hey guys im in the process of putting a 3.4l pushrod engine in my 87 gt and even though i should worry about reassembling everything im already thinking ahead of how my car is going to sound. so anyways i am just looking for a muffler to replace my stock one. all im really looking to do is, cut the old one out and weld a new (hopefully more mean) one in. any ideas on where or what to get? which ones sound better than another? thanks in advance!
If you don't have emissions inspections, consider just removing the catalytic converter. My 87 with a 3.4, stock muffler with no cat sounds reasonably aggressive, both at idle and at throttle but is still soft on the ears at highway cruising speeds.
i was debating about just taking the cat out and going straight pipes but if i ever moved to somewhere where they require emissions i would have to put one in. thats why im thinking just a muffler emplacement.
It could be accomplished pretty easily. If you cut out the cat, then had a muffler shop cut a length of pipe about 6 inches longer, flare it on the upstream end so it would slip over the header downpipe, and reduce the downstream end so it would slip into the exhaust end, you could clamp it as a non-welded pipe. Then if you needed, just reweld the cat as the spacing would already be correct. It would also be easy to go back with the cat and different muffler if the sound wasn't what you wanted.
Keep a cat. Having it there or not doesn't make any huge difference in sound or performance. A new replacement cat will flow well more than the engine needs to.
I have the Pacesetter cat-back system with "performance" cat from The Fiero Store on my 2.8 car. It flows well and is plenty aggressive. It, the Borla, or the Spintech muffler are probably the most "aggressive" sounding ones that you'll find anywhere that are made to fit in as stock replacements for the Fiero.
im mostly looking for an aggressive muscle v8 kind of sound. i like the idea of cutting the cat out and putting the clamp on. but ive also heard some 3.4l camaro/firebird straight pipes and some sounded good however others were awful, it just sounded like a rattle can or something at high rpms.
A simple search or two would have landed you with those results. I don't think the Borla Fiero-specific system is available any more, but you could find one of their mufflers that will likely fit in the stock Fiero location.
No matter what you do though, you're not going to have it sound like a V8. If you want a V8 sound, swap in a V8. It's the only way you're going to get it. The V6 Fiero sound is fairly aggressive with stock exhaust, and even more so with any of those mufflers or systems. However, it's not a deep V8 sound, if that's what you're expecting, and it will be a bit raspy, especially in higher RPMs. The stock 2.8 falls off after about 4000 RPM anyway, so revving much higher than that before shifting, is pretty much a total waste of gas. All you're doing at that point is making noise.
i did search that and i am not going to pay $180 for the muffler/exhaust. i think im going with the flowmaster 40 series for $75 and ill clamp it in or my brother in law may weld it in for me. thanks for everyones help!
I am running the Ocelet cat back exhaust with out the cat. I often get asked if I have a V8 in my GT. It's easy enough to put the cat back in if you need it.
