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October 2000
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MOTOR MUSIC -
Five Different Mufflers Get The Audio And Power Exam
Text And Photos By Wayne Cook
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“Let’s face it, nothing beats the sound of a healthy Ford V-8 breathing through a performance exhaust. One of the first improvements many of us make to our vintage Mustangs or special-interest Fords is in the area of mufflers. If the car has single exhaust, new mufflers behind a dual-pipe setup would be the way to go. In many instance, what we’re after is an aggressive high-performance exhaust note. In addition to great sound,
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performance enhancement is a good reason to look at a change of the mufflers on your car.”
Mike ran the tests on the 4 performance mufflers and found them all to be within 5 horsepower gain and 10 lbs of maximum torque from one another. All scored significantly better than the OEM style chamber mufflers that were installed on the car prior to the test.
“The MagnaFlow stainless steel units were the best looking and largest of the group. The MagnaFlow mufflers would be a good choice for a show-type vehicle, as the stainless steel finish would fit right in with a detailed underbody. These units has a nice, mellow sound and were surprisingly quiet given the straight-through design and produced a decibel reading of only 74 db compared to the loudest mufflers tested at 88 db.”
MagnaFlow ended up with 225 hp at 4,800 rpm compared to the OEM style at 212 hp and had a solid torque reading of 270 ft-lb compared to 165 ft-lb for the OEM style muffler.
“In the end, it’s up to you what kind of sound you want for your car, as the 4 performance mufflers all performed well. Each is available in various inlet sizes and configurations.”
“We made our evaluation of power levels on the new dyno jet at Dan’s Performance Center in Hesperia, California. Sound levels were tested using a decibel meter from Tandy/Radio Shack, and the performance mufflers were provided by Bart Phillips at Allied Muffler.”
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