Hi all, Iam new Corvette owner, 1979 T Top, Iam thinking of replacing the exhaust with a new system including headers.

I want to improve performance and of course have a nice V8 sound, hopefully without the drone.
I would appreciate some feed back, as to which are the best systems and also good value for money
cheers
Mark

 

Mark, this subject is like asking people what there favorite color is. You will get all sorts of views/opinions.
Full length Headers with and a good 2.5 inch true duals with some sort of crossover or H pipe set up is your ticket. The brand of mufflers, will as mentioned be strictly up to what type of sound your looking for. Its a smart upgrade. Take it to a local exhaust shop if you can.
Good luck.

 

Hi Mark. I'm a Mark as well. There are a lot of headers out there available for your car. For you I think you should find something you can get locally to save yourself money on freight. Then when you have the headers just have a shop that can weld exhaust make you a system from 2.5" tubing and have them install a pair of mufflers. You mention the drone and I have had my fair share of Flowmasters and they certainly do tend to resonate badly at certain RPMs. Being a tad older I have a soft spot for Cherry Bomb mufflers but I am still very partial to Magna Flow mufflers. The key is to have a shop help you with the installation of the tube plus mufflers because they can weld it all together. A kit you order will require clamps and such that can leak and such.

 

I had long tube headers with glass packs. The drone made me crazy on long trips. I had a new system with Magnaflows and a X pipe installed. Quite at idle, sound great at WOT, no drone.

 

If you don't have a lopy cam don't use Flowmasters, there is no use in using them with nothing to back them up.
Go with something stock looking and sounding.

 

Hey dburgjohn, can you run the O2 Sensor on the Long Tube headers? Which ones did you chose? Did you take off the Cat too?

Thanks,

 

Thanks for the feedback guys

 

I would take a listen to the Spintech line, they flow better than Flows and the sound is like none other. Sportsman for me with an x-pipe.

 

Great topic. This is in the near future for me as well. Already have the headers and full 2 1/2" pipe. I don't care for the sound of the flowmasters on the car. Since they are not positioned well (hang to low) I'm planning to replace them with some sort of a turbo muffler when I have them repositioned.

I found a number of videos on Youtube of different exhaust systems. Some are Vettes etc. Good way to get a general idea of the sound of the different brands. You are on the right track with the exhaust system. A engine is nothing more than a air pump - simply put, the more air you can move through it the better.

Adam

 

I am a big fan of magnaflows as well BUT I don't have them on my 78 L-82 4 speed. I have BBK shorty headers, a magnaflow X pipe with high flow magnaflow cats, and a magnaflow cat back system on my 94 Mustang GT convertible and the combination is killer sweet at WOT with the mustang and very quiet at idle, muted enough at cruising speeds for me-not annoying. I also have a magnaflow cat back system on a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix that did resonate at 1,800-2,200 rpm before I added another resonator to that system-perfect now.

As for the 78 vette, something a little different: McJacks shorty headers (exact dimensional copy to the OEM cast iron exhaust manifolds (zero road or engine clearance issues), beautiful craftmanship BTW), 2.5 inch duals, with Monza Turbo mufflers. The sound is a combination of traditional type mufflers on a SB V8 combined with a smoother European sound, not the traditional motorboat sound that these engines make. At WOT the engine sounds like a Nascar stockcar and has no drone at mid RPM levels. You can hear me coming but it is NOT obnoxious, again, my personal preference. BTW-The Monza Turbo mufflers were the deal of a lifetime back in 1989 when I put them on-$99 for the pair and still going strong today and still look real good with the quad exhaust tips out back! Click on the dyno picture for sound!

Hope that helps!

 

As mentioned by a few folks, the Magnaflows are a very nice choice. They weren't being made yet when I bought the Dynamax Ultraflos that are still on my 69 Vette and my avatar car. Both have the same basic construction, flow very well, and will sound similar. Videos will give you some idea and are definitely better than nothing but make sure you are listening through some decent speakers rather than on a laptop. Better still, get out to some car shows or Vette club events to listen in person. Try to listen to a Vette with a similar motor to yours because mods and power levels can make a noticeable difference in sound. Here's a vid of the smallblock in my Z28 and then a vid of the 427 in my Vette-


Happy hunting.

 

Thanks Jeff, I like the McJacks headers nice and compact and even with shipping still cheaper than I can get here in Aust.

So I think I will start with those and work back, by the way your corvette is beautiful

Mark

 

Lots of good advice here. I have the Hooker Super Comp headers and they're great because they fit really well, bu there are lots of choces there. The one thing I would highly recommend is to get the complete dual exhaust system from Corvette Central. Corvettes are a little tight underneath and the factory system had a lot of little tweaks and bends to make them fit tight underneath and the Corvette Central system has those. No muffler shop will ever be able to reproduce that fit. Corvette Central even has the system available with an aftermarket muffler for the sound you want. I think they use Magnaflow but dont quote me.

 

Thanx for the compliment! I did the exhaust a little bit at a time since 1983-I first put a "test" pipe in the OEM system in 1983, the Monza turbos in place of the OEM mufflers in 1989 with the OEM 2-1-2 exhaust, 2.5 inch duals in the early 2000's with the Monza Turbos, and the McJacks in 2006 with the aforementioned other components-carefully adding components over 20+ years to get the desired effect. I really like the sound and the look as well as the power increase.

 

Thanks for that drwet

 

A corvette will always have a different sound than a Camaro with the same mufflers because the mufflers are at the end of the system verses in the middle on the Camaro.