As I continue to shop around for exhaust systems for my 2door LS 2000 4.3V blah blah

I see:
Flowmaster
Magnaflow
Gibson
Dynomax
Hearthrob
...
With performance being of greater importance to me than sound.

Give your opinon on these brands and whatever you suggest is the best model for the BUDGET enthusiast and WEBSITES

 

Well where to start... if you have money, then go Gibson or Dynomax...if you are on a budget then i recommend going between magna and flows...i prefer flows a little more (sound wise)...performance wise flows have been noticeable on all 3 of my trucks (6cyl ranger, 8cyl 150, and now my k5). I have a buddy with magnaflows (bullets) on his car and they sound great as well...very deep throat sound. Performance on them though...was not noticeable according to him. Both him and i have only done catback systems and only the flowmasters did we notice a difference. Now with the others, i could not give any more advice as i am in the dark on those...but word is Gibson is great on performance. Hope this helps.

 

I currently have a Flowmaster 40 and even with it I noticed some difference. It also gives my 2.8 a nicer deep tone.

 

I'm running OBDI on my truck so it responds a little bit different than that of the OBDII sort in reguards to exhaust - OBDI doesn't use the infamous downstream O2 sensor.

That being said, when I bough my truck, I opted for a new muffler to replace the factory unit that developed a rattle. I went with the Flowmaster 40 series delta flow. I put up with it for about six months - the drone was horrible!

I put on a Flowmaster Delta 50 series It was better, but the drone was still very much there at cruising speed. I could not hear my 18 month old, at the time, in the back seat.

Out of frustration, I consulted with one of our area's best exhaust shops. He recommended the Magnaflow set up to me. I went home youtube and google it and thought I would give it a shot. The sound is great and it's really quiet inside with pratically no drone at all. It's like, the more pressure on the engine to push, the louder it comes on. I like it, and it does have a good personality at idle too!

The Flowmaster's mufflers didn't give my truck the kick that the Magnaflow did, that's for sure... I think it might have been due to differences in system back pressures.