Pontiac GTO 2004-2006 - exhaust question..

I just bought an 04 goat and the previous owner put headers on and deleted the cats but kept the stock mufflers and tailpipes. Kinda dumb if ya ask me, bottleneck city...but whatever. The question I have is does everybodys exhaust back crackle like some old farm truck. My LS1 camaro never did, although that was a ypipe setup. But holyshit! I plan on changing the exhaust anyway and put flows single chamber mufflers and 3" pipe all the way instead of only half the way..LOL! and an h-pipe, hopefully that will get rid of the crackling. lol!

I just bought an 04 goat and the previous owner put headers on and deleted the cats but kept the stock mufflers and tailpipes. Kinda dumb if ya ask me, bottleneck city...but whatever. The question I have is does everybodys exhaust back crackle like some old farm truck. My LS1 camaro never did, although that was a ypipe setup. But holyshit! I plan on changing the exhaust anyway and put flows single chamber mufflers and 3" pipe all the way instead of only half the way..LOL! and an h-pipe, hopefully that will get rid of the crackling. lol!

Well you gotta figure that the true duels which the GTO have are going to flow alout better than the Fbody with the Ypipe and single pipe split.... Not to mention that the exhuast has hardly any restrictions with Headers and Catless Mids regardless of having the stock CB or not.... Im running probably the most free flowing exhaust you can toss on a GTO. Headers, Catless Mids, Magnaflow Xpipe, SLP CB.... Crackling is going to be pretty much inevitable, but you can eliminate some of that by using a chambered exhaust... An Hpipe wont help with the poping and crackling, its actually more restrictive than an Xpipe, so your gonna lose some power but not enough to feel. But, your car will sound a tad bit deeper if you decide an Hpipe. Whatever you do, DO NOT go with a 3in system unless your putting some serious power down. Stick with the 2.5in. If you go with the 3in on basic mods you will actually lose HP and you dont want that.... So basically just slap on an Xpipe and a Chambered exhaust and your good to go.... Or if the crackling is that big of a problem for you just toss on some High flowing cats, GL bud.... Phil

My buddy has the same set up with stock headers, cat delete, and 10 series flowmasters. It crackles and pops at idle and is the loudest thing in town. Sounds like a farm truck with echo chambers. With the setup you're talking about, it will probably still crackle. You should lean towards something like Magnaflow or any exhaust with low back pressure!!

ehh what the hell just run straight header.....lol naw you sound like you got a good idea about what you need to do

Series 40 flomasters are cheap and sound good, my old setup was kooks, catless mids , stock catback and series 40s it sounded pretty good imo.

Our gto's have deceleration fuel cut off (dfco) which causes the pop/burble/crackle.
From what I understand, shy of getting a custom tune, we can only change how it sounds with different exhaust setups and not get rid of it.

Our gto's have deceleration fuel cut off (dfco) which causes the pop/burble/crackle.
From what I understand, shy of getting a custom tune, we can only change how it sounds with different exhaust setups and not get rid of it.

BINGO!!! The only way to get rid of it is to get a tune.

The stock '04 catback flows surprisingly well. You won't gain much other than a different sound. I made the H-pipe functional and the tone got deeper. It also quieted it down some. I have Dynatech long tubes into cats. IMHO, it sounds pretty good. Great tone and not loud.

DFCO tuning will get rid of the popping.