i have a 03 SS N/A with a cold air intake and new upper intake manifold (replaced due to the coolant leak). im wanting to do an exhaust job with a res. delete, and 2.5'' piping back to 2 Summit Racing glasspacks. has anyone done this? opinions/help/comments are greatly appreciated. thank you!

 

Havnt done it, but Im sure youll be happy with it. Are you dead set on glasspacks?? Why dont you get some nice mufflers instead? Have you ever heard a 3800 with glasspacks, its gonna sound nasty as hell man. I mean raspy, VERY RASPY. I would even go as far as comparing it to a deep ricer sound maybe?? Id do a little looking around before you g owith glasspacks AND res delete. Try some youtube vids first.

 

i have checked out a youtube vid of something similar to this (and is the only one of its kind i can find). its an 03 SS with only one summit glasspack in place of the resonator with pipes back from there. the video only shows the car idling, so idk what it sounds like in the higher rpms. i have looked into other mufflers, especially the flowmaster super 44's, but they are too expensive for me, and others i have found on youtube (dynomax, magnaflow, borla, cherry bomb etc.) arent loud enough. if i do go the route of a good pair of mufflers, would it be a bad idea to take the res. off anyway? as you said, it makes it very raspy. thats exactly the opposite of what i want it to sound like. i guess to sum it up, i could say i want flowmaster tone and sound for less than $80 a muffler.

 

Why not just remove the muffler(s), and go from there. Leave everything else completely alone, just straight pipe instead of mufflers. Thoughts?

 

mabye. i never thought of that. but what about performance-wise? wouldnt the aftermarket glasspack ($20 a piece) be better than the stock resonator for exhaust flow?

 

IMO from the many exhausts I have heard and personal setups I have had. Nothing sounds better than a full resonator and 2 muffler setup. Either way the way GM designed the crossover to 1 pipe setup makes all W-bodies sound like crap no matter how you slice it. But over all I'd say a res and 2 mufflers, delete the u-bend and up the pipe sizing. Anything else equals drone and raspy sounds on high end.

 

thanks for the input, PacerSS, but that would cost too much. lol im just a poor college boy trying to have some fun. my spending limit is $250

 

There really isn't much of a difference in "flow" between a resonator and a glasspack. Both are straight through designs, one just has fiberglass insulation to deaden sound, but that'll burn off eventually too.

 

ahhh, i see, i see. if i go that way then with just the resonator, will there be a lot of rasp? and it's only gonna cost me for the 2.5'' piping and labor at the shop, am i right?

 

It's hard to make a 3800 sound good. Honestly, if sound is all you're after save your money- it'll probably sound crappy when your done- if you want a nice sounding car, either go crazy and drop a cam into your Monte or buy something with a smallblock V8.