SS exhaust quality, should I complain

[jz78dje]

Update, so I just decided to suck it up and install the exhaust. Despite the bad looks, fortunately the install went fairly smoothly. It's amazing that on a 42 year old car not a single bolt or nut was frozen. I do recommend to just cut the old resonators apart at the crossover with a sawzall to remove instead of trying to separate the sections. The clearances all seem good, and my recommendation if going with this system is to buy new donuts for the manifold (system comes with the resonator and muffler gaskets but no donuts or bolts). I was having trouble with a leak at the RH manifold, and after taking it back apart saw that the donut had a gash in it from a burr in the old pipe. As a last ditch attempt I sanded down the donut surface to remove the gash and it worked, but new donuts are cheap so this would be much easier. Finally, I would recommend to buy new SS hardware. The flanges on the new unit are a bit larger and can accept a bigger bolt size. I reused the existing HW and it's holding just fine, but I will probably switch it out at some point.

So that's it, even though it is ugly, it is not easy to see where the pipe was sectioned, and probably will never cause an issue given how rarely the car is driven. So buyer beware, if you purchase this system it is likely you will get a system that fits, but also has this flaw.

[Dan Szwarc]

How does it sound?

[AnthLinc]

If you got yours where I go mine you will over look that issue and have a very long enjoyment with this system. As I mention earlier my exhaust was replaced 17 years ago and I have no issues. The welds a almost hidden when installed. There is zero rust anywhere including the welded area.

[jz78dje]

In all honesty, I really can't say that it sounds any better or worse than with the old system, before it rotted through of course. This is not necessarily a bad thing, I think it's a good sound overall for a 460.