I finally got around to sawzalling the muffler off and drove it with open headers to the parts store to buy a thrush muffler. I made friends with one of the guy who works there and it was his last day so he helped me pick one out. I ended up with one of the thrush glasspacks. Only 24$. Originally i was going to get the thrush turbo but to make it easier we thought the longer length of the glasspack matched my old muffler better so I wouldnt need a pipe extension.
I still am not 100% sure I made the right choice. Can anyone explain the sound difference between the glasspack and the turbo/welded. I was going for a more imperfect, hollow, snap crackle pop type vintage sound. Gotta say I really enjoyed the no muffler sound, but obviously thats illegal and way too obnoxious for a daily. Are glasspacks more refined sounding? How does the thrush turbo sound compared the the thrush welded? Thanks guys!
Also would anyone happen to know the return policy at advance auto parts for mufflers. I doubt they'd take it back after I tried it out once right?
A thrush turbo is just a normal packed muffler, it is essentially a cheap replacement for your typical stock muffler, very quiet and not at all cool sounding basically full of steel wool. They are pretty restrictive and will just sound like your stock muffler. I'm positive you wouldn't be happy with a turbo muffler.
The welded mufflers you're thinking of are chambered mufflers (thrush makes some too, they're much cheaper than flowmasters etc and still sound cool), that's what gives you the old school tinny growl/roar it seems like you're after. They have no packing inside of them but have a series of baffles and chambers, flowing the air through the little "maze" inside quiets it down and creates some cool sound effects at the same time.
A thrush glasspack (it's just a red tube looking thing right) isn't even technically a muffler, just a resonator. It's a straight shot through, with some packing around the
outside all it does is kind of smooth out the rasp of a straight pipe and quiet it down some, but still very loud and raw sounding. It will make a sound similar to when you were driving around with no muffler, just a little quieter and less unruly. Also having a tailpipe instead of having it right under the cab will quiet it down some too. It's still a cool sound, give it a try for a while if you already got it.
I doubt any store would take back a used muffler. Unless you don't put any clamps or anything on it to mark it up, if you don't get it all dirty who's gonna know if you just hold it up there for a minute or two to see how it sounds. As long as they can't tell it was used they might take it back, but really it's only 24 bucks. I know you're young and don't have a lot of money trust me I remember that age all too well, but like I said if you already got it just run it. Try it out for a few months and if you don't like it you can always save up for a better muffler later.
long story short, glasspack will be louder and more raw sounding, more sputtering and popping that kind of stuff. A chambered welded muffler will give you that tinny pinging muscle car sound and will still make plenty of noise but not as much since it is actually a muffler and not just a straight pipe with a resonator. I have had both over the years, I much prefer chambered mufflers on V8s. My truck has a flowmaster 40 series on it and I think it sounds great
It's hard to find a video that does justice, microphones are not the same as the human ear, but this one's pretty decent out of the few I went through. Cherry bombs are glasspacks (they're even red, basically the exact same thing as your thrush just more expensive) and the flowmaster super 44 is a shorter case chambered muffler
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