Muffler advice Apexi n1 silencer or magnaflow

[dsmmike50t]

I've searched and didn't get an answer. I keep getting pulled over for excessive noise my muffler is an apexi n1 4.5" tip muffler. My whole exhaust system is 3" right off the turbo through the muffler and a 4.5" tip. I tried putting in a 3" magnaflow cat but no luck.

I searched ebay and found some silencers, but the pipe is 1 1/2" and this would totally defeat the purpose of the 3" system. I was thinking about getting a silencer and removing the puny pipe then enlarging the hole and sticking a 3" pipe in there. Would that make any difference?

How about a 3" straight through magnaflow muffler would that be quieter than the apexi n1 muffler?

 

[daren_p]

I use to run the Apexi N1 & got hassled all the time & given a few tickets as well. It was the complete system with a HF cat, so it was actually not loud at all. It seems its more just how the muffler looks & not the actual noise from it. I had the actual Apexi silencer (but never ran it) but it too was probably around the 1.5"-2" range, I would imagine they need to reduce the flow this much to get the drop in sound dB's.

What I did is get a custom system done that almost exactly resembles the stock system as far as the muffler setup but is still a true 3" system. It turns out that even with 2 resonators its probably abit louder then the N1 was but so far (4 months) haven't been hassled once & have had a couple cops following me.

Another option is Apexi makes an active silencer, that opens up once you get on the throttle. It will still be abit of a restriction vs no silencer but it will be alot better then all the other typical silencers on the market.

 

[chris9149]

I'm going to have to go with daren on this one, if you are worried about how loud it will be for fear of the cops, they will pretty much be judging you only by how your murffler looks, not really how it sounds. They just cant put "kid has a huge racing muffler" on the ticket, so they hit you with the sound crap.
What I recomend for your is since you already have the apexi system, just get a shop to chop off the apexi muffler and find something that still flows really good but is not as large (IE fart-can style) and flashy and weld that onto your pipe.

(oops, I spelled muffler wrong)

 

[SiNiST3R]

Mine is nice and deep and sounds great it also looks stockish 3" SS turbo back.

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Magen DP was $130.oo from eBay
Magnaflow Muffler was $87.00 from ebay
3" SS 95-99 AWD piping kit was 260.00 from Welcome to Kteller.com

 

[darkhorizon]

I have always liked cutouts. Keep your stock 3/4inch () exhaust but have a 3inch downpipe on your turbo going right to a cutout, then Y into your stock exhaust.

You can have a bunch of fun controllers also that will make it open at a specific boost level, on off switches, ect. Its 110% the absolute best flowing exhaust you could ever buy considering that its just a open downpipe!

 

[daren_p]

I don't have any better pics with me at the moment but here are some dirty pics of my stock looking exhaust.

Now normally just cutting the muffler off & swaping it would be an easy/cheep solution but is yours an actual complete N1 system or is it just the muffler? If its an actual N1 system I would recommend replacing it with a true 3" system or atleast remove the Apexi resonator. Those resonators actually neck right down internally, maybe 2" or even less & with a descent sized setup like yours, you will really be hurting top end power. I know when I switched, with boost set the exact same I picked up a tonn of top end power. At ~7000rpms I picked up both 40-50 hp & ft/lbs & 4-5 lbs/min. The new custom system uses 2 Vibrant resonators but they are 3" all the way through.

 

[talonalex92]

I have a 3" MR downpipe, and homemade turbo back topped with a summit racing glasspack (3", 20$) and a summit racing universal 'turbo' muffler (3" in and out, 20$ also) and a small chrome tip from a corvette. It sounds awesome, I get compliments all the time. Pics are in my gallery. I even went all out and painted the muffler and piping black to maintain a stock-ish appearance.

Edit: Also, I've never been followed or pulled over for it. Or any reason at all actually. Its a vary deep sound.

 

[Boostjunki84]

I've thought about going with one of these.

Vibrant Performance ::.

Right now I have a Dynomax race muffler; it doesn't seem that loud to me, but people tell me it is.

 

[daren_p]

I've thought about going with one of these.

Vibrant Performance ::.

Right now I have a Dynomax race muffler; it doesn't seem that loud to me, but people tell me it is.

Thats basically the muffler I have except I wanted to have my own stock sized/style tips welded on, so I went with their universal polished 3" in dual 2.5" out. Even sanded the case with some light grit paper to lose the polished look, I think it looks great

I can say the build quality of the Vibrant exhaust components look top notch & so far so good as far as performance & durability. They actually use SS shavings for for sound deadening instead of fiberglass etc that can blow out, get louder over time etc.

When I was looking for a muffler Vibrant was the only manufacturer that had the correct tip spacing to match our stock setup, with the stock sized 3" tips. When I first thought of Vibrant, I grouped them in with the "crap" brands such as Ractive, etc. Which after I did some research, defently isn't the case.

 

[dsmmike50t]

I don't have any better pics with me at the moment but here are some dirty pics of my stock looking exhaust.

Now normally just cutting the muffler off & swaping it would be an easy/cheep solution but is yours an actual complete N1 system or is it just the muffler? If its an actual N1 system I would recommend replacing it with a true 3" system or atleast remove the Apexi resonator. Those resonators actually neck right down internally, maybe 2" or even less & with a descent sized setup like yours, you will really be hurting top end power. I know when I switched, with boost set the exact same I picked up a tonn of top end power. At ~7000rpms I picked up both 40-50 hp & ft/lbs & 4-5 lbs/min. The new custom system uses 2 Vibrant resonators but they are 3" all the way through.

It's not a full n1 catback its a custom made piece. It's one piece from the 3" t3 4bolt flange to the apexi n1 muffler. I have a magnaflow cat in there now, but I think like you mentioned above it's all about how it looks. The apexi n1 muffler screams big fart can. I think I'll just grab a dual tip magnaflow muffler with 2.5" tips like someone mentioned above.

 

[DSMSpyder99]

Here is my story, I updated the thread a few times on solutions to make it quieter:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/bolt-tech/279939-my-new-stock-stealth-looking-muffler.html

 

[daren_p]

It's not a full n1 catback its a custom made piece. It's one piece from the 3" t3 4bolt flange to the apexi n1 muffler. I have a magnaflow cat in there now, but I think like you mentioned above it's all about how it looks. The apexi n1 muffler screams big fart can. I think I'll just grab a dual tip magnaflow muffler with 2.5" tips like someone mentioned above.

I looked at the Magnaflow but the thing I didn't like was their spaceing of their dual tips is too far apart to look like a stock setup & personally I just don't like the look of tips spaced that far apart. The stock chrome tips are actually almost 3" (think their like 2.9X), I was planning on 2.5" tips origionally but then took measurements of the stockers. The 3" tips will fill the factory opening perfectly. If you use a 2.5" tip on the magnaflow, the spacing apart will be even worse. For the Magnaflow, to get a stock amount of spaceing between the tips (or like what my setup looks like) you need to use 3.5" tips.

 

[dsmmike50t]

Forgot to update I ended up getting a vibrant muffler 3" in and out with a 2.5" silencer ring, yes 2.5" not a puny 1.5" pos like the ones they sell on ebay.