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I know...this is like asking "what's your favorite oil" or "what tires do you like"...but I figure I'll ask anyway.
My 500 has the numbers-match 318 2bbl, and as far as I can tell...it's never been opened up. All stock. Drives and idles like a plain ol' factory cam. Factory manifolds.
At some point, the OEM exhaust rusted off (I presume), and was replaced with 2" duals, no crossover pipe, and a pair of Flowmaster mufflers.
They're L-O-U-D.
I like the overall tone - it has a nice rumble at idle - but they're just too damned loud going down the road, and the drone will kill you. I want to swap them out for something that's still got a nice tone, just without the overall cruising volume and drone. A local shop is recommending Magnaflow - any thoughts? I've seen them on a lot of the car shows and I know they make a good product, but most of what I've seen them on is new, late-model stuff like Hellcats and Mustangs. They sound good, but...different. I don't want my 50 year old smallblock to sound like a late-model OHC flat-plane crank Mustang.
What have people had good luck with on here, with the smallblock cars? And, is it worth adding some sort of crossover tube? This is not a power-adder change. It's a 318/2bbl with a stock cam and 2.73 gears - it's a cruiser, not a bracket car. But...I DRIVE it. It's not a 6 figure restoration - it's a survivor, warts and all, and I love running it down the road. It's a gorgeous (to me), great-condition old car to me...not some unobtanium, irreplaceable exotic that I'm afraid to drive so all I do is rub it with a diaper. So, I don't want a tin muffler that sounds good but rusts off in 1000 miles of driving - which is fine for off-the-trailer/on-the-trailer show cars, but not for a driver. It's not a daily driver - 13mpg, ugh! - but I'm not afraid to run it to the store on a sunny day just to have fun, or take it out to dinner, or just...drive around (and dodge the cicadas!). I just want it to sound good when I do. Not new-Chrysler-300-silent (I do want to drown out the old-car squeaks and rattles LOL)...but not stupid-flowmaster-noisy, either.
My 500 has the numbers-match 318 2bbl, and as far as I can tell...it's never been opened up. All stock. Drives and idles like a plain ol' factory cam. Factory manifolds.
At some point, the OEM exhaust rusted off (I presume), and was replaced with 2" duals, no crossover pipe, and a pair of Flowmaster mufflers.
They're L-O-U-D.
I like the overall tone - it has a nice rumble at idle - but they're just too damned loud going down the road, and the drone will kill you. I want to swap them out for something that's still got a nice tone, just without the overall cruising volume and drone. A local shop is recommending Magnaflow - any thoughts? I've seen them on a lot of the car shows and I know they make a good product, but most of what I've seen them on is new, late-model stuff like Hellcats and Mustangs. They sound good, but...different. I don't want my 50 year old smallblock to sound like a late-model OHC flat-plane crank Mustang.
What have people had good luck with on here, with the smallblock cars? And, is it worth adding some sort of crossover tube? This is not a power-adder change. It's a 318/2bbl with a stock cam and 2.73 gears - it's a cruiser, not a bracket car. But...I DRIVE it. It's not a 6 figure restoration - it's a survivor, warts and all, and I love running it down the road. It's a gorgeous (to me), great-condition old car to me...not some unobtanium, irreplaceable exotic that I'm afraid to drive so all I do is rub it with a diaper. So, I don't want a tin muffler that sounds good but rusts off in 1000 miles of driving - which is fine for off-the-trailer/on-the-trailer show cars, but not for a driver. It's not a daily driver - 13mpg, ugh! - but I'm not afraid to run it to the store on a sunny day just to have fun, or take it out to dinner, or just...drive around (and dodge the cicadas!). I just want it to sound good when I do. Not new-Chrysler-300-silent (I do want to drown out the old-car squeaks and rattles LOL)...but not stupid-flowmaster-noisy, either.
