I've got an 97 Camaro Z28 with an LT1, I was curious.. has anyone added a Flowmaster American Thunder exhaust to an LT1 equipped beast? If so how does she sound compaired to the factory exhaust. Also, how loud is the American Thunder in cabin, is it extremely annoying or pretty easy to live with? I'm looking to either the Flowmaster or SLP Loudmouth...

Jason
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97 Camaro Z28

 

Both the Flowmaster and the Loudmouth sound great, but they sound very different. I had the Flowmaster on my car and loved it until it started rattling. It sounded good in the car but not too loud. Now I have a setup like the Loudmouth called the Dynomouth. Pretty much the same setup as the Loudmouth just with a Dynomax resonator instead of the Loudmouth resonator. It is alot louder, inside and outside the car. It sounds awesome though. If you are looking for something not too loud, go with the flowmaster but for power gains, I would have to say go with the Loudmouth. You should see more power with the SLP Loudmouth. Good luck.

Bo

 

i have a flowmaster. the flowmaster pipes are great, the guy who does all of the performance mods to cars in my local f-body club even tells people to get the flowmaster pipe over all others. I love the sound of the muffler too. You put some headers on her with a custom y pipe and you are scaring mustangs for miles!

 

all the lemmings will come in here sooner or later and tell you how a flowmaster is junk and try to justify their $600 Borla's. It's really quality of materials you're buying more than anything. But my Flowmaster Cat-back is almost 3 years old now and is only showing surface rust on the hanger welds now. If I had to do it again I'd get the SLP Loudmouth. I added $120 tips to my Flowmaster and could have had the loudmouth for the same overall price. Good quality stuff for a decent price.

- Brent

 

Flowmasters are jun.............oppps!!

I've had a flowmaster American Thunder catback for 2 years now and they sound great. Even better with Hooker longtubes. The only downside is they are a little restrictive but on a mostly stock car its not going to make that much of a difference. With the money you'll save by buying a flowmaster instead of a Borla you could buy headers or something else.

 

Yeah I'm wanting to push alittle more hp and have a nice sound to go with it. A buddy removed his converter in his Firebird and while he loves the sound, I'm not too crazy about the sound he recieved by doing it. A bit to raspy...

I've heard alot of good things with the SLP Loudmouth, got a cousin that has a 97 T/A with Loudmouths and he loves it. Now I just need to get up there and take a listen

Jason

 

I gained almost 13 RWHP with the Flowmaster. Go do a before and after dyno on yours after you install whatever cat-back you buy and let me know what you get.

- Brent

 

I've had my flows for 2 years now and I love them. I added 4 inch slash tips to the car and gutted my cat and it sounds awesome. I get nothing but compliments from peopleall the time.

 

I went with the Loudmouth on my Camaro and I like it, the quality is better than I expected (the tips are really nice), I may go with a Dynomax bullit to tone it down a bit. As for the Flowmaster, I have the 3 inch single system (3 chamber I think) on my '91 Z/71 truck and love it, after 7+ years its still in fine shape (I live in Seattle too) and sounds great. Flowmaster is a great product in my opinion. Also, I installed both systems myself, the fit and finish of both catbacks were excellent. The Hooker and Magnaflow would be other systems in this price range worthy of consideration IMO.

 

how about keeping your stock exhaust and going with a cut-out. What do you all think?

 

I too have the FlowMaster American Thunder and I really like the sound. I am running it through Hooker LTs and no cat. As far as being restrictive, I have been to the dyno in the past three weeks and between running through the full exhaust (what is left anyway) and through the cutout. There was NO difference in torque or horsepower. I do have some tuning issues to deal with but those will be done with soon.

BTW, I am running the stock tips. The only downside is you have to reduce the pipe diameter from 2.5" to 2.25", no biggie though.

I would be happy to send you a sound clip but right now I have the intake off of it repairing the intake leak.

Good luck and I hope I helped a little.

 

I would definately love to hear the American Thunder in action. If you can get a sound of it that would be cool.. you can mail it to pailhead@deletethis.tampabay.rr.com.

 

Back when I first started modding, I had the Flowmaster American Thunder with the tips that tucked under the bumper and SLP y-pipe. It sounded great and looked like a v6 from the rear. It gave that hollow but deep sound closest to that of the Mustang. At WOT it screamed. The sound was not intrusive in the cabin until WOT. Good power for cheap and no rust ever.

 

My very fist LT1 had the Flowmaster American Thunder 3". I had the stock tips welded back on and tucked up high so as they looked flush. I hate how one tip sags a little. The muffler was smaller then the stock one and you could barely see it. I had a set of Mac Headers with Cats and 4.10's. I used to cruise around college in 1st gear at like 10 MPH and man did i get looks. It sounded awesome. I really dont know about the performance gains as i never dynoed the car. but i do know that i improved my 1/8th time from High 9.1's to consistant 8.8's with the Macs. Headers are where you will gain IMO, and i would bolt them up to a stock catback over buying an expensive Borla.

 

Hooker cat back - maybe little quieter at idle, but louder than flowmaster above 3,000rpm