Two individual mid pipes vs. X or H
 

I was just wondering what the advantages of the X or H design are as compared to two individual pipes? Does anyone on here have two individual pipes? If so, I would like to hear it - please post up a video.

Both X and H pipes blend the sound from each side of the block

NOT all X pipes are designed equal and do change performance a bit.

If you want to hear an engine without an X pipe, listing to the C5r or C6Rs true side pipes.

Crossover (X or H) pipes maximize exhaust scavenging, providing slightly more power than a pair of straight pipes alone. Generally a crossover tends to make the exhaust less aggressive sounding, but in the case of the LS engines, most people feel that they make the exhaust sound better, in that they tend to reduce the motor-boat sound.

<-- Love the motor boat sound at idle and at full WOT

I agree. I actually kept my stock H-pipe when I got my longtubes installed. With the Ti's it sounds great. I definately don't go with the crowd on the X-Pipe making it sound better thing...

I'm running stock manifolds and H pipe for now with my B&B bullets. The H pipe gives it that "gurgle" sound when you let off the gas and on the down shift. I like it. The x pipe will remove the gurgle from what I have been told and as someone else mentioned, a little more power. For now I'm happy with it and wont touch it.

the pop-n-gurgle sound on decel is excess fuel that is buned in the exhaust.

I like the sound.

if you run too lean a AFR then the pop-n-gurgle goes away However, then you can have other problems in #7 and #8 cylinders.

Good to have a little

Never could feel a difference between straight pipes X or H. Changed pitch some thats it.

Think dual straights have the best classic muscular sound.

When I got my Magnaflow x-pipe installed, we chopped the cross over of the h-pipe in half. I had been told it was ugly and sure enough - that nice big 2.5" crossover is only fed by a hole about 3/4" in diameter in the side of each pipe. GM really screwed the pooch on that one.

Go for a good x-pipe and don't look back.

The h pipe is to balance the pressure,not to flow the exhaust gases from right to left / left to right . You think GM was too cheap to make the balance hole larger if it needed to be?

Yes.

In my experience the popping is gone but the gurgling on decel is still there no doubt. I like it very much. 1 7/8 ARH long tubes, Magnaflow X-pipe with Ti mufflers here. Couldn't be happier with sound.

Does any manufacturer sell an individual pipe setup? I have a shop that could bend me some pipes cheap, but I would have to supply the stainless, if that's what i wanted.

I noticed a slight reduction in the gurgle/pop when I installed my off road x pipe but then again I installed longtubes at the same time and I have the SLP Loudmouths too.

If GM was cheaping out they would have eliminated the crossover all together.

The size of that hole determines how the exhaust sounds: Smaller hole = deeper more classic sound, larger = higher pitched smoother sound.

My '02 Z had the OEM H-pipe and Ti's on it when I bought it. Sounded OK, had a nice deep "bark" to it at lower revs but it mellowed out at higher RPM. It also had some cabin drone around 2K RPM when cruising fast on the hwy.

Now with LG Pro Longtubes and stock Ti's, the motorboat idle is gone (thank you!) and the low RPM vocals are smooth and mellow. The car has also picked up a high-pitched "scream", kinda hard to describe but it sounds far more aggressive than the OEM setup. Having heard cars with longtubes that still use the OEM H-pipe, I'd say the improvement in the sound due to the X-pipe alone is at least 70%.

Here's a video of my car with the LG Pros and Ti's:

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g2...oLongtubes.jpg

I also had the rare Corsa Titanium Street exhaust system on the car for a little while. It sounded really nice while driving, but the idle sounded very hollow and had a drone to it. It was a little louder than the current setup overall but was still pretty nice. I didn't like the look of the single-tip exhaust and it wouldn't work with the full length LG Pro headers, so it came off:

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g2...saTiStreet.jpg

For a daily driver, which mine definitely is, the LG Pros + Ti's is perfect. Nice and quiet cruising with absolutely no drone at any speed, beautiful "burble" starting around 1800-up when going through the gears, and a wicked scream up top when wringing it out. The LG X-pipe is responsible for this, but I'm sure a free flowing H-pipe would sound similar.

To the OP, a "true dual" exhaust with no crossover will sound very deep and agressive, but IMO is not very characteristic of a modern day sports car.

This is nothing farther from the truth. With H or X it is a means to tune not only exhaust sound but also to allow a more even flow from cylinder to cylinder. The H pipe gives more half engine order content to the sound and the X pipe gives more primary order sound. In the case of the C5 the H pipe was felt to give the best overall sound. When the C6 was in development the H pipe caused an interior boom mode that was found to be objectionable. The X pipe corrected this and was one of the driving forces to switch from the H pipe. In both X and H a portion of the exhaust is cross routed making it desirable to have less than full pipe size to allow it to work as intended. :cheers:

Speaking about smoothing the exhaust tone out I am pretty sure that Lg's x-pipe is what is helping eliminate the drone in my car. It was pretty bad before I installed the Lg's with the loudmouths and now after the install I have almost no drone and it is much quieter in the car now.