referee and I have seen the steel wool trick work. The guy even pulled it out after the test and the referee just said you'll be back.

 

[smrat]

well if i were you id ditch the flowmasters get a set of cheap cats and turbo mufflers and fix it. once they give u one ticket they will find other reasons to pull you over. they could have ticketed you for not having cats on your car..even if u live in a state where u dont have emission test your car should have them on there. get an old set and clean them out then put on, then a set of turbo mufflers. i think flowmasters are nothing more then heavy gauge steel with no packing just steel baffles welded in diferent spots to help deaden the noise but not muffle it..u know who called the cops on u... probably was the local airport complaining bout the noise u can get a set of full flow cats on ebay for like 40 .00 each i think. thats what i put on my S10

 

[GenYnNC]

You mean like the ones that try to skate around the issue at hand by producing fraudulent paperwork to a judge? Yeah, that's intelligent

Worked for me!

 

[stu_yoakam]

i have rip off flowmasters on my el camino. it sounded great; but too loud. got the tail pipes the rest of the way back and now its too quiet. they are three feet long lol. set off a car alarm at work leaving for the shop that day.

 

[ford_man44]

wow that sucks last summer i had a '85 s-10 blazer with a small block 350 that i ran just open headers and never got stoped for that the only things i got stoped for was a smoke show in the walmart parking lot and bad tags! :evil:

 

[sexypizzaman]

I don't have an H or Y pipe, this is a true dual set-up. I am not gonna ditch my flowmasters because they cost me $400 and are still brand new. I would much rather install another muffler before the flowmasters or 2 resonators or anything that would quiet it down a bit. I don't think cats would do the job, I could be wrong. Is it a possibility to install 2 dynomax resonators before the flowmasters, would this lower the sound out of the pipes? It would be pretty easy to add 2 resonators to the set-up and if it works then that is all I need. Any advice welcome.

 

[4 Jaw Chuck]

Install two resonators as long as you can find, I'll bet you will like the sound better anyway.

 

[HP52TA]

I have never used vortex cones myself but they look like they would be promising, especially with a new exhaust just installed. Not sure what kind of power loss would come with them, if any. http://www.jegs.com/p/Dynatech/750014/10002/-1

Anyone ever use them?

 

[75gmck25]

If you add an H or an X pipe, it will probably flow even better, and quiet it down at the same time. However, it might not quiet it down enough to keep the cops happy.

The next item to add would be either high flow cats, or some resonators. The advantage of adding the cats is that it would also be smog compliant. If the cops decide to quit going after you for noise, they might switch to trying to get you for smog violations.

Bruce

 

[Torque454]

If it were me id yank the flowbastards and put in some magnaflows. They are much quieter and HAVE to flow better. Its bascially a strait flow thru muffler with a steel mesh tube inside with steel-wool like packing. I ran my old 454 open headers in a garage (with the big overhead door open of couse) and it would rattle things off the wall it was so loud. Put on the flow masters (didnt even have any tail pipes) and it was very quiet but still had a powerful tone. No cats, resonators etc. All i had was a 2.5" pipe off of each header, into the magnaflow, and that was it. Very nice sounding. I got the mufflers on ebay for 1/2 off and they were brand new. You dont have time for that, but still the mufflers are only about $100 each normal priced.

 

[DoubleVision]

When I still ran my cutlass it had a sbc 350 with some mods, nothing heavy. For exhaust I used headers and straight pipes with no bends into flowmaster 40`s, no cross over pipe and no tail pipes. The car had 3.23 gears and a TH350 tranny, so going down the interstate doing 70 mph it had a fairly high cruise RPM. After a 2 hour ride you couldn`t hear anything anymore. So I installed the turn downs and made it alot more acceptable. After a while I tired of them entirely and went back to turbo mufflers.

 

[454C10]

pull off the flowmaster and put on some dynomax super turbos. The dynomax flows better at 1/4 the volume level, a much better muffler.

for a grand, you should have got a X pipe and all in mandrel bent stainless.

if you need more sound reduction, use 2 dynomax bullets after the headers

 

[junior stocker]

muffler's!

"if you think it's too loud, you're too old", that's what the bumper sticker says. But seriously, an X/H pipe can't hurt, it can only help. Then, put some sort of resonator/glass pack AFTER the differential that can be removed fairly easily, so you can quiet it down for a while. Then try it again with the flowslaves after they quit watching for you. Remember in the late 60's to early 70's the Mopars had the "bulged" out/rectangular exhaust tips? My 70 340 Dart had them. It was brand new, and I had 16" Cherry Bombs installed. "A" cop did'nt like it, got a fix it ticket. There's a drain hole in the "bulge" of the exhaust tips, perfect for a screw. Packed in Brillo pads, put a long screw in the hole and drove it quietly, but choaked up, to the cop shop. "got new mufflers on there?", "Yep" (well, they still were), "OK", "don't you want to come listen to it?" "nope". Later I took the screws out, blipped the throttle, and shot the Brillo pads out about 30 feet. Glad the cop did'nt come out to listen to it, it smelled like Brillo pads something awful, he'd probably have wondered what the smell was.