Small Block & Big Block Chevy Specific - Which Exhaust

Hey guys My 355 swap is almost done and I was wondering what muffler would be best for my application. Its a 355 with Vortec heads, mild Comp XE cam, RPM intake, Holley 600 Carb, and Hooker Comp Shorty headers. The Cat has also been deleted, along with all emissions crap. Which, in your opinion, is the best flowing muffler to use? Which is the best in terms of sound quality? Im looking for something that sounds awesome and flows just as good...

Right now I have a Flowmaster catback, it sounded decent on the 305. Not sure what series it is since it was already on the car. Only reason Im asking is because I heard that Flowmaster sucks as far as flow goes for the 4th gens, and I wasnt sure if this was the case for all sbc's.

Personally, i like my straight pipe all the way out the back. Works great, it is loud under full throttly and normal when driving around.

Mabnaflows I picked up 2 tenths on every car I took the flowmasters off of and put magnaflows onto.

MAGNAFLOW IS THE BEST MUFFLER MADE! buy it, use it....... live it! lol

hey zone by straight pipe do you mean you have two pipes running from your headers all the way back?

Would you get more power that way or with mufflers on? I heard somewhere that you actually gain power by using certain mufflers as opposed to none at all. Is that true?

This is all they way out the back, that way there is still a bit of backpressure to keep from losing all your low end torque. With the old motor, i went 8.6 in the 1/8th with the cutouts closed, straight pipe. With the cutouts open it dropped to 8.4. So, that might give you a idea of backpressure.

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t74/ZONES89RS/th_Picture160.jpg (http://s157.photobucket.com/albums/t74/ZONES89RS/?action=view&current=Picture160.flv)

so what would be better in terms of power, straight pipe out the back or pipe with mufflers?

Well, HP wise, straight pipe has less backpressure. It still has it but not tons. As for mileage, a muffler will help stop and go driving.

So the straight pipe would have more HP?

yeah i dont know if you ever had a new setup and have not gone to the muffler shop yet and rode around but the car will be kinda rough and not fun to drive at times along with it being ridiculasly loud..... and then you get it sealed up and the exaust on and it drives like a whole different car? if we are talking about a race car that only needs to run great at wide open throttle then run wide open exaust but if you want better street mannors, no gas smell on your clothing 24/7, and dont want to be too loud run the pipes out the back with a muffler on there.....and use a magnaflow!

F the muffler:)