Strippt88
New Member
Trust me, the fitment on Flowmaster's cat-backs is CRAP. Sure, the 40-series mufflers they use in the American Thunder kit sound good ... on the OUTSIDE of the car ... but they drone like a mofo on the inside. If you're into drone, then by all means go for it, but if you actually plan to drive your car any long distances or on a daily basis, you'll probably get sick of it pretty quick.
Again, Frankenstang's Capri has a Flowmaster cat-back on it behind an off-road X-pipe, and it does sound pretty decent overall, but they're the Delta series mufflers - they don't drone, but they're also more quiet, and their flow characteristics SUCK (about as bad as stock mufflers). Plus, it took some bending and beating on the hangers and cutting an inch or so off one tailpipe to get the tailpipes to fit straight and even. Flowmaster welds the flow tubes to their mufflers in advance, so you have almost no room for adjustment ... which really sucks because no two cars are really 100% the same when it comes to making things line up straight.
Maybe I'm just old, but Flowmaster 40's was one of the best setups when we raced 20 years ago, both sound and function, and went on my 88 last year like they always did, nice. They sound like a proper 5.0 should sound, specially when mated to the Ford Racing o/r H hanging under my Mustangs for 21 years also. They are the first, best 5.0 aftermarket muffler, and all others still compare themselves to it. Unless they went out of business, my 5.0 and I will be buried together, and Flowmasters will be there for that, too. An alternative would be the Magnaflows, they come the closest, without the slop or rasp some of the other cheap systems make just to sound loud. I did use Dynomax tails, the stock appearance is what I like, and they make the best. Interesting, alluding to the stock mufflers as bad. Back in the day, and I still have the articles(in the pile), but in 2 different shootouts, Car Craft and Muscle Car Review, I believe, tested mufflers on 5.0's, using an o/r H. Flowmaster, Walker Dynomax, some nonames that are now gone, no muffler at all(lots of guys dumped the muffler alltogether- and kept the factory H-could't tell you why)The stock Ford muffler was one of the best you could get, for both flow and sound- and I ran my otherwise stock exhaust to mid 13's on VR's using them. They were fantastic sounding, when you threw away the stock H, which was the weak link in the stock exhaust system(cept for those factory headers). If I could find a set of stockers NOS, I'd prolly throw them on. 40's on a road trip? Thats why the make Lincolns
!
