Should I upgrade my exhaust?-Which one if I do?

If you don't care about not gaining as much power, I would recommend flowmaster. Either catback or just mufflers. I bought an a/t catback just to get rid of the ugly crimps and bends in the factory one. It still has that stock sound at idle, and is not that much louder inside. Most people are afraid of drone, but it really isn't that bad with the delta flows, just enough to let you know they are there. My 97 screamed before the catback. good luck

exhaust

I just upgraded the exhaust on my 01 cobra about 3 weeks ago. I went with a magnaflow x with cats and a matching magnaflow cat back. All parts plus the install of each piece was about $1000+. It sounds bad ass when you start the car when it is clod, but after it warms up and it idles down it has a low grumble close to stock. I am happy with the performance gains I got from it. The car sounds stock with the windows up but with them down you can tell its not stock. I have heard GT's with just flow masters on them and they do sound mean as hell. My exhaust is loud but not enough to get a ticket over. The drone is mild at about 1900-2200 in fifth. Before I installed the X I clamped on the cat back and I really saw no gain from it, the sound was so mild I almost considered just using the stock piece. If you upgrade the exhaust go for a good mid pipe with cats. I didnt use any mills and I have no check engine light after about 1000 miles. I did have to have my X cut at the pass side cat because it was about 1 inch too narrow, the exhaust shop made a sleve that slid over the pipe after he bent it but all in all it too him 2 hours to remove the magnaflow cat back and factory H, and weld up the entire thing, all that for only $75 If $$ is a problem and you are considering a short throw shifer I have a brand new pro 5.0 that I installed the same week end that I ended up not using if you wanted to sort some kinda deal with that... good luck with the exhaust.

Justin

Disneyfun1 said:

I have been thinking of upgrading the exhaust on my 99 cobra. I would like to get a little more power, but i dont want it too loud. I do like the sound of the factory exhaust. Was wondering if it is worth it to upgrade it. If i should, which system should i get? I would want to keep price down to a minimum, so would i want just new mufflers, or complete? What is the most inexpensive way to go, or should i just leave it. Remember, i dont want it much louder.

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When you say a 'little more power', do you mean power you can feel? or shaving a 1/10th in the quarter mile? A Cat Back will give you the latter. Some people FEEL extra power from the more aggressive sounding mufflers contained in many Cat Backs. But you don't want the loudness, so I would steer clear of a Cat back or just mufflers because in your case you don't gain much. It's cheaper but your not going to 'feel' much horsepower if you choose quiet mufflers. Now if you want an extra 25 hp, I would go with a full exhaust with an X pipe. The X pipe can give you more power but it smoothes out the exhaust tone which sounds like what you want. Of course you need to spend more to pull that off. A complete street legal exhaust system with X pipe is going to run about $500 or more depending on mfg. A Cat Back can be had for under $300. So figure 15 hp for about $300, 25hp for $500 or just leave things the way they are $free!

Well, with my combo (see sig) it freed up a decent amount of power and the sound is a bit more "exotic," even though it is nowhere near being instrusive (I can thank the high-flow catalytic converters for that). It was a good compromise for my situation, because I did not want to run a very loud exhaust & it delivered good performance.

Keep the cat back for your factory sound, just get an x or h pipe and you will gain some good hp. An x will get you a little more hp than an h.

If you want a little power, a little sound, but dont want to spend a lot, may I suggest the aluminized Magnaflows....

they have all stainless internals so they still have a life time warranty....

Best part- you can pick them up at your local exhaust shop for only about 65 each.....

That will give you a little more agressive tone, and will free up a few ponies for your pony too

Other than the high cost, I'd say the FR500 catback would be something you'd like. I put it on my 01 and the sound is a little deeper, not much louder, and a mag review said they picked up 12 hp and tq I think. Too bad it's $599 I bought mine used for about half that.

Ed

Flowmaster is the cheapest you can go. Mufflers are cheap and cat-back systems are cheap too. They have different choices for you to choose how loud you want. If money was not an issue I would go see basini. All stainless and sound awesome. My 1993 Cobra has a bassini x-pipe and two-chamber flowmasters which is loud and sounds really mean. I felt a big power gain from that. But the 5.0 is easier to boost up then the 4.6. My 1997 Cobra will probably recieve the bassini treatment in the near future. Right now I have been happy with stock.

see sig, never looked back, makes it sound like a cobra should, and I saved $$$$$$. Being stainless is also pretty good. Good luck.

go with the steeda (borla) system...it has the sound and quality of stainless steel. I am about to install mine.