Is it worth it to upgrade the exhaust on a 3.8L SS for better sound? I like the nice low rumble I get from my car when lightly accelerating, but I want to make that more pronounced and also get a nice noticeable exhaust sound at idle. I'm curious if putting some Flowmasters or Magnaflow mufflers or even a larger diameter cat-back setup on these cars makes them sound better and is it worth the money? What do you guys that aren't running stock exhaust have on your cars?

 

Id spend some time on YouTube looking at exhaust on various 3800 cars (grand prix, impala, monte carlo, etc - its all the same exhaust wise when modded), before touching anything. Given the firing order, the 3800 is typically regarded as being a bad sounding engine. In general, the louder the exhaust system, the more raspy it gets. Certainly there's an element of personal preference though / tolerance for a raspy exhaust note. Id just hate to see you blindly spend money on a catback just to go "ick, that's not the performance sound I was looking for".

There is a recent development in 3800 exhaust sound that makes a major impact/ improvement in sound quality - the zzp equalizer headers. They were specifically designed to alter the exhaust note to something more bearable with louder exhaust - almost like a deep version of a Nissan VQ.

Unless your stock system is rotted out, I wouldnt do a full catback. Theres virtually 0 power to be gained with the larger piping, and the sound isn't really any different from stock exhaust piping with different muffler since the routing is identical. They're also very expensive.

If you want to change the exhaust sound - Id start swapping components on the existing piping. But again, Id definitely spend some time on YouTube watching videos first, or even better finding local members to hear some setups in person. Depending on how you end up feeling about the exhaust sound, there may only be a small sliver of exhaust setups you'd be ok with.

TOG extreme headers, 3" DP with 3" electric cutout, 3" piping (rust belt car, stock exhaust was an unusable rusty mess) back to a single Magnaflow muffler.

I love the idle as I have a big cam. Tone / volume / etc is perfect - I could put it in park and listen to it all day. Literally every other throttle position sounds flat out awful. When I had the exhaust done, we stuck on probably half a dozen mufflers at the exhaust shop to hear how they sounded and I liked this one the best of what they had in stock. But I'm not remotely happy with the sound driving around.

I've thought about trying to mess with different setups from time to time, but as Ive never heard any non turbo 3800 that sounded good to me in person, I think I'd probably just be chasing my tail. May stick a resonator on there at some point to take some of the edge off. Ive got the cutout if I want loud, so Id be happier with it quieter going through the whole system.

 

Powerlog, full 3" exhaust with a single Flowmaster Deltaflow 40 Series. Sounds good and loud at idle. The size and type of the exhaust tip makes a huge difference also. I bought different tips to bolt on, and the smaller the tip(s), the quieter it was.