Keeping OEM muffler counter-productive? Options

[Xander_X]

So I'm starting to think about a custom exhaust system. Problem is, I HATE 99% of the mufflers out there and I LOVE the look of the stock GT muffler. Mine is in mint condition as well but my flex pipe is about ready to need replacing. I figured while I was at it, I would replace the entire thing with a high flow exhaust manifold and 2" stainless piping. I'm curious if I were to keep the stock muffler, if it was going to be counter productive to the decrease in back-pressure even though it's at the end-of-the-line.

This isn't really a post to try to find an alternate muffler so much as it is to become more informed of what would happen if the stock muffler was kept.

[Box]

Stock mufflers are terribly restrictive, not so much size but what's inside them.

Here's a cutaway of a stock muffler off a Mazda 626, probably very similar to what'd be on our cars.


Then here's a cutaway of a Magnaflow muffler.


Obviously a straight path is better than the maze that is OEM mufflers.

This post has been edited by Box: Aug 21, 2012 - 1:20 PM