Ok here's the deal. I've got $400 to spend on an exhaust, what do I buy?
My car is a '96 Z, six speed, and all stock. I've been trying to decide what type of exhaust to buy . I know there have been alot of threads about exhuast systems and such, but most of those cars have mods to compliment the exhaust system. Should I keep the same configuration or change to a true-dual? Flowmaster? Loudmouth? (Save more money and go for a Borla?)
I really like the sound of the original 40 Series from flowmaster. Never have heard a Loudmouth in person and same goes for the borla. I don't want to loose any power or fuel economy, just get some more sound and unleash the beast under the hood

I know if there is anyone who can help, you guys would be the one's.

Thanks, for all your help in advance.

 

IMHO, I would say: Buy an Electrical Cutout to hold you over until you get enough money to buy headers. A cutout Sounds meaner than any catback I have heard. I would put a cutout up against any Catback in a head to head comparison based on Sound/Power/Value ($$$).

Plus its totally adjustable, and can be purchased for roughly $150.

 

If you don't decide to buy an E-cutout, which is honestly the best way to go for bang for the buck, wait until a vendor on here has a sale. There might even be one going on right now, because you can save 25% a lot of the time on exhaust systems. Then you could be a lot closer to buying a cold air intake with the money left over, or investing in some subframe connectors.

Edit: For what it is worth, the loudmouth is very loud. My dad has a 97 SS with the 2 on the left, and it sounds pretty good. My hooker sounds good, I personally think much better than flows( I think they sound raspy and crappy on stock f-body's personally), but I can't suggest Borla. Some people like the sound but for the price it just isn't worth it.

 

I think I saw a used borla for 300 over in the FS section....other than that I was really happy with my Random Technology cat-back before I got the Corsa.

 

I remember when I had a few hundred bucks I got the hooker catback and loved it. You can also get some clear high temp exhaust coating and spray it down it'll be an extra 10bux or so but it will help prevent rusting. After that save up and get some headers and you'll be good 2 go

 

How about a nice set of 4.10's?

Hrm.......install could be a bit more than 4 though.....

 

catback and a cai...then headers

 

Flowmaster flows like junk...take a looks at texas-speed.com rumbler great system, as loud as the loudmouth without the rasp and best of allonly 275 bucks

 

cut-out hands down.. i have one.. its great... compliments all the time on it...

cory

PS - if not electric.. i can have the plate off in 2 min... and put back on in 2 min.. i leave it off.. not that loud...

 

Thanks for all the input guys, I really appreciate it. I've done some research
on the cutout's and found some electric ones for about $220 and manual ones for $40. Still not sure what I wanna do. I bought this car 8 months ago and it had about 75,000 miles on it. I've been driving it to work because the gas mileage is better than 16mpg, in my '03 2500HD 4x4, and with gas prices going sky high, I can't complain with 24mpg in the Z.
I have one more issue with this car though. I'm not sure if it's the exhaust or what . I notice when I'm crusing at low speed in a parking lot(around 15mph in second gear) I hear a noise that sounds like it's coming from rear right-hand side of the exhaust. It's hard to explain the noise with text, but it's just a pop, pop, pop noise. Not the same as sitting in neutral and reving it up and getting a back fire. It always seems to do it when I'm "Lugging" in a gear. Not only in second but all gears, ex. 5th @ 1500rpm.
Could it be that I have an exhaust leak or a hole in one of the pipes? I've heard other people on this site talk about how they enjoy the so called "back-firing" of their cars, and how they can time it precisley to scare the crap out of people, but mine is down right embarassing.
Thanks for all the help again.