Magown

Gang, I recently obtained a GHL 3 inch cat back minus the muffler. It is an older vintage GHL which featured two slip fittings and clamps so the muffler could be easily removed and replaced by a straight piece for "track" use. Mine is set up in "track" configuration. It didn't come with a muffler.

So I need a muffin with 3 inch inlet and outlet about 20 inches long. Anyone have a fav? I want it to be as quiet as possible. Why quiet? I just sold my loud 911 and I'm ready to be quiet and stealthy for a while. If it costs me a few ponies that's fine with me.

My pals Micah Jones, Matt Ritenour and myself installed it Friday night. The fitment was excellent and the look of the shiny 4 inch tip is awesome.

The removal of the old system took a little time. The bolts were all old and rusty. The cat back and test pipe pieces still had the silly factory allen head bolts holding them together.

Reinstall of the lite weight 3 inch stainless pipes was quick and easy.

I fired it up while it was still on the rack and was immediately disgusted. The first thing that came to mind was a 1989 Chevy S-10 with a sideways license plates frenched into the tail gate and a superman logo on the back glass.

Micah and Matt were like "cooooool" you will like it once we get it out on the road. So at like 11pm we backed it out of the shop and headed for the interstate. It didn't bother me much travling down the interstate at 80mph. But cruising from stop light to stop light with the windows down it sounded awful. Just like a S-10 racing truck.

We went back to the shop and worked on their cars till 2 am. Then at about 2:30, I made the call to revert back to stock. The reinstall went a lot quicker then the initial uninstall, about 15 min. I was so tired by then that I made it a point to drop every nut and washer at least 1 time. After that we called it a day and hit the sack.

Micah

Quote of the night:

As Steve is removing the first exhaust:

Me: "Steve, you want some eye protection?"
Steve: "Naw, *uck that"

Micah

porshhhh951

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Micah Jones:
<strong>Quote of the night:

As Steve is removing the first exhaust:

Me: "Steve, you want some eye protection?"
Steve: "Naw, *uck that"

Micah</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">lmao.....here's to some gook in your eye! <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />

C5Driver951

Why don't you just get some earplugs and let it breathe:-)

It does look though doesn't it...

Magown

Joel, I just couldn't show up and represent the Rennlist and the PCA with the ride sounding like that. I'm gonna run down to THe Muff Doctor and see if he's got anything in stock for me to test out. I doubt I'll have it all sorted out by next weekend.

Dan Gallagher

i was about to start running a no muffler setup on my car.... be more descriptive on what it sounds like?

BoostGuy951

I have just a straight through Borla XR1 muffler, I doubt it muffles much. The pipe is 3" all the way back to the muffler, which is stepped up to 4". It is damn loud, but I definitely doesn't sound ratty at all. Just a loud smooth tone.

James86-951

I have a Borla as well. My wife complained about it being too loud until she hit the gas; then she understood. It's not too loud until the gas is hit hard and the RPM's go up.

Perry 951

I ran the stock cat with my B&B 3" back before the fire and LOVED the sound. Nice and low, not very loud at all, and not very raspy when on the go pedal.

I now have hollowed out my cat, and although the car has run about 20 minutes total, I'm not happy. It is very harsh, it lost much of the low tone it had, and it is pretty loud. I would imagine under hard boost, it is going to be very very noisy.

I think the trick is a nice high flow cat to keep the mellow sound.

Magown

Dan Gallager, I figured the pick up truck description summed it up. It's just a raw noise, not precise and tuned like you would expect from a Porsche. I didn't have a problem with the volume which was very, very loud. It was just the fact that it sounded rough. It sounded like someone would come up to you and say, "what's wrong with your car?

I've decided that no street car sounds good with a straight pipe. I tried it on my 911. It sounded awful. The next thing I did was run a test pipe and the stock muffler. It sounded great, lastly I ran a stock CAT and a muffly bypass pipe and it sounded beautiful. It made the car sound 10x meaner then it really was. I scared off a few Fire Birds with that setup.

Unfortunatly, that was a flat 6. I think on a 4 banger turbo you have to take a diffrent approach. I love the way it sounds now, with the test pipe and stock muffin. I'd like to duplicate that with the 3 inch exhaust.

C5Driver951

Stephen,

I still think the highflow 3" cat with the 3"system will work the best. Then again I liked the sound with the straight pipe and the 3" test pipe at the track...

See ya Saturday.

TonyG

I've got (3) Borla XR-1 mufflers on the car with a 3" to-the-turbo exhaust.

It's very nice. Not too loud unless you're under full boost at 7000 rpms!

"nobody said I get it quiet".

I did!... and with no back pressure.