And to address the title of the thread, to get better sound out of the auto, find a stock muffler from a 5sp hhr SS. The 5sp muffler is a little louder and sounds way better than the auto SS muffler. Add a DP and perfecto! You have a beastly sounding 4banger that isn't obnoxious. JMO

 

yea I made one don't know how to get it here.


Try this....

 

Check it. New clip

 

Anyone know if the K&N air intake for the SS with change the exhaust tone? I know it did for my old saturn SL2 I had a Injen short ram and it made it sound bad ass, but idk about the HHR SS because its a Turbo engine. Anyone know?

 

No, I didn't notice any change...

 

Yes... the manual muffler is louder....
A little HHR SS muffler history lesson now...LOL
Both manual & automatic HHR SS mufflers use straight thru , 2.75" tubing.
This is a why you never have to replace your muffler, it's a straight thru, free flowing muffer, that is all we need.
Hay, I got 12.51 @ 111.66 out of a stock muffer, it works, leave it alone..LOL
But the holes are different on the tubing, between the two mufflers, which is so strange.
The automatic HHR SS muffler has 2 sets of 6 rows, of 'holes'.
The manual HHR SS muffler has 2 sets, of only 2 rows of holes...LOL
So they needed more rows of holes on the automatic, for noise control, I guess...
So there is some real engineering going on at GM, even down to the number of holes, in the muffler tubing....LOL
You would think that they would use the same 2 sets of 6 rows of holes, for both mufflers, & called it a day.
Hay, you want to do something silly...
Go outside at night, when it's really dark, & shine a flashlight into your muffler, too see if you have 2 sets of 2 rows of holes, if you have a manual, & 2 sets of 6 rows of holes, if you have an automatic.

 

No need for a 3" exhaust.
You will lose torque, & exhaust flow velocity.
With bigger 3" tubing, the hot gases cool down, causing a loss in exhaust
flow velocity, which meaning less savaging, reducing torque.

 

Yeah that's what the guy at the local exhaust shop told me. That's why I just got a diffrent muffler.

 

With low end torque loss, as a result.
If you really want to go with an aftermarket DP, at least get one with
a high flow cat in it, as close to the 'flex' coupling as possible, to help
Retain low end torque.

The stock DP really does an excellent job, and only needs the the 2nd cat 'cored' out, or removed, to increase flow, without losing low-end torque.

 

I just did a muffler delete on my SS, I wasn't happy with the MAGNAFLOW. The sound of the MAGNAFLOW was horrible at WOT. Here is a vid of the muffler delete, I had the tech rev it a few times once he was done. I recorded it on my phone so FYI sounds way better in person.