Not really loving the Dynamax Ultra Flo mufflers so far

[Dino]

They are not horrible by any means, and there's no drone or anything, there's just something missing. Idle sounds pretty good. WOT sounds good. Cruising...meh. My Torino has cherry bombs and my 59 has stock manifolds and full length pipes without mufflers. Both sound better but I can hear the radio on n the Charger.    Maybe I should try something a little more open on the Charger. Or maybe I need to give these more time to settle in? Oh well. First world problems.

[Mike DC]

 
Mufflers are such a personal preference thing.  It's like asking what wheel/tire size looks good. 

Youtube is an easy place to compare A TON of different exhaust combos.  You can't really judge raw volumes in video clips but you can sample different tones.   

Old-school cherry bombs sound cool but they blow out in a few thousand miles.  You can buy Porters though (glasspacks packed with stainless steel wool instead of fiberglass).  Powersticks are another option to get a straight-through sound without fiberglass packing.   

[Kern Dog]

They are not horrible by any means, and there's no drone or anything, there's just something missing. Idle sounds pretty good. WOT sounds good. Cruising...meh. My Torino has cherry bombs and my 59 has stock manifolds and full length pipes without mufflers. Both sound better but I can hear the radio on n the Charger.    Maybe I should try something a little more open on the Charger. Or maybe I need to give these more time to settle in? Oh well. First world problems.

I agree with you on the opinion of these mufflers. I have them in my Charger along with 2" headers and 3" exhaust with an X pipe. I have a pretty rowdy cam but the car sounds too tame for me at cruise. There isn't that **snap** or **crackle** that this engine should make. The Ultra Flos cut out the sharps of the exhaust pulses a bit more than I like. I had Flowmasters before. I loved how they sounded at idle and at WOT. Even short drives were great. Long drives though...   
I like to take road trips in the car. I drove to Los Angeles and back in 2011 with Flowmasters and while it didn't drone, it reverberated a lot at freeway cruise speed. It wasn't as if I couldn't hold a conversation while on the freeway but the exhaust "noise" was too much for me.
Is there something in between?
I only went with the Ultra Flo because I read that they had less restriction and back pressure than any other muffler. I'd go back to Flowmasters if I knew of someone that had them on their car so I could hear them.

[b5blue]

Bone stock HP sound is best in my book. 

[Dino]

I have HP manifolds, 2.5" TTI with H-pipe, and the Ultra Flows. The manifolds are a big improvement over the thin sound the headers made under the hood, but the old worn out Wagner mufflers on stock pipes sounded great. KD I think you hit the nail on the head; it's like the high frequencies have been filtered out and I'm missing part of what makes a big block sound so good. I'll give these more time, but if they don't improve then I'll change them out. Mike I'll check those out. I wonder what it sounds like if I replace the mufflers with resonators, or cats.

[John_Kunkel]

Bone stock HP sound is best in my book. 

Yep, the good old factory Hemi mufflers are hard to beat. Any performance gain from the hyped mufflers won't be felt in the seat of your pants. 

[Mike DC]

 
I agree that aftermarket mufflers don't really make seat-of-the-pants horsepower gains.  For a street car you might as well just choose them based on sound alone.

It's always the compromise between cool hot-rod sound vs drone when you're cruising.

[Kern Dog]

There are surely some sort of charts that plot the sound waves that are generated by an exhaust system.
When people use the word "drone", I interpret that as a somewhat steady and even hum that drills a hole through your head when listening to it very long. It is probably RPM dependent as well as camshaft timing dependent.
I never had that with my car. I had a peaky and repetitive reverberation, a throbbing of sorts. All other engine speeds were met with a sweet exhaust sound...Idle, WOT, rpms climbing and falling were all great. It was the steady engine speed at freeway travel that the Flowmasters were terrible. I had the 42451 series.
As stated, the exhaust tone is a very subjective thing. You guys that prefer the stock mufflers might cringe at what I like. It is as subjective as a smell, a taste or the shape of a woman. Some dudes like a fuller figured woman, others may like a thin and athletic type. Neither are wrong.

[Dino]

Maybe I need to try the hemi mufflers. I bought these solely for the good reviews. I have only 2 rules: great sound, no drone.

[Kern Dog]

That "drone" that is a concern is heavily influenced by the rest of your combination. I have found that manifolds are far more likely to induce drone than headers are.

[marshallfry01]

Can you post a short video of how they sound? That's what I'm planning on using on my 69 with a really mild 383. I just want a good sound at idle and WOT. I don't want a drone at cruise. I do a lot of driving and loud exhaust gets on my nerves on long road trips.

[70 sublime]

My last Charger  had a very bad drone at cruise speed when you lifted your foot off the gas pedal a little once you got up to speed

It sounded great when you first started it and when you stomped on the gas but for any kind of distance trip it was no fun at all

What mufflers would sound like they did when the cars were built new ??

[b5blue]

They had a low gurgling rumble that increased to a steady roar with RPM's. 

[lloyd3]

I've had Cherry Bombs and the turbo-flow mufflers on earlier cars and neither sounded better to me than the stock hemi-mufflers.

As a much-younger man, my neighbors hated the Cherry Bombs on my Roadrunner (& probably for good reason).  For purely nostalgic reasons, I've kept the stock set-up on my car (H-pipe and hemis) and it really has been the best sounding one for me yet. There is a little 440 4-gear drone occasionally, but in general I really like the effect. You can have a conversation (both during idle and when going down the road) and you can actually hear the radio/tape deck without blasting it. The whole neighborhood still likely knows when I start it (the low rumble of that big block is hard to miss, you can almost "feel" it, even at some distance), but it isn't offensive, popping, or back-rappy. And finally, you can hear those 4428S Carter carb secondaries come open at full-throttle (love the "moan") and it sounds just like what I remember from my youth, which for me is still pretty neat.

Maybe the best part of it all is that 440 sound at idle...pure music!

[Kern Dog]

One thing that I wish I had was that growl on the down-rev in between gears. If you need an example, the soundtrack of the Mustang in Bullitt had that sound in the highway scene before the Charger went off the street and into the gas pumps to explode.
That rasp, the gurgle as the engine revs down when the transmission is UPshifted just sounds great to me. The Ultra Flos don't have that. Flowmasters might but I don't know. I had a 727 in the car when I had Flowmasters.

[timmycharger]

I am still running Flowmasters that I had installed in the late 1990's.  They sat on a shelf for 15 or so years while I restored the car and since I removed them so cleanly, I just welded them back on.

I wouldnt say that they drone or anything like that, they actually sound really good and I absolutely love the sound it makes when I downshift or let off the gas while in a lower gear, sometimes get that light popping sound. Its just too loud for my opinion for cruising and highway travel.

My plan is to go a quieter exhaust system after I build my  next 440.  Right now I have an H pipe with cutouts that have not been uncorked in 20+ years with the flowmasters but I will be going for the Hemi mufflers and H pipe setup in the future.

Future plans for this car will include long distance driving and the loud exhaust simply won't work for me, maybe when I was in my 20s when I installed the Flowmasters in the first place but now I am over 50 with really bad tinnitus in my left ear so I need to make it as enjoyable as possible.

[Dino]

One thing that I wish I had was that growl on the down-rev in between gears. If you need an example, the soundtrack of the Mustang in Bullitt had that sound in the highway scene before the Charger went off the street and into the gas pumps to explode.
That rasp, the gurgle as the engine revs down when the transmission is UPshifted just sounds great to me. The Ultra Flos don't have that. Flowmasters might but I don't know. I had a 727 in the car when I had Flowmasters.

That Mustang sound is why I'm still trying to get a 5 speed behind the 440. That sound is hard to beat.

[Kern Dog]

The sound of a car before catalytic converters is unique. Converters take out the sharps of the exhaust tone. The glass pack type mufflers like the old Cherry Bombs, the MagnaFlow and Ultra Flo take the bite out of the tone. If you like that, good for you. I don't. To me, it sounds neutered.
I tried to accept the milder tone with these UFs after dealing with 42451 Flowmasters for 12-14 years.
When I hear a rumbly exhaust on a car, I feel an excitement similar to when a woman with sweet perfume walks by. It amps me up and I want in on that.
Reading from guys that are happy with OEM style mufflers makes me shake my head. I see these as performance cars and to me, that means a rumbly exhaust note, not a gentle hum.
I modify the exhaust on every vehicle I own. The 2007 Truck has a Flowmaster, the Challenger the wife drives had the middle mufflers removed and replaced with straight pipes.
I don't care for open exhaust or exhaust cutouts though. Some guys LOVE that but for me, it goes too far.

[Back N Black]

I have the ultra flows on the charger and flow masters on the Dart(383). The Dart sounds way better than the charger, louder but better.

[timmycharger]

The sound of a car before catalytic converters is unique. Converters take out the sharps of the exhaust tone. The glass pack type mufflers like the old Cherry Bombs, the MagnaFlow and Ultra Flo take the bite out of the tone. If you like that, good for you. I don't. To me, it sounds neutered.
I tried to accept the milder tone with these UFs after dealing with 42451 Flowmasters for 12-14 years.
When I hear a rumbly exhaust on a car, I feel an excitement similar to when a woman with sweet perfume walks by. It amps me up and I want in on that.
Reading from guys that are happy with OEM style mufflers makes me shake my head. I see these as performance cars and to me, that means a rumbly exhaust note, not a gentle hum.
I modify the exhaust on every vehicle I own. The 2007 Truck has a Flowmaster, the Challenger the wife drives had the middle mufflers removed and replaced with straight pipes.
I don't care for open exhaust or exhaust cutouts though. Some guys LOVE that but for me, it goes too far.

Ha! love the perfume analogy but I don't know man, just because its loud doesn't really mean its going to be fast. I hear loud cars all the time around me and I feel like these guys are posers and want to show off.

Even with stock exhaust, a properly built big block with a lumpy cam will sound great without the "hey everyone, look at me!" part.  The car attracts enough attention as it is haha.

 

[Kern Dog]

I am not as concerned with impressing others as I am with impressing myself. I love a rumbly exhaust.
I was a kid once and the LOUD seemed really cool back then.
My 2007 Dodge truck came with 3 catalytic converters, a muffler the size of a trash can and a resonator. It was as silent as a Prius. I hate that. No V8 should be that silent, man!

[Mike DC]

         
https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/money-company/story/2008-09-05/study-maserati-appeals-to-the-basic-instinct

           

[Kern Dog]

I don't like links that expect viewers to disable ad blockers or to subscribe to read the article.

[Mike DC]

   
It's an article about a study on engine noises and Testosterone levels.  A revving Maserati V8 sound elevated the women's Test levels (read: made them more horny).  The sound of a VW engine reduced it.   

[lloyd3]

KD: I get it. I got laid alot in that old Roadrunner (still probably have a dent in the top of my head from the window crank in that backseat).  Lime green and loud works (at least it did back then). My 20-year old son tells me that doesn't work quite so-well nowadays (at least with modern [read liberal & woke] college girls). I keep telling him to find a nice farm girl (for lots of reasons).

Oh well...

[Back N Black]

I am not as concerned with impressing others as I am with impressing myself. I love a rumbly exhaust.
I was a kid once and the LOUD seemed really cool back then.
My 2007 Dodge truck came with 3 catalytic converters, a muffler the size of a trash can and a resonator. It was as silent as a Prius. I hate that. No V8 should be that silent, man!

What about emission testing on your truck? Here in Canada your vehicle has to be inspected yearly, would not get away with modified exhaust.

[Kern Dog]

In this country, even California, changes downstream from the Catalytic converters are legal.
The term Cat Back exhaust refers to mufflers or increased diameter pipes that are installed after the converters.

[Kern Dog]

KD: I get it. I got laid alot in that old Roadrunner (still probably have a dent in the top of my head from the window crank in that backseat).  Lime green and loud works (at least it did back then). My 20-year old son tells me that doesn't work quite so-well nowadays (at least with modern [read liberal & woke] college girls). I keep telling him to find a nice farm girl (for lots of reasons).

Oh well...

Those are the types of girls I'd prefer. I'd rather have a woman with some decent morals and the ability to cook and solve real world problems.... rather than march in a protest, dye their hair blue and defile themselves with ink and piercings.

[Dino]

Can you post a short video of how they sound? That's what I'm planning on using on my 69 with a really mild 383. I just want a good sound at idle and WOT. I don't want a drone at cruise. I do a lot of driving and loud exhaust gets on my nerves on long road trips.

Give me a few more days. I just got the transmission back in. I need to do an alignment and tighten some loose ends. I'll get a video behind the car, inside, and driving. There's a short video in my recent kickdown thread.

Do the hemi mufflers only come with 2.5" inlet and 2 1/4 outlet? I'd like to find something that's a direct replacement for the Ultra Flows but I can sleeve it if needed. I don't want to cut and weld any part of the TTI system though.

[b5blue]

Check with Mancini? 

[Dino]

I read a few posts that claim the Dynomax Super Turbo's used to be known as the Super Hemi Turbo's and are practically a copy. I checked some video clips and they do sound good. Much quieter but that's probably not a bad thing. They still sound good wide open.

Dynomax 17748 is the one designed for the TTI system. Same size as my current Ultra Flows. On clearance at Walmart. $46.39 shipped for the pair! Savings of $96.22! Let's try these puppies.

[Mike DC]

   
I like the sound quality/tone of the stock-type Dynomax STs. 

The most common complaint about those is that they just aren't loud/rowdy enough for many people's tastes.

[Dino]

They definitely are much more docile when compared to the Ultra Flows, at least from all the videos I have found, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I would like to take the car on long drives. The Ultra Flows are not too loud when cruising, but I just don't like how they sound.
I will do some comparison videos.

[metallicareload99]

They definitely are much more docile when compared to the Ultra Flows, at least from all the videos I have found, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I would like to take the car on long drives. The Ultra Flows are not too loud when cruising, but I just don't like how they sound.
I will do some comparison videos.

The Super Turbos I was using had a pretty bad drone in the "cruising RPM" range 2,000-2,500 RPM or so range

[Dino]

The Super Turbos I was using had a pretty bad drone in the "cruising RPM" range 2,000-2,500 RPM or so range

I would guess there are more factors involved that can cause drone, and it's always a risk. For less than $50 I'm happy to try!

[timmycharger]

Just had a friend email me this.  Nice Charger for the commercial, sounds great too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJVU1ZBzh4E

[cdr]

The ultra flow is a straight through muffler, A baffled muffler WILL hurt power, YES it can be felt seat of the pants.

[Kern Dog]

When people say "straight through" muffler, it should be made clear that the pipe that passes through the muffler case still is perforated and the exhaust flow does go through the openings into the packing material. This is what dampens the sound. It isn't exactly straight through with no detours.
My point?
The detours that dampen the sound surely do so with some restriction. Maybe it isn't much but there must be some.
We all have heard the dorks at car shows that tell you that the engines need back pressure to run. These are the guys that swear that cast iron manifolds flow just as good as headers.

[Dino]

And I run HP manifolds. I want this to be a fun street car. I don't need to squeeze the last drop of power out of it. The Super Turbo definitely flows a lot less than the Ultra Flow. No doubt. We'll see how she does.

[Kern Dog]

I didn't mean to insult those that use manifolds, just the weirdos that argue that they are just as effective as headers.
Many times, cars with manifolds sound better than a car with headers.
Regarding reliability, I've run headers on the red car for 23 years and have never felt that they were a problem. I don't blow out gaskets, they don't leak and they still look decent. You do have to spend a bit of money to have success with headers though.

[Mike DC]

           
Headers can be streetable if you get good expensive ones.  And if you don't bang the exhaust on a speed bump or something.  Lots of modern production cars come with shorty tubular headers but they also have a flexing/pivoting connection in the exhaust system just downstream of there. 

Full-length V8 headers put a lot of heat into the engine compartment, though.  All that surface area makes them work like radiators for the exhaust gases.  It helps to have the headers ceramic coated (inside & out).   

Full length headers do make a seat-of-the-pants difference over the HP manifolds, but it's in the upper half of the tach.  The difference is not really apparent if you are loafing through surburbia at 2500 rpm. 

[Kern Dog]

Headers allow more power at all RPM ranges, man. They are not only good for HP at the upper half of the tach.
No, they don't add heat to the engine bay. They do the opposite. It is simple thermodynamics...the thicker and bulkier cast iron retains heat longer than thin steel tubes do. Cars with headers cool down faster after shutting them off because the tubes don't hold in the heat as long.

[lloyd3]

KD: I've had them with headers and without. It's all about breathing, right? Headers really allow things to "breath", no question. They do, however, really warm things up under the hood (and even the interior of the car). For pure performance, they're hard to beat, but...they're also hard to live with over time. Rust, leakage, burnt plug wires, and undercar clearance problems go hand-in-hand with headers, unfortunately.  Thus the reason I now live with a factory "stock" exhaust systems. Ma Mopar and her wonderful engineering folks in the mid-60s came up with the most "liveable" compromise for this situation IMHO.

[Mike DC]

Headers allow more power at all RPM ranges, man. They are not only good for HP at the upper half of the tach.

I'm not claiming that headers don't add any power down low.  I'm saying they don't add enough for the butt-dyno to notice it in half-throttle suburban driving. 

No, they don't add heat to the engine bay. They do the opposite. It is simple thermodynamics...the thicker and bulkier cast iron retains heat longer than thin steel tubes do. Cars with headers cool down faster after shutting them off because the tubes don't hold in the heat as long.

IIRC a muscle car magazine once tested this.  The headers heated up the engine bay even more than they expected.  The story stuck in my memory because it was so much.  To be fair, I think they were testing a cheap set of headers in that article (read: pretty thin-walled tubing). 

[Dino]

My car had headers when I bought it. No clue what brand, definitely not coated. Nothing wrong with them really except ot made it a little harder to work on things. I scraped the collectors a few times, and blew out a gasket once or twice. The thing I really didn't like was that thin metal clank that came from under the engine bay. I figured I'd try the HP manifolds as they should flow plenty for my needs. They sure are a lot easier to work with. I have the passenger side off. I have a small leak st rhe heat riser post. I need to remove it snd put some pipe plugs in the holes.

[John_Kunkel]

No, they don't add heat to the engine bay. They do the opposite.

Hmmm. Kinda funny you never hear of guys trying to shield their starter or melting shift cables from the heat of stock head pipes.   

[Kern Dog]

If the stock exhaust pipes ran near the starter, you'd see OEM heat shields used.
Hey, I'll admit that my experiences may not represent every situation but I've owned a few cars with manifolds that I swapped in headers. In every instance, whatever heat was generated in the engine bay sure dissipated quicker. I have never noticed them feeling hotter under the hood. This is a prime opportunity for someone to do some research though. Get a cheapie thermal gun from Harbor Freight and do a test. Before with manifolds and after with headers. Be sure to test on a day with similar ambient temperatures and make sure the air-fuel ratios are close enough to not make the engine run leaner and skew the numbers.
Both of my Chargers have big blocks with headers. Both are quite tolerable inside.
My 75 Power Wagon has such a huge engine bay, maybe whatever increased heat (from headers) some report was just not noticeable to me?
Seriously, people often repeat what they have heard or read without actually speaking from direct experience. It is human nature. I can tell you what I have seen and dealt with but unfortunately, I have no temperature readings to back up my claims.

[John_Kunkel]

If the stock exhaust pipes ran near the starter, you'd see OEM heat shields used.

That's the point, a single 2 1/4" head pipe routed between the starter and the torsion bars will have more clearance around it than four 1 3/4"-2" pipes clustered together in the same space. 

And, yes the heat will dissipate quicker from steel tubes than from an iron manifold but dissipation time and heat generated while running are two different things...as you suggested, a laser heat gun might tell the whole story but a simple thermometer hung in the engine compartment [with the hood closed will also tell a story.

[Kern Dog]

Hey, if I'm wrong, I'd admit it. We all make assumptions based on our experiences.
Maybe I've been lucky?
It sure seems that way. I don't know if I am charmed or have a guardian angel because I've had good luck with a lot of things in life. I can't take credit for all of the successes that I have had.