Mufflers? Full Exhaust? Opinion!

[Joe Caughel]

Hello SHO'ers,

Sorry for blowing up the forums lately but I have another thing I want some opinions with. My car is quiet, stock exhaust. I would like it to make a little noise to show it has something but I have been told I should not just do mufflers but a whole exhaust. I can't see spending money on a full exhaust for only a tad bit of horsepower unless I am missing something. What are your guys' thoughts? If you think mufflers will be fine what ones do you recommend? Thanks!

-Joe C

 

[sholxgt]

There's not a wrong answer here. Only just preferences.

I don't want to cut up/weld my factory exhaust, so if I go beyond the PPE downpipes I installed, I will go with a full exhaust.

However, if you don't mind your factory exhaust getting modified, there's nothing wrong with just changing the mufflers or deleting them entirely. Personally, before I purchased any muffler, I would have a shop just delete the two rear mufflers and see it I liked that sound. If it was too loud or didn't have the sound I wanted, I would then shop mufflers. Magnaflow is always high on my list.

You are correct about the full cat back adding little power. Tests I have seen show that it's not a performance mod. More of a visual/sound enhancement. Maybe at some hp level the factory exhaust becomes a restriction, but that is probably fairly high.

 

[JasonoftheRugar]

Even after lowering the car, it is still raked. Just another thing the person behind you gets to look at other than the cool tail lights is polished exhaust!

 

[SilverSH0]

I did only mufflers because I couldn't justify $1200+ for minimal power gains and some looks that no one ever sees except in a picture or two. If the catback systems were reasonable priced like every other vehicle I've had (around $500), I would have bought a while catback system. For mufflers and install I was at $125 total so 10x the cost wasn't worth it to me.

 

[13blacksho]

I had both of my rear mufflers cut off and replaced with Aero AR-25 resonators. At $45 a piece they sound pretty damn good in my opinion!
There is some drone accelerating from 2200-2800rpm but they are otherwise quiet inside the car. Outside they sound nice and deep but not loud enough to bother anyone.

Here are a couple sound clips:

And I had the exhaust shop put some stainless 4" tips at an angle to flow with the bumper...

 

[SilverSH0]

There is some drone accelerating from 2200-2800rpm but they are otherwise quiet inside the car. Outside they sound nice and deep but not loud enough to bother anyone.

To the OP, I have the same mufflers and can attest to what he's saying. However, I think the drone aspect is a bit subjective and I would classify it as more than some. I would say there's a decent amount of drone but only in that RPM band and outside sounds great. It was enough that I was just about ready to put the stock mufflers on but instead made my own Helmholtz resonators to fix the issue.

 

[Joe Caughel]

To the OP, I have the same mufflers and can attest to what he's saying. However, I think the drone aspect is a bit subjective and I would classify it as more than some. I would say there's a decent amount of drone but only in that RPM band and outside sounds great. It was enough that I was just about ready to put the stock mufflers on but instead made my own Helmholtz resonators to fix the issue.

Interesting, I think i want to go with just mufflers as well but now I am unsure what to buy! Haha

 

[SilverSH0]

Interesting, I think i want to go with just mufflers as well but now I am unsure what to buy! Haha

That's all going to be a personal choice and for me was lots of searching and listening to video clips.

 

[LowerLevel]

I keep going back and forth over this aa well. In Massachusetts we have almost a "chain" of shops called Lou's Custom Exhaust. Literally quite a few shops around. I had my Subaru done there with some MagnaFlow. I never did get a tune afterwards but the sound was great. Most guys in the N/A Subie community are always looking for the "rumble" but they only come from uneven headers made on the WRX and GTs.

At any rate, I was highly considering doing this again but wondered if just the mufflers and a section of exhaust would still benefit from a tune which I DO plan on getting for this car versus spending 3-5 times as much on entire exhaust...

 

[Linemonkey]

To the OP, I have the same mufflers and can attest to what he's saying. However, I think the drone aspect is a bit subjective and I would classify it as more than some. I would say there's a decent amount of drone but only in that RPM band and outside sounds great. It was enough that I was just about ready to put the stock mufflers on but instead made my own Helmholtz resonators to fix the issue.

I don't really know what a resonator is. Do you have any pics of the ones you made? I'm going with just mufflers, but this my family car so I can't have a loud drone. Thanks

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 

[SilverSH0]

Look at the section here that clearly looks homemade from someone who's not a welder by trade, that's the resonator.

 

[Christopher Heskey]

I bought my 2013 SHO used a week ago and it came with mangaflow exhaust I love it. I'll post a start up clip