Flowmaster Question

[marc201]

Hey Guys I have a 84 SVO-T3/T4 W/ 3in down pipe to a 3in cat to a 3in Flowmaster and all the connecting pipe and exhuast pipe is 2.5 inch.
My question is
How badly does the Flowmaster mess up my exhuast?
I was unaware of the problem with them when I brought the Exhuast back in
1997. And I guess I should have checked before I had it put on. Will it ruin my T3/T4?

[sar4497]

It's bad enough to see a difference on the dyno, but not bad enough to ruin your life. I know a few guys who run Flowmasters on high powered TurboFords, just because they prefer the sound. Mufflers are fairly cheap, so personally, I would swap it out.

I'd fix the 2.5" connecting pipe first.

[DAVEZ84SVO]

I don't think that the Flowmaster muffler will ruin anything.. I have a Flowmaster on my car for the moment cause at the time it was really cheap(New in the box for only $25).. The turbocharged cars like to have a straight-through type muffler like a Magnaflow style.. The Flowmaster mufflers create some back pressure in the exhaust & it will make the turbo work harder than it would with a straight-through style muffler.. So there would be some power loss, but I don't think that it will hurt anything engine wise..

HTH Dave

[svobrown]

Love the sound, Drive it and be happy.

[SVO4PWR2]

i would like to see dyno results....

-RICH-

[FoxXxSVO]

im running full 3 inch to a flowmaster and it sounds plain nasty, i even wonder sometimes at idle if i was in a cammed GT with the way it idled with the old computer and 35# injectors

[NsTyFoX]

mac is good to but really loud

[at8tc]

how well does a 3inch borla sound/perform on a 2.3t?? i have 2.5 flowmaster dumped at the rear axle right now, and it sounds mean but the car felt quicker with a 2.5 dynomax. im thinking of going to a holset and running 3inc all the way to a borla and side exit. i wonder what it will sound like.

[84svoracer]

i would like to see dyno results....

-RICH-

I'll second that, has anyone done a comparison between a strait-thrru design compared to a chambered muffler like a flomaster?

[Otto Man]

I have 2-chamber Flowmaster's on mine, like the sound, seems to have good power. To each his own.

[NavySVO]

i would like to see dyno results

I think Spintech should be thrown in the competition as well......they are supposedly a better flowing muffler....

[svobrown]

how well does a 3inch borla sound/perform on a 2.3t?? i have 2.5 flowmaster dumped at the rear axle right now, and it sounds mean but the car felt quicker with a 2.5 dynomax. im thinking of going to a holset and running 3inc all the way to a borla and side exit. i wonder what it will sound like.

I have the 3" borla and it is very quiet! It does get louder as it get very hot. Love the sound of the engine, then the borla is a good choice.

[SVturbO]

I have dual 2.5" Magnaflows and am very happy. It's a relatively quiet setup (3" d/p, no cat, pipes out the back) without much highway drone, it does have a good tight sound at idle and when you get on it....

Turbo certainly spools up faster than it did with whatever tin can was on the car before.

[sar4497]

I'll second that, has anyone done a comparison between a strait-thrru design compared to a chambered muffler like a flomaster?

I know the evidence is out there on forums because I've seen it, but you'll have to do some digging. Here's one thing I found after a quick search:

when i bought it last summer it made 179hp/254ft-lbs

since then i swapped out the flowmaster for a dynomax bullet (from a merkur), added a spec flywheel and clutch (from the ranger), magnecors (off ranger) and the colder plugs, everything else was adjustments

ended up making 218hp/284ft-lbs @ 11.5:1 a/f on 94 octane (texaco 101/87)

http://www.turboford.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=019571

This isn't a straight up comparison because he changed other stuff, but 39 hp is hard to ignore.

[84svoracer]

This isn't a straight up comparison because he changed other stuff, but 39 hp is hard to ignore.[/QUOTE]

I did a lot of searching and couldn't find any direct comparisons between the 2 types of mufflers with dyno numbers in this forum. I was able to find a dyno comparison doing the muffler swaps between flowmasters and dynomax ultraflows on a turbo'd 5.0 car running at 10psi. The car appears to gain about 17hp and 30 ft-lbs of torque, but the article says that w/ the flowmasters the car also had the stock 2 1/4" tailpipes so this also could be another variable.

IMO the flowmaster vs strait thru mufflers in a mostly stock car is probably a very minimal power difference. Here's a link to the article if anyone wants to read about the comparison http://www.theturboforums.com/mufflerswap.php