When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I ran an AWE Touring exhaust on my 6th gen, and it was probably the most satisfying exhaust system I've ever purchased. It was a little louder than the stock NPP/dual mode, but was completely DD friendly at lower RPMs. Get on it a little and everyone knew it wasn't stock. Wide open it was downright insane. -and of course, no drone at lower RPMs either. I called AWE and asked if the mufflers were available for purchase separately and they told me no, because each muffler was tuned for each specific application. At first, this made sense. Sure, like any sound wave, adding pressure or increasing pipe length will surely change the tone. But then I thought of all the old school guys that have been buying universal mufflers for years. Thirdgenners for example. While each individual car may sound slightly different, I think we can agree that most mufflers certainly have a characteristics that are constant from car to car. I've come across a deal on a damaged AWE system for a few hundred bucks and I'm considering purchasing, and reworking/fabbing to fit under my 88, when I do the LS swap. Here is my thinking and I'm curious to know your thoughts.
My guess is that the tone would be the same or very similar. Volume, due to displacement and compression differences to the gen4 LT1 may be slightly lower, (but similar) and drone would be kinda hit or miss. No way I can speculate.
Thoughts???
EDIT - for what it's worth, the system is similar in routing to the Hooker blackheart. Duals over the axle, splitting into two individual mufflers. NOT a crossflow at all. That being said, I may run a single exhaust over the axle, and just mate it to the axleback portion.
Nothing unique, I just like the sound. This system does away with the controllable baffles in the 6th gen, but obviously it's irrelevant on our cars. AWE is the brand. Basically I'm paying for the mufflers and exhaust tips, which I'll fab to fit whatever exhaust set up I end up using. Here's a pic. The kit is "headers back", but they're damaged, and wouldn't fit the thirdgen anyhow so this pic is basically what I'm working with.
Are you planning on running duals, or are you just going to put a y-pipe after the axle? Sounds interesting. Curious as to how that would sound. If it would be close to a chambered exhaust like GMMG or something like that.
Originally my plan was to run the ture dual Hooker Blackheart. But at $1000, plus having to do some minor fab to mate it to the Hawk's headers...(mostly the cost) I've been wavering. Honestly, I'm not sure yet. While I DO want to track the car, it'd definitely be more for fun than to squeeze every last pony outta the engine, and turn some lap record. A single 3 or 3.5 would really be all I need. I dunno....not sure.
Well, the add is gone. Presumably sold. ....but if you stumble across this thread, I'd still be curious what your thoughts on this idea are. I'll be keeping my eyes open for another system like this.
I'm curious as to how it would sound and if this might be a viable option for the future. Sooner or later the 6th gens are going to start popping up regularly in junk yards which will make their exhaust systems more readily available for cheap.
I'm curious as to how it would sound and if this might be a viable option for the future. Sooner or later the 6th gens are going to start popping up regularly in junk yards which will make their exhaust systems more readily available for cheap.
Well, the AWE system ain't cheap. I paid right at $1000 brand new for mine. I doubt these would be readily found, even many years from now. Now I DO STILL have the stock NPP/dual mode system off the 16. I've considered trying to make that work....heck, it's just collecting dust, BUT....it's pretty big. We shall see.
I'm curious what "AWE’s proprietary straight-through drone-canceling solution, 180 Technology®" is. Could you tell what was going on/what they did on your camaro?
I've been playing with tuned resonators on my SHO, I put straight pipes with 4" tips on it, then used a spectrum analyzer to figure out what frequency the majority of the drone fell and designed a resonator sized so it reflected that frequency back into the exhaust stream 180* out of phase to cancel it out, and it was extremely effective. My car guy neighbors say that my SHO sounds completely badass going by (both rumble and turbo noises) and is basically silent inside, no drone at all. I basically got rid of the drone around 123hz (if I remember correctly) and kept the exhaust rumble below that and the turbo whine above that.
Last edited by 83 Crossfire TA; 06-08-2021 at 09:50 PM.
I can't speak to exactly what's going on inside, but it definitely didn't drone. Like...at all! I can only imagine it did something similar to what you described in your efforts. I don't really think the drone/noise cancelling is anything new, it's just that most don't go to the trouble to actually DO the work. Hearing your success makes me wanna try it to, regardless of whether or not I ever find an affordable AWE to cut and fit to the Iroc.
So there was no external change to the exhaust? The frequencies that most cars drone in would need a resonator added that is roughly 25-30" long, done correctly it would add no restriction to flow, but what most do is add "resonators" that look a bit like glasspacks or change the packing in the mufflers, that are straight through but still add some restriction.
Looking at their website it does look like their designs are very car specific, very different arrangements, not the typical "this is our muffler, we'll fit them in here" designs. From what I'm seeing I'd honestly guess that you're only 30% or so likely to get a similar sound just grabbing a pair of their mufflers and putting them on a 3rd gen. You'll get similar frequencies deadened, maybe if the case of the muffler has some strange resonation to it you might reproduce that, but what comes through will depend on your existing layout and the engine combination in front of it. If your car description is correct I would expect it to sound significantly different.
Mark, I appreciate your feedback. Exactly the type of response I was hoping for. That being said, here was my not so scientific thinking. You can take two different cars....say a stock 305 car and a warmed over 383.....put a flowmaster, a Magnaflow and an Aerochamber on each and I can tell you which is which. The two motors sound different, but the mufflers do have a certain characteristics that they put on the sound. In the case of the AWE....sure, the drone cancellation would be up in the air, I figurerd the general tone would be similar.
For what it's worth....this video is exactly how my SS sounded and I think it captures it pretty well.
06-07-2021, 08:12 AM
