what do you look for in mufflers, companies, which one are best for racing, everyday drving, things like that, if yall come help it out on this it would be great. thanks

MagnaFlow. Best, sounds and performs the best to the SS/SC. Unless you have a SS/TC, then maybe still MagnaFlow, but with a 3" downpipe and 2.75" the rest of the way down.

Increased gas mileage, and not too much noise at cruising speed. Loud when accelerated. :) Hope that helps.

Whichever one makes more powa!!! LOL.

Magnaflow Race Series for all out performance and "LOUD" exhaust notes

Magnaflow Street Series still a straight through muffler just "QUIETER"

But NO muffler is going to do shit unless you do the rest of the piping too...

SS/SC 2.5-2.75" piping (unless heavily modded) is the money zone usually!

SS/TC 2.75-3" piping (depending on mods).

Really depends on how much noise you want to live with. Turbo cars hate backpressure, so really, the bigger the better, (at least usually).

If you have the Turbo Cobalt, go with the Hahn 3.0"

If you have the Supercharged cobalt go with either the Hahn 3.0" or the Magnaflow...

All aftermarket performance mufflers yield the same horsepower and don't let anyone tell you different. Catbacks are a different story, but only a 1-3hp difference between each company due to mandrel-bent pipes and pipe diameter. What I would look for in a muffler is quality sound and stainless steel.

what if you cut out the cats and resonator, and just run magnaflow. and ive also been wondering if you do side exhausts if you'd create more power, since it has less piping to travel through?

I recommend high flow Cats instead of removing all together. You need the back-pressure that the Cats create. Most cases you will lose power by deleting. I would only recommend that on V8's and some V6's.

I recommend high flow Cats instead of removing all together. You need the back-pressure that the Cats create. Most cases you will lose power by deleting. I would only recommend that on V8's and some V6's.

Absolutely wrong.

High flow cats do not create back pressure, since they are high flow.

The supercharger works off of exhaust velocity. The more air the goes out, the more air it can suck in, thus, creating power.

Backpressure kills velocity. And so does going with a exhaust that is wayy to big (in some cases, 3" is too big).

Backpressure is not good. Velocity is good. Promise.

High-flow cats do create back pressure, not alot but they do. Its not the same as having just straight pipe. High flow means just that, higher flow than stock but not FREE-flow Cat.

And for a 4 cyl (unless your boosting 25 psi) too much velocity is not gonna help gain HP. You may get more torque, but at higher rpm's you will fall on your face.

High-flow cats do create back pressure, not alot but they do. Its not the same as having just straight pipe. High flow means just that, higher flow than stock but not FREE-flow Cat.

And for a 4 cyl (unless your boosting 25 psi) too much velocity is not gonna help gain HP. You may get more torque, but at higher rpm's you will fall on your face.

Sorry sir. that is still incorrect.

You do NOT want back pressure.... ill explain.

the engine is a pump. The faster air can get out, the more it can bring it, combust, and make power.
if there is a restriction, or a backpressure, the air cannot escape as fast as it can, which disallows more air to enter the engine, thus reducing power.

You want as much velocity as possible. Notice how if you get headers, your boost may drop? Thats because there is less backpressure (restriction) allowing air to move at a faster pace. since the air is flower faster, the supercharger will move more air, with less boost, which increases efficiency.

you do NOT want backpressure.

I agree that you want as little back pressure as possible, i'm just saying that too much flow will sometimes cause the exhaust to reverse on itself and start flowing backwards, which isn't good

I agree that you want as little back pressure as possible, i'm just saying that too much flow will sometimes cause the exhaust to reverse on itself and start flowing backwards, which isn't good

This does not happen with our cars.

the more velocity, the better.

I'm just gonna stop. I wouldn't cut the Cat out of THESE cars because of how freakin touchy that damn computer is. Just my opinion. We all have one

I guess cutting the Cat and putting in a pipe 1/4" smaller than the stock pipe would be pretty effective.

What I was targetting earlier were the guys who like to cut out everything and put some big ass pipes all the way through, then they wonder why it lost a crap load of power

I totally agree with you that more velocity is better. IMO I would still put a high flow Cat simply because it will catch all that crap from the engine before it hits your muffler, and in turn clogging that up

exactly. preference is preference...

i dont have a cat... but im turbo... and a 3" turbo back exhaust is needed to run things efficiently...

if your stage 2, and put on a 3".. your going to lose power because your going to lower velocity...

me, hitting over 300hp... will require a 3" exhaust....

you guys had a nice debate lol. just kiddin with ya guys. but i just have an ls, i dont have an ss or ss/sc, ss/tc. i wasnt gonna run bigger/wider pipes, i was just wondering about cutting the cats, and going side exhausts. in reading what you guys said, if you did side exhausts the air will flow faster, in not having to flow straight out the back. correct me if im wrong. im just just to get as much power out as possible with minor bolt ons. im not into having the fastest car. i just am looking stuff that people, dont have or rarely have.

I wouldn't recommend going with too wide of a pipe, maybe 1/4"-1/2" wider. Like stated above, you want velocity. Picture looking at a hose. While running normal, water comes out slow and steady, but when you put your finger over it, it comes out alot faster. Just like with water, air travels faster when it enters a narrower opening.

Any exhaust shop that knows what they're doing should know this and should be able to tell you the exact type and size of piping you will need to make good HP and Torque gains

BTW, side exhaust would be super bad ass if you can pull that off!!!

Hell yea... Im actually thinking about doing something like that... Or i was gonna split things up and go dual exit...

with the ls... you should not go bigger than a 2.25" exhaust. If your pushing good power, a 2.5 is the ABSOLUTE biggest on the ls you should go.... but if your just doing some bolt ons, a 2.25 would be perfect....

High-flow cats shouldn't rob any significant horsepower. There have been many documented tests to prove this. One test I remember off the top of my head is an LS1 vette losing 3 horsepower with one. As far as power, I wouldn't worry too much about anything after the converter. Once the exhaust reaches that point, nothing you do will affect anything, unless you DECREASE the diameter. You should be more concerned with your header's primary lengths/diameters and it's configuration (tri-Y or 4-to-1 collector) because that's where you'll see the most power gains. Remember not to go too big because you'll lose all of your exhaust scavenging (biggest advantage of tri-y headers). If you didn't know, the effect of scavenging increases mostly torque, not especially horsepower. A side-exit exhaust will look cool, but don't think it'll increase horsepower at all. As stated before, you can dump your exhaust right after the cat and you won't see any over a full system because the speed of the gasses are slowed enormously to the point where nothing will help. This is one reason why rear-mounted turbos are not preferred in reference to power.

^^ Awesome. Someone else understands and knows what they are talking about.

i didnt plan on going any bigger or smaller. i just planned on cutting the stuff out to get some noise, and get nice magnaflow to help get some hp. dual side exhausts, im trying to photoshop my car with side exhausts to see what i could be looking at

Here's a photoshopped red one.
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/sdm1234/sscobaltsideexhaust.jpg

Here's another photoshop job.
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/sdm1234/sscobaltsideexhaust2.jpg

I dont know... i mean.. personal preference is just that.

I think 1 tip on each side in the rear looks awesome.

SDMWS6 did a good job. something like that, flatter, smaller tip though. and only one. i dont know what do you guys think?

I dont think it would look right,, imo.

But, i aint gonna hate if you like it.

Don't make me put on corvette sidepipes lol

ive seen a cobalt with what looked like Roush side exhaust tips. He even modified his side skirts. It looked good, but sounded like ass.