My Journey to a Quiet 3in Exhaust (Vids + Pics)

[Bud92gsx]

My exhaust is a cat delete stock piping, with a 5.5 inch resonator muffler. Still not much sound difference from stock. Very quiet indeed.. Never been pulled over or even talked to from cops about the sound..

 

[jm1080]

Passes behind the first carrier bearing and sits on the side of the 2nd as shown in the pic.
There's easily space for the extra length, no problem.

I went to another muffler shop and they said it wont fit, it would almost hit the floor, so i asked them about a 5in and they said it could fit but it will be tight and instead of resonance in the car ill hear rattline and it might hit the floor in bumps... Is that true with your resonator? The only other resonator I can think of is the vibrant normal round resonators that are made in 4in diameter, but I dont think those would quiet it much. And the Ultra Quiet one is too big cause its oval shaped....

This is an impossible journey

 

[pboglio]

Use this, Magnaflow P/N 12867:

MagnaFlow Performance Exhaust

Return your current muffler and exchange it for the above mentioned one. At worst they'll hit you with a 20% restock fee.

This is close to mine within 1" in length, and I know mine fits. You'll have to grind down one carrier bearing stud to about the height of the nut, and put some edge trim on the carrier bearing bracket to prevent it from rubbing, thats it. No rattles, no vibration.

You'll have about close to the same muffler volume as I do, and I know mine is quiet. I don't run a cat but when I do it gets down to stock levels of quiet. Other thing, you could run dynomat in the rear hatch area as this does make a difference. I know running my car without the rear hatch cover it can get loud, so there are things you can do in this area to quiet things down.

 

[jm1080]

Thanks pbgolio, but does the 5" hit the floor when getting through speed bumps or anything? When measuring it seems real close to the floor, so that makes me a bit worried. Also if you were to grind down the carrier bearing stud, wouldnt it make it impossible to take off in future? Like when it will need replacement?

Also if I were to do this, what size edge trim you use to prevent the rattling? And for the dynomat, does that actually work? I have subs in the back. Im assuming that just helps for the resonance inside right?

Here is pic of underside of exhaust where I might install resonator:

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The problem is right there, the pipes make very small curves, making it uneven for a resonator to go in straight.

 

[FonZ454]

I really like the look of the Vibrants 3" black mufflers...

I may get one some time down the road, My Dynomax isn't that loud, but I could definately go quieter. Really, I'd like to redo the whole turboback on my car and use another resonator or muffler to make it super quiet, and hang a little close to the car.

What kind of tone do these cars with Vibrant mufflers make? I know Dynomax (Buschur) cars have a kind of distinct sound. I want it to sound badass under full throttle

 

[pboglio]

No bumping, vibrating or resonating. I don't have the P/N on the edge trim, look in MCmaster Carr for the rubber edge trim with the steel insert.

With the carrier bearing nut installed, just grind down the pointy end of the stud till your "just" flush with the top of the nut. Not gonna hurt anything.

The 5" muffler fits, trust me. It "just" misses the carrier bearing housing, which is why I put edge trim on. If I wanted to completely redesign the midpipe, I could have cleared that too.

Your welder, if he's good, would first fixture that 5" muffler in dead center in the tunnel and eyeball/measure where to make the most efficient cut on the original midpipe to get everything lined up. He may have to cheat a radius here or there to get everything lining up perfect, but that's what all the aftermarket catback suppliers do anyways when they weld in their midpipe resonators.

It can be done.

 

[Awdboost]

Ditch the cheap shit and go to a HKS Exhaust. They are much quiet at idle. I never get bother by cops in my area. HKS puts in long smaller resonators that helps keep noises down. Plus the thicker metal helps too.

 

[jm1080]

Yea the welder was telling me about the HKS, he said it was almost stock sounding, but too expensive for me and I already have exhaust.

Also pbgolio, you think welder would grind down the carrier bearing? And I guess ill get the 5" resonator, hopefully these fools at Midas can do it hehe.

One last thing, is it bad to put a resonator after flex of thedownpipe? because an 18" can fit in there easily the welder was telling me, but only if its 4" diameter. I was thinking of also getting the Vibrant 18" normal resonator with 4" diameter. Just incase the magnaflow doesnt do it for me, because welding at Midas is real cheap so I might as well add more jobs for them for an even cheaper price .

 

[pboglio]

Your welder will figure out the details on what to grind etc, let him worry about it. Anything can work. Would I put this many mufflers/resonators on my car. No.

I'm going to say that if your main muffler were from a quality brand, like Thermal, Greddy, or maybe Magnaflow, you wouldn't have to go to these extremes. I'm not even a big fan of Borla, they are loud too, but its what fit under my car. The difference just in the main muffler between brands is staggering. Usually bigger is better but also guys like Thermal really tune their mufflers to smooth out all that raspiness on deceleration. Thats why I recommend Thermal mufflers as big as you can physically fit under the rear of the car. I've heard Magnaflows are good but I haven't personally tried them.

The main muffler would take car of the volume, the resonator would take care of the resonance. To get that last edge off I'd run a metal matrix 3" high flow cat and call it a day. The 3" pipework is the main problem and VERY difficult to eliminate that deep low frequency thrumming that 3" pipes produce, no amount of resonators will get rid of it.

What helps is having the hatch cover in place and any sound absorption you can do inside the car, like right in the rear carpet/truck area, such as dynamat or whatever. If you wanted quieter you'd have to run something smaller than 3" pipe work.

What I'm gathering is that your main muffler is pretty weak in sound absorption and control. The fact that it got louder AFTER breakin kinda illustrates this. A good muffler will get quieter after break in and only get louder at the very end of its lifespan.

I personally am hooked on Thermal mufflers, they are the best sounding, smoothest, deepest I've ever heard.

 

[jm1080]

If I were to add a Vibrant 18" resonator that is only two resonators in total, not that much. Ive seen people with 3 and when I heard one with 3 it was just like stock.

Thanks for the advice though

But would it be bad to put a Vibrant 18" on the downpipe? I remember reading putting a resonator on the downpipe is not good? I dont really remember though.

 

[havoc742]

After having my full turbo-back custom built I'll never buy a production exhaust. It's so much easier to get exactly what you want out of an exhaust. Of course I'm not talking about having midas build you an exhaust. Have a reputable performance shop do it. To many production exhausts have unneccesary bends. You get better and deeper tones out of a straight line exhaust(or at least as straight as you can get it and still maintain speed bump clearance).

 

[jm1080]

that is so true, I sort of regret buying my xs exhaust .

I still cant make my exhaust quiet! Ended up going to various muffler shops to install my 5" magnaflow resonator and they want to charge over 200!!! WTF, The reason being, is because there are very small bends throughout the fake resonators that the xs exhaust came with!! What to do?!?! This is an impossible journey!

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

would this muffler work? MagnaFlow Performance Exhaust

 

[jm1080]

I dont know about magnaflow mufflers, I went dual tip vibrant and it perforated like that muffler but the tips are also perforated as well.

Anyways I wanted to update this thread as my journey has come to an end

Hopefully others can benefit from this, as my exhaust is now quiet for my taste.

Here is before:

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Here is after:

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[ali]

sounds good

 

[blazebolt]

What was the final setup and did you have to make any modifications to get the resonator to fit? Glad you used the vibrant muffler, because I have been looking at the black stealth mufflers, but could not find any sound clips of it on an eclipse. Now that I have heard your car, it's time for me to start building my 3" quiet exhaust.

 

[jm1080]

What was the final setup and did you have to make any modifications to get the resonator to fit? Glad you used the vibrant muffler, because I have been looking at the black stealth mufflers, but could not find any sound clips of it on an eclipse. Now that I have heard your car, it's time for me to start building my 3" quiet exhaust.

I just used that Vibrant muffler and 5" magnaflow resonator. No modification, it fit perfectly at the end of the downpipe, and does not hit driveshaft or anything.

 

[romeen]

Sounds really good. How long is the Magnaflow resonator?

BTW, I ended up getting the Vibrant 1043 as well to weld up to my ebay catback.

 

[BoostedinSoFla]

Still sounds like shit.

His cheap exhaust is now decently priced with the name brands out there. Dude actually did a nice job putting on that resonator man, welds look nice.

 

[pboglio]

Sounds pretty much like mine, good job

 

[InfiniteGSX]

My exhaust sounds identical to yours. Really quiet, but has a deep tone to it. And I have a 3" DP, 3" Gutted Cat, Straight Back to a HKS Knockoff Can. My friend Curtis just got the SSAutoChrome catback and his sounds much louder and raspy than mine does... Dunno why? I do have to ditch the Cat because it hangs low since there is no room for it because the drive shaft. Will be building a new exhaust soon with a full 3" Straightback and a muffler similar to yours except I will be making my own tip. Single tip but molded to the tip area of the bumper.

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[9!'clipseDOHC]

I like it! I've been looking for a way to quiet mine down too. I started off with a pacesetter catback and I was very happy with the sound, it was like a whoosh under exclamation with a slight growl at idle. Then I cut if off and welded in a Magna-flow SS race muffler with a 4" tip, Pacesetter headers, and a Magna-flow SS hi-flow cat. My car is now ungodly loud, which I used to love but now it just annoys me. I want to go fast with out screaming it at everyone.

I was trying to get the original Pacesetter muffler again in hopes that it would still make that quiet whoosh sound but Pacesetter doesn't sell mufflers individually. Now that i've seen/heard the vibrant muffler with a resonator I think I will go that route. I also like the look of the black muffler and the dual tips. Although I think I will switch the tips to 2.25" instead of 3". I'll post before and after pics/vids.

I ordered the Vibrant STREETPOWER Flat Black Muffler with dual 3" tips today! I went with 2.5" inlet since thats what the rest of my pipes are, mines a n/t.

I'm going to switch the tips to 2.25" and see how it works. I'll probably need to add a resonator or another muffler too, but I'll try this first. I hope it works!

 

[9!'clipseDOHC]

Update. The Vibrant muffler arrived today. I can't wait to get it on and see/hear the difference. I'm still planning on cutting the tips down to to 2.25". Hopefully sometime next week I'll get it done.

The picture is a comparison of my stainless steel Magnaflow race muffler and the new flat black Vibrant Streetpower muffler.

 

[jjrock5]

^ I used to have that SAME muffler on my old GST. Heres a clip:

YouTube - dsm gst vibrant exhaust with resonator fresh 7 bolt

Thermal piping, Vibrant resonator, catless downpipe, FPT28

 

[9!'clipseDOHC]

Well thats quieter than what I have now but still louder than what I want. I'm sure I'll have to add a resonator too but one step at a time.