Does the turbo change the sound of the exhaust? Has anyone changed the exhaust or at least the muffler? I like to know the car is running!

 

The turbo acts like a muffler and quiets the exhaust down. Hopefully the HHR SS will get vendor support and you'll be able to go aftermarket on exhaust components, turbo, wga, suspension, etc.

 

I think the Chevy engineers did a great job on the design of the stock system. Large diameter, and fairly straight run with no kinks or flattened sections like you see in a lot of stock systems. For now I am sticking with the stock system as I like the sound quality and loudness, and prefer a good sound system to a loud exhaust. As you can see, there is not much to the stock primary resonator (or is that a secondary cat?), so a "cat back" replacement might just be a straight pipe to a full flow muffler, with the turbo and the cat providing most of the sound suppression. Run the risk of it sounding "raspy" though.

 

Aw dude, you flipped your car on its side!

 

Well I tried to roll it upright, but then it just rolled all the way over

 

Doen't exactly apply, BUT I understand one of the exhaust manufacturers (name escapes me right now) claims a dyno run of 25 extra ponies on a Solstice GXP. If memory serves me correctly, the "system" was basically a different muffler and larger exhaust pipe from the rear of the turbo. Generally the thinking is the larger pipe allows the turbo to run faster/better/smoother.

 

well you could always install a Folgers coffeecan fartpipe. Then you'd be able to hear it!

 

I think we all want to stay away from that sound! I hope we will get some more options!

 

I had a Solstice GXP and added a Magaflow 3" catback exhaust to it. The
sound quality was much better and it was only slightly louder than stock.
Initial dyno tests some did show a hp increase but much of it is LEARNED
OUT by the new Bosch MD9 ecm that the GXP and HHR SS uses. It is different
from anything else US mfr are using. If you do a mod to increase HP and it
exceeds the torque limits programmed into the ecm, it will be reduced back
to close to stock. It has been shown many time by tests over on GXP forum.
There are ways to bypass including the BSR PPC tuner and some of the
software tuning in US are getting close to be able to modify boost tables
without getting LIMP mode. They can now change the PE tables to
increase fueling if you do the wastegate mod.

turbofreak
retired engineer on GM racing programs

 

Just noticed a Magnaflow cat back exhaust system for specifically our SSSS on their site! This is a good start to getting our little babies breathing better.