I see similar questions asked often, What color should I paint my truck?”…”What mufflers do you recommend?”…”What do you think about my choice of wheels?”… etc. I don’t understand why people ask these types of things that are personal preferences. What you like in exhaust is very likely not what I like. Why do you care what color I like for YOUR truck? etc., and why do you need my affirmation on your decisions?
Here’s what I did; I researched… for hours… and hours… and then some more. Then I made a decision on what I liked best from the info I gathered.
Headers are cool and all, but not necessary or even beneficial on a stock or mildly built third-gen small block, plus a good header with good fitment is amazingly over-priced for little to no gain.
On my previous build of my 1979 GBody wagon, I use the Summit brand Holley/Hooker cast iron LS swap manifold knock-offs. Great fit and plenty of flow for any stock or mildly built third-gen small block.
This time I cheaped out even more and ordered the Patriot brand cast iron swap manifolds. They were on back-order and the back-order wait kept dragging out, so once again I ordered the Summit brand because they were in stock for immediate shipment.
I opted for the raw cast iron and used VHT ceramic header paint. It’s pretty good if you apply and cure it correctly per the manufactures instructions. I sold my old oven I used last time and cured these in an old grille with a heat gun. Turned out great and is still holding up at 17k+ miles and 4+ years.
While there are many great sounding, good quality mufflers available, Flowmaster is the brand which my choice of exhaust shop sold, so after much research, I decided upon the Flowmaster 50 Series Delta Flow mufflers. I had the local muffler shop (Expert Exhaust) build and install my complete system with 2 -1/2″ dual pipe from manifolds to exit, mufflers and a crossover.
There are many YouTube videos with sound clips of different brands and models. I found that the Flowmaster YouTube channel has some good videos to help narrow choices. I’m sure other brands have similar videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcqJmwaDfYE
This video helped me decide on the 50 Series Delta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO0fy2yBNoM&t=145s
Here’s a start/idle/rev/idle sound clip of my daily driver:
