this is a commen disscusion in our house. half of the people in our family think borla mufflers are better. And the other half think flowmaster mufflers are better. Can you offer your opinion and mayber we can put this to rest?



P.S. the car that we have is a 68 chevelle, 427, lunati 3/4 racing cam, 2 inch super comp hooker headers. which mufflers?

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Well, I can't say anything with regards to Borla, but I can compare the Flowmasters to everyday turbo mufflers. I installed 2 chamber Flowmasters after previously using some generic turbos. Performance-wise there was no difference--1/4 mile times were nearly identical. Loudness was another story...Flowmasters are at least good and noisy.

Aren't all Borla systems stainless steel?are flowmasters?I have a dual borla system on a camaro,and plan on putting one on my chevelle.It depends what you want...Me, I like the mellow tone of borla at low rpms.They do get loud when you step on it.I also like to listen to the radio...

As stated nearly the same, Whats nearly? to some people 2 tenths is a great achievement(consistently)to others plus or minus 2 tenths is no big deal. I run 3.5 inch flowmasters race series and there is minimal loss of mph or E.T. with exhuast or with out. 1 mph and hundreths in E.T. Word on the street is borla out flows at the top end. If you have 550 H.P. up it is hard to keep exhuast tone Quit for the street and yet flow at the track to run the number.In lower H.P. word is borla is quieter.Both have a good product. several manufactures are cloning flowmaster and I think everyone is just getting tired of the word flowmaster.
I think the borla race series is stainless and there about 250.00 each. The sportsmans are aluminized? at 140.00 You'll have to check if both series are stainless. Good luck on your decision.

The statement was "nearly identical"...and i'm talking within 2 hundredths of second. If it was 2 tenths I would've said so, which to me is a big difference.

I took the Flowmasters off my Chevelle and put them on my Nova so I'm in the market for a new pair of mufflers. Does anyone have firsthand experience with either Edelbrocks or the Dynomax race mufflers? Opinions? My two chamber Flowmasters were .30 seconds slower than open headers but to be fair they were 2 1/2" and probably a little small.

My 69 SS wore the El-Cheapo Thrush $19.95, bargain basement, bottom shelf mufflers for the longest time until I could save up enough to buy those "ultra trick" flowmaster mufflers for $60.00 apeice. My honest opinion is this:

I spent eighty "friggin" dollars on the cool lookin flowmaster sticker they give you that I put on my toolbox.

They are overrated for the average street machine. My car ran the same ET's and was annoyingly louder on those summer cruises in the country.

I'm sure that for some high HP street/strip cars, flowmasters work perfectly. But I drive a low 13 second car that I love to go "croozin" in and the performance gain I saw was negligable. The increase in rumble pissed me off after 50 miles too.

Give Hooker mufflers a try. They sound great when you floor it, mellow when your at idle...

Carlo, Hooker Comp or Super Comps? I had Hooker Comps for a while But wished I'd gotten Super Comps. The 2 1/2" comps were necked down to 2 1/4" inside. I have Dynomax Super Turbos now. Relatively quiet and free flowing but don't know how long they'll last. von

why doesn't everybody just run open exhaust cut-outs? You can smell the nostalgic exhaust fumes in the air! They offer free-flowing exhaust, a loud throaty rumble and are perfectly legal...as long as you don't get caught!!! Hehehehehe!!!!

Whats the deal with everyone complaining about noise these are hot rods right.Theres nothing better than a good sounding hot rod I mean this isnt your dads cady.I am running a mild built 427 with 2 1/2" flows dumped after the muffler and its not too loud.Flowmaster does make a 3 chamber that are quiter than turbo mufflers.Are these hondas or hot rods?

Von, they were super comps. I loved the way they sounded, real mean and raspy. They p/oed the sound police & yuppies and set off car alarms all the time-never got a ticket though. When you heard it commin down the road you knew it wasn't a VW or a Mazda...and that's the way it should be!

I love the sound of my Chevelle... when I start it and especially when I floor it. I've got your standard cheapo glass-packs and couldn't be happier.

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Jeff '67 Chevelle

I agree with 68300dlx427, everyone wants there classic rod to sound like the little imports. I have 2 chambers and love them I wouldn't put a different muffler even if they pulled me over once a month and fined me. I love the sound of a flow.

The problem is this, eventually all tracks will make you run mufflers and require you to maintain your car under a certain db. about 95-98. wich is loud.The tracks are forced to do this because of residence near tracks. So it seems noise levels are becoming less tolerant on the street.Nobody wants there car to sound like a honda but it seems we are being forced to tone em' down wich sucks.There are some that like the sound of a cadillac, to each there own.

1bad67 makes a good point and besides, who wants to be deaf or wear earplugs when cruisin down the highway at whatever RPMs due to a loud exhaust system anyway. I've seen questions like this asked before on this site and a lot of guys seem to like the Flows and thats what I am going with, 3 chambers seem to be the popular chioce for street/highway driving.

ChevelleFreak; I bet the above has really solved your discussion !!! As 1bad67 says; "to each his own".

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A few yrs ago a friend built an Olds powered 3 window coupe ran stock Chevy mufflers quiet as the family car.It ran 10s at the strip something on the car caused a whistle over 90 MPH you may never have heard it with noisey exhaust.Had the nick name the WHISTLING DEUCE "far out" thats how long ago it was...FRED

"To each his own" is right. Some of us (especially us older folks) like to be able to hear the radio, have a normal conversation, and not have ringing ears after a drive. Yet I hate the thought of giving up 1 hp due to exhaust backpressure. It's free horsepower. I love the sound of a hi-po engine with headers and semi-quiet mufflers. You can hear the muted sound of the beast straining to get out and the metallic beat of the the exhaust pulses in the headers and pipes. When you walk around back, there's no mistaking the sound of serious horsepower, but in a restrained way. I also hate getting nervous everytime a cop is near. I love the sound of open headers on a V8, but not all the time. To me, the ideal muffler would have 0 back pressure, sound just slightly louder than stock, last indefinately, be available in a wide range of sizes and configurations, at low cost. I used to like loud pipes on my car years ago. I guess old fartism has set in. von

I used to love "loud and wild" when I was younger, but now prefer the quieter approach. However, I do not sacrifice perfomance for quietness. I run a '65 malibu with a 468 street engine. It runs 12:02 3 or 4 all night long in drive, through the exhaust. Pulled the exhaust the same night and ran 11:98, 98, 96, and 98. This thing is so quiet that EVERYONE comments. Head pipes are 3" mandrel bent (w/crossover)to 3 chamber flowmasters. The secret is after the flowmasters. I Run 2 1/2" mandrel bent tailpipes into some old Dynomax resonators. The resonators soften the exhaust note dramatically, and do not hurt performance. Keep in mind that one of the factors that causes backpressure and loss of performance is exhaust gas volume. Hot exhaust takes up more volume than cooler exhaust. The exhaust farthest away from your engine is cooler, and takes up less volume. The exhaust system "sees" a muffler (or resonator) that is all the way at the back of the car as larger in volume than one close to the engine, because of the cooler gas temperature. Moral of the story: Keep those mufflers as far back under the car as possible (NOT right at the header collector)and run a free flowing resonator right ahead of the rear bumper (space permitting) for an extra quiet, really free flowing exhaust.

[This message has been edited by Bionic Rat (edited 02-12-99).]

Justin 66 Chevelle: that was great!

Iīve got those cut-outs from Summit, too, so I can cruise quietly or race (or just have FUN) by opening those wing nuts. Ainīt that just awesome.

First my friends thought itīs overkill, but once they saw there is no drawbacks theyīve started thinking about getting those cut-outs themselves, too. I think those cut-outs are one of those things that one has to see and "feel" to understand.

And if I see cops, well, I just lower to that certain steady rpm (around 2000) that doesnīt produce that out-of-this-world loud header sound, only big low humming sound... And if this kind of things disturds somebody out there, let me tell you that even though I LOVE open header V8 sound, I canīt take it more than couple of hours every other week ;)

anyone else care to share their opinions

Another run at the top.... :D