Man, you just brought back fond memories of one of my 1st cars, a 1987 Mercury Cougar XR7. I had a custom exhaust made for it with Dynomax Super Turbos. I thought it was too quiet back when I was a teenager. 🤣 That said, it had a nice, mellow tone.
Pretty much any turbo-style muffler should get me were I want to be. I think my 400 will sound a lot better than that 250k+ mile low output 302 that was in that car.
Given a chance, I usually cast a vote for the Hooker Aero Chamber. They have a nice, restrained, muscular tone without the blatty "slapping thongs" sound of glasspacks or the banging, booming drone you usually get from 40 series or similar.
They do offer a transverse version on the off chance you want to revert to the OEM behind-the-axle configuration.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
One of my options that I've been kicking around is using and modifying a Flowmaster header-back system I have. It has a H-pipe and one of those 80-series transverse mufflers. The muffler is ancient and likely louder than what I have now, and I don't like the straight tailpipes, so I would have to figure all of that out. It's been hard to find the right size transverse dual in/out muffler that would work with it.
What size do you want? This one has a 3" inlet and 2-1/2" outlets.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
I may have to look into this! I need to dig out that system and see what size it is. I think it's a 2.5" system, might be one of the old "American Thunder" ones.
Unpopular take: I'm a big fan of long tube headers but then going into a slightly louder than OEM style muffler on old school v8's if you're not chasing all the power. A pair of Walker Quiet flows or a Flowmaster Super 50 (for more sound) , plenty of bass, easy cruising and tone when you step on it because the headers increase volume a lot. My $0.02 I'm totally over super loud stuff all the time. That's the setup I like for a cheaper replacement if not going full SS.
Since the car is back on the road and I'm planning on driving it more, there's one essential thing missing from the car: music. While I never removed the dual Boston Acoustics 3.5" speakers from the dash that I've had since the late 90's, I did have to remove the rear 6x9's to remove the old, destroyed package tray. Even though I don't plan on replacing the tray until the rear window gets resealed (yes, that's on the list), driving without music just sucks. So, I dug back into my parts stash to see what I could do.
I had two pairs of 6x9's at my disposal:
These cheapo JVC speakers that used to be in the Power Wagon:
Or these old school Boston Acoustics "Rally Series: RX97 3-way 6x9's that were in both my old Maxima and this car:
At first, I tried mounting the JVC's. The mounting rings and the mounting surface of the speaker itself were not cooperating. Also, aesthetically, I don't like the open "tuner" look to the mounting rings. So I grabbed the BA's off the shelf along with their rings.
That's better. I also debadged them long ago to thwart thieves, and I think that gives them a cleaner look overall, not that it matters much in a car with half of an interior.
After connecting them, the left speaker started to sound a bit flatulent. I worked the woofer up and down manually a bit and it improved, but this has happened before with the head unit that's in the car (a late 00's Pioneer that's seen better days), so I think it's more the head unit's channels failing and less the speaker having issues. It's done this on both front speakers in the past.
I'll be diving into my old school receiver collection to pick one to install. Here's what I have on deck:
In the first pic, I have a rare Yamaha YCR-305 pull-out cassette deck, a cool looking Kenwood EZ-500 MP3 CD unit, and a pair of Alpine CDA-7871 CD receivers. But I am trending toward trying out the Alpine TDM-7582 in the bottom pic. I think it would be fun to have a cassette deck in the car to emulate that 80's vibe, and I have plenty of cassettes for "period correct" tunes stashed away. Also, I believe I can add Bluetooth through the CD Bus or at the very least an Aux signal. If it doesn't work out, one of the others in the first pic will do the trick.
In reply to crankwalk (Forum Supporter) :
I've thought about doing something similar as well. But I am thinking that some regular, cheap turbo mufflers would probably hush it down enough. My truck sounds GREAT with long tubes into turbo mufflers and it has that classic 70's sound and doesn't drone at all. I mean, I want to hear it, but not all the time! These Flowmasters are just way too rowdy for me now. Guess I'm old!
Ok, so yeah, this is the other exhaust system I have (it is in fact the Flowmaster American Thunder):
Other than Flowmaster themselves, I don't know of another muffler manufacturer that makes something like that. The inlets are on the top, and they have a bend over the axle. And I don't like the straight-back look. My current exhaust with different mufflers is probably the easiest route to take, but I do have options.
Ez500. Still miss mine in the duster. One of my favorite decks ever.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
That one came from my 2002 WRX. It was a pretty nice HU, but I don't know if I can get Bluetooth through an adapter with this one. I remember there being an optional HD Radio box, but that was it. It's probably 3rd in line behind the Alpine and Yamaha cassette decks. It does look the part though! It will likely end up in the car at some point just because of how it looks.
EDIT: I can probably get something like this to add Bluetooth fairly easily. Just need to tap into power and ground, which is right there on the harness anyway. Hmm...
I forgot to post this last week:
I was poking around some of the stuff I haven't unpacked in our house yet (I've only been back in there for a year now) and found a bin of old receipts, concert tickets, and other documents. In there was a ton of Trans Am stuff, including my cam card!
Back in 2008 when I started building the engine, I knew I wanted something spicy, but still streetable. My engine builder suggested the Comp Cams Xtreme Energy line. At the time, this was the 2nd from the top of the Scoville scale of cams in this line, the XE274 being the top dog. That one would have likely needed some vacuum assist device and a converter, so I chose this one which just needed the converter. I also ordered the matching springs and hydraulic lifters with it, and the aforementioned roller rockers later on.
Basically, I wanted the car to sound like Van Halen's Hot For Teacher at idle, because every old school 'Merican pushrod V8 should sound like Hot For Teacher at idle. Pretty sure that's a law in some states.
It's funny though, these days, many old school Pontiac guys seem to hate this cam. They claim it doesn't make enough power where it should and some even said it messed up their valvetrain. Then again, old school Pontiac guys seem to hate anything that wasn't made by Pontiac themselves between 1962-1974, so there's that. For me, paired with my crappy 2.73 rear gears and the high stall converter, it is a little laggy off the line, but above 2500rpm it really wakes up and that makes it really fun. I think steeper gears and that 200-4R I have kicking around would turn the car into a rocketship.
It's really interesting how subjective cam descriptions are and how they behave in different combos. The cams in my MR2 are of similar duration (226 @ .050, card here) to yours, and they are plenty driveable. Granted, that car does have a lot more compression (11.2:1) and a pretty deeply geared manual transmission, but it's also flexing a puny 108 cubic inches.
Needs more cam.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
I'm not sure if I ever got into full detail of what this 400 is (maybe I did a long time ago in here?) but this is a rundown:
-1974 400 block, bored .060 over
-1968 350 H.O. nodular crank and rods
-Speed Pro forged domed pistons
-1971 Pontiac GTO 4BBL heads (casting #96) with 2.11 intake/1.77 exhaust valves, 96cc chambers, and screw-in studs
-Comp Cams XE268H cam, lifters, and double roller timing set
-Melling standard oil pump and push rods
-Professional Products Crosswind intake
-Holley 670cfm Street Avenger carb
-Stock Pontiac HEI distributor, recurved
-ARP hardware on all internal parts
The short block was "donated" to me by an old parts store customer of mine when I was in college. It was in a 1970 Trans Am that was left outside (owner went to prison!) and the heads were missing. Rainwater had weather seized it, and it was already .030 over. Somehow, it cleaned up. I have pics somewhere, and it was ROUGH!
The heads came from my local junkyard. The junkyard owner had a 1971 GTO as a teenager that he swapped a 427 BBC into. The heads were all he had left of the car, and they were sitting in a storage trailer for decades until I came along. I paid $90 for them back around 2004.
Engine was built by Dana Hard at Camco Racing/Custom Automotive Machine in Weymouth MA between 2008-09. Dana's an old-school kind of guy, and mostly a Ford guy personally, but he digs old Pontiac stuff too. When I brought him the crusty block, he had to see if it would clean up. To our surprise, it DID clean up at max overbore of .060 over. Fun Fact: Dana's also a privateer NHRA Funny Car racer, and kinda crazy. I think this year he's handing the keys over to another driver, but he was pushing 80 and still driving this thing competitively up until now.
Building that engine was tons of fun, and quite the old-school experience. We sat and poured through paper catalogs and consulted my copy of "How To Build Max Performance Pontiac V8s" to try and eek the best out of the Ponti-Mutt, which is what I ended up calling it. The goal was 400HP and 9.3:1 compression, basically the higher end of what you could do on pump gas at the time and keep it streetable. I never got it on a dyno, but its got the right ingredients.
If I had to do all it again now, I'd probably build a stroker 6.6L LS engine. Easier to source parts, even more power, more streetability, and EFI for easier tuning/logging. Hell, that may happen someday anyway. And it would make the purists angry. 
Also, you brought back memories of a high school buddy's '73 Satellite. He bought it as a bone-stock 2-barrel 318 and swapped in a four-barrel and a Comp 268 cam. Stock converter, stock economy gears. It just about felt like it wanted to come out and play, about half a second before the 1-2 shift...
In reply to DarkMonohue :
Yeah, most of the smog era stuff were a weekend's worth of wrenching away from being fun street cars. An uncorked 318 with a cam is plenty fun indeed.
I had a few minutes last night for a quick project: swapping in a different head unit.
Out with the old:
This Pioneer DEH-P3900MP has been in the car since around 2009. Before that, it lived in my wife's old Kia Spectra. While it was decent back in the day, it's been kinda flaky since putting it in here. And I mean that literally; the chrome plating on the face has been flaking off!
And in with the older:
After talking about this for a few years, I finally did it. This Alpine TDM-7582 has been on the shelf for a few years since a buddy harvested it from a parts car he had and dropped it off. I didn't know if it worked, but since I don't have any way to bench test it, I figured I'd toss it in there and see what happens. And aside from the unit resetting when you turn off the car, it did turn on and make sounds. But does the cassette player work?
IT MOST CERTAINLY DOES!!! Time to gather up all my Heavy/Hair Metal cassettes, find a case, and crank it up!
Yesterday, I had to run a number of errands, and decided that since the Trans Am is a car, I'd attempt to use it. It did fine! Put about 50 more miles on it. I want to say that the bad noises seem to be getting quieter, so that's good. Runs really well.
One of those errands involved going to a buddy's place to meet him so we could go grab a parts car for his Lemons car: a 280Z. In my friends driveway was two 280Z's, a LS swapped Grand Wagoneer, and now my Trans Am. As I pulled up, a guy in a truck just stops dead in the street to comment on my Trans Am, saying "Hell yeah, Trans Am!!! That brings back some memories!!!" and ignores the rest of the 70's-80's awesomeness going on in the driveway. That made me and my friends laugh.
Also, I've been enjoying the cassette deck. Only issue with it is that it's not retaining function memory despite having the memory wire hooked up, but there's really not much to change anyway, so I can overlook that. It sounds pretty great and way better than I thought it would. I ordered one of those Bluetooth cassette adapters they sell now to try it out.
And speaking of cassettes...
I raided my cassette collection for some choice tunes. It really brings me back and completes the vibe of driving around a cosmetically challenged degenerate 2nd Gen F-Body like it's 1987 again.
I took out the tape deck and put a CD player in my '79 in the late '90s. It felt wrong every time I put a CD in the player.
In reply to GCrites :
This has had a CD player of some sort since I got it... until now. And you are correct, CDs in something like this just doesn't feel right. My truck of the same vintage has a Bluetooth-only HU, and that is OK in there since I use it to do Truck Stuff all the time. But this one's for cruising and nostalgia. It needs the cassette player.
Today marks 23 years since the acquisition of this thing from the clutches of a tweaker wearing a teal mesh tank top.
We've had our ups and downs (let's be real, mostly downs) but I haven't been able to bring myself to part with it. I've always had big plans for the car to do this and to do that, and it's seen its share of sins both before and after I brought it home. But I still love the thing.
Now, I'm FINALLY, after all these years of waiting and life getting in the way, making solid progress on getting the car to where I want it to be. And for the first time in many, many years, I am having fun with it. It's far from perfect, but that's ok! I'm tackling one project at a time and making it better than it was before. It's near the point where I can just hop in it and go somewhere dependably, which is really great. It might be the 1st time since I've owned it that I can say that! 
Tony Sestito said:And speaking of cassettes...
In the 1987 - 1989 time frame, in suburban Boston, every one of my peers with an Italian last name that drove a T/A or an IROC had a cassette copy of "Slippery When Wet".
"License to Ill" or "Number of the Beast" also accepted.
In reply to RandolphCarter :
Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet probably came as a dealer option on every late 80's 3rd Gen Camaro. I have a cousin Enzo that had a red IROC when I was a kid, and I guarantee he had that cassette.
I think I need to hit up my favorite record store soon. The guy that owns it has a tape wall with all sorts of "period correct" stuff that belongs in this car for $2/ea. Last time I was in there, I did grab a couple of tapes that are in that box! He also talks all the time about listening to this stuff in his old 1981 Z28, so I think he'd appreciate a visit from the Trans Am.
Some minor updates:
-I fixed the head unit memory issue. I had the incorrect wire connected in the back of the head unit. I must have removed the direct-to-battery lead a long time ago when messing with the battery wiring, so I just made a new lead direct from the battery and ran it. Easy peasy.
-I found my cassette case!
I've had this one since I was a kid. I raided my tape stash for more goodness:
I'll have to rotate stuff in and out, but I'm having nostalgia overload right now. Some of these haven't been played since I was delivering newspapers on my old paper route!
I also found some loosies:
Dig that homemade Rust In Peace! So 90's! Looks like I was given that tape by a student at Bayside High.
-This also showed up today:
No idea how well it will work, but it's worth a shot. I can also get a special modified CD-BUS Bluetooth interface if this doesn't do the trick. The only drawback to this one is you have to take it out to recharge it from time to time. Not a big deal.
Hoping to get more time behind the wheel in the coming weeks. It's close to being in "stable condition", which means I can enjoy it for now and pivot to fix some major stuff on my other 46 year old project vehicle.
Abigail, I know you're in control of my brain!
Also: I just listened to Signals via Spotify this morning. I forgot how good it is.
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