We are installing headers on my son’s '68 Galaxie with 302 V8 - Should we buy a name-brand (more expensive) Flowmaster 40 Series, or just go with a cheap glasspack from Summit or Thrush? We want that cool, musclecar sound - but not so loud that the cops pull him over all the time - any opinions?
Oh you mean annoying noise. 
You need to find a muffler shop who can “tune” the exhaust. Flow through mufflers just get louder with age and are very annoying.
You didn’t say what your son’s age is, but I’ll assume a teenager.
How do you put a teenager behind the wheel of a 302 V8 with a “cool & muscle-car-like” sounding exhaust and not get the cops to notice him?
Which Muffler Gives Cool Musclecar Sound?
The one behind a big block engine of course!
Keep this in mind- when does the engine produce the coolest sound? Hint: when it’s accelerating up to a high speed and when it’s decelerating on the way back down. Cool sounding exhausts encourage accelerator abuse.
Don’t put a cheap @ss glasspack on that vintage ride. Get a decent muffler like the Flowmaster you cited. It’ll still rumble but not be annoying to everyone else. And it will provide less incentive for accelerator abuse in a teenage driver who does not yet know his limitations…
Flowmastes or Borla, even though they’re more expensive. In my younger days I’ve run glasspacks on a couple of muscle cars and only had them on for about 3 or 4 weeks.
After that time I pulled them off (a few tickets were involved but that’s not the reason) because the incessant drone irritated me during highway driving.
Yes, William is 18 - traffic cops versus driving kids - I know all about it, have raised five teenagers, Willy being my last one (he graduates in June) - Anyway, thanks missileman, TwinTurbo and ok4450 - we had glasspacks as kids - don’t remember anything but the noise - This all came about, after a buddy (an old guy like me) bought a classic Mustang: he put Flowmasters with Megs tips on it: they gave his Stang a nice, mellow, “burbling” sound" - me, personally: I DON’T like loud cars and bikes (unmuffled Harleys ROAR by our house, all summer long) - But we’re restoring the Galaxie, the manifold is cracked, and the stock exhaust sounds like a “Granny car” - hence, the new exhaust and muffler. Oh, and I am NOT so old that I can’t remember my teen years, when certain cars DID sound cool (my Dad’s Jaguar E-type or my older brother’s Alfa Romeo). So, noise = bad, whilst cool-car-sound = good.
cool is in the ear of the beholder. Out here in the hinterlands, guys still put cut outs on their trucks with 450 engines and oversize tires, but they wait till two or three in the moring to let everyone know about it, the hard way. They are, I guess you would say, the coolest jerks on the road.
If I had a chance to roll back the clock and have my son back at home so we could spend time together working on a car, an irritating sounding muffler would be the last thing on my mind. Have a great time sharing this experience.
I’m not a fan of excessive noise either but I do like a healthy rumble or burble on a performance vehicle and I think the Flowmasters or Borla would provide that while keeping the policia off his back.
Got a deal in the works now for another motorcycle (Harley dresser) and it has dual exhausts with chrome fisttails. The bike is slick and sounds great but those unbaffled fishtails are probably going to go away and be replaced by the stock single muffler when this deal gets done. The fistails just give it an annoying sharp rap sound and it’s just not my cup of tea.
Any muffler that claims to be a performance muffler should do the job of letting sound get through to the outside without attracting the police. Most 302s won’t make a lot of noise when you “ain’t misbehavin”.
IMCO performance muffler. Have had one on my car for 4 years. Nice grumble - like a Jaguar. Only gets loud if I get on it, which most of the time is just to impress the chicks (they seem to like it). Also, you can tune them to your liking because they are heavy guage welded steel (not rolled steel) and can stand up to the rigors of tuning. You can tune them to lots of freqs depending on what you like and if you get tired of one sound you can change to a new sound in a couple of hours with no loss in power. And, your car won’t ever sound like a lawnmower, either. Have a blast! Figuratively.