I have a 72 cutlass 350 with new intake manifold carburetor and headers and I already had a flowmaster exhaust but it wasn’t really installed right and I was gonna do cutouts then I thought about getting a new exhaust my question is should I straight pipe it? I’m driving it from Dallas to Oklahoma on Thursday and some people say it looses fuel economy some say it gains. Also is it bad for the engine? Overheating ? Any additional info will help !

 

Straight pipes on something you plan to drive? No thanks. You will be deaf by the time you reach your destination, and the cops will love you for helping them meet their ticket quotas.

A properly sized and installed exhaust won’t have much of an effect on economy. However, if there is a big increase in engine efficiency, you may need to rework the carburetor. If the engine breaths better, you may need to richen up the cruise air/fuel ratio. You will know if the engine is running lean by a lean miss or surging sensation at highway speeds.

 

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Unless your using the car strictly at the track you need some sort of muffler or resonator. If you wan an aggressive tone get glasspacks or straight through mufflers like the Dynomax UltraFlo.

 

You can add cutouts to the flowmaster exhaust.