Question for those without resonators
 

Hey, I was just curious if anyone who deleted any resonators is experiencing exhaust drone?

I'm highly considering removing the 1st as well as 2nd resonators but am concerned with exhaust drone. There are many videos on youtube of this mod being done however none of them feature in car cruising soundclips. I just dont want to have my exhaust work done and be unhappy with the end result.


Has anyone removed all 3 resonators and had good results? This is another consideration since im planning on retaining the stock downpipe/cat.

Search didnt find me any clear results. :damnit1:

I'm actually going to be taking out my resinators this weekend. I'm sure I can get a video up on youtube about this.

since when do we have 3 resonators? there are 2 res and a muffler. if you remove all of them it will sound like ass.....actually it sounds like shit coming out of an ass. There is no point to removing resonators. If you want to do a cheap exhaust mod, do a test pipe.

there is no performance reason.. if you want sound its cheap way to change it

Took out 2 at first (the muffler looking thing at the end is just a resonator) and I liked it! Took out the 3rd one and LOVED IT! Burbles and pops proper and sounds even better with a test pipe. I now run straight pipe with only a vibrant high flow cat and love it. The noise ins't bad at all and it growls nice when you get on it.

do you just have a tp or a dp as well? and sound clips?

how much louder is removing both resonators compared to stock?

Don't listen to gsr. Removing the resonators just makes the exhaust drone like crazy at certain RPM's. I only removed 1 res and installed a test pipe and between 2800-3200 RPM when engine braking, the drone is LOUD, so loud that it rattles your eyeballs around.

That's why I will not be removing anything else from the exhaust.

I have a catless DP and TP into the otherwise stock CBE and THAT can drone under certain conditions (decel, certain rpms), plus adds small vibes to the car, formerly damped by the mass of the exhaust up front, I think. It's not loud, in fact it sounds quite nice 99% of the time, deep, rich, no fart-can.

I removed 2 before my dp and loved it! It does drone a little bit but its not bad and the sound was great! wasnt too much but just perfect for me! The i added the cpe downpipe and that was BAD! lol it was loud and raspy and didnt sound good at all! So i put one back in and its back to its perfect state again! Has good voulume without overdoing it and has a little drone but you get used to it quick!

So if you have stock exhaust..i would recommend taking out the 2 resonators!

Personally I love it. its very quiet in cabin at idle and not bad at all while cruising...

^ kinda have a bit of black smoke... lol

thats soot and fuel man we all have that.

that sounds awesome. deep and mean and vicious! I only have the first 2 removed

Gsr.......Do you only have the one cat?

I have one removed. Made the tone a little louder, lower, and absolutely no drone. It still def quieter than any aftermarket system but with a deeper tone than stock.

IMO if you're worried about drone do what i did, take out one. If its not enough than ditch another. After I do my DP i might ditch another depending on the sound then...

If you get a downpipe, youre going to want to keep the resonators. They keep it from being raspy.

i have the two resonators before the "muffler" taken out with a TP. it was fine and droned a bit but once i added my TRZ RMM, it was too much.

going to get the first resonator welded back in at some time

Just straight pipe with a vibrant high flow cat metal core welded into the test pipe. Its a very nice cc when I was catless in limp mode(wastegate boost) I was getting 14.5psi, with a stock set up u get around 7psi for reference. With the stock cat welded into the test pipe I was getting 11-11.5psi. I welded in a metal core vibrant and I get that went to 14psi in limp mode. This would imply that it almost flows as good as catless lol.

Does anyone have footage of 3 resonators removed but stock downpipe in place? I love the sound of these cars and have a feeling I may be safe with straightpipe after the stock cats but im nervous lol

Actually man personally I love my set up now but when I had the stock down pipe and straight pipe form there probably my best vote for sound... I'll see if I can find a vid of that.

That would be GREATLY appreciated! :)

when i first got my car i got the two traditional looking resonators removed and left the muffler looking resonator, I liked the sound a lot when i got on it but the drone during decel was horrendous and eventually really got under my skin, luckily one of my buddies sold me a racing beat muffler from his racing beat exhaust that he had modified, and that really made it sound awesome, not very loud at all during cruising, but much deeper than stock and really sounds good when i get on it. I am thinking of removing that last "resonator" to see how it sounds.

Me personally when I removed the third and final resonator (that muffler looking thing is a straight thru resonator) I was stoked! Is burbled and popped awesome! Like I said in previous post that was my favorite setup as far as sound, stock dp and straight pipe. I like current setup it is a tad louder and less growly but still sounds beautiful to me :smoker:

GSR, does running the extra psi cause the exhaust tone to change? i know having a turbo 4cyl sounds so much better than an N/A 4 cyl... wasnt sure if the higher boost helps also.

I could weigh in on this.... Exhaust tone is determined by how much pressure you are putting through the system. Ie: Higher RPM = more exhaust and pressure going through the piping. I haven't noticed an increase in exhaust tone just because I got bumped to 20psi. It's all about the piping and what RPM you are at.

I actually had to ADD a reso once I went with the catless dp/rp. The drone at 2500 rpm was really giving me a headache in daily commute. So, I cut the rp into two sections and put a Vibrant 3 inch straight through reso in the middle, trimmed the ends to correct size and welded it back together. Drone gone. I mean GONE without affecting performance and the bite is still there in the tone of the exhaust when it goes WOT.

BTW fully open exhaust, no resos, no muffler at all on a four banger is pretty much the same sound my diesel farm tractor makes. Not very appealing, IMHO. I suppose you could just go ahead and paint the car John Deere green with yellow wheels, or maybe Kubota Orange?

well andrew and i both had 2 res removed. i like the sound.

well i got my third resonator cut out yesterday and with just the racing beat muffler in there and a test pipe i really like the sound, absolutely no drone and still aggressive when you get on it. I also got a new exhaust tip welded on that is an oval shaped instead of round ugly stocker, looks a lot better to me.

Pics/video? And where did you insert the muffler?

as requested, i got the muffler welded in place of the middle resonator, they had to weld it in at an angle but it clears everything fine and theres no risk of scraping, the car sounds a lot better when you are driving and actually putting load on the engine, it sounds kind of funny in this video taken from my cheap camera. gotta love the blue smoke at first, didnt wanna rev it too much because it was a cold start

i removed 2 of my resonators and there is some exhast drone mainly downshifting but for the most part i loveit because it does sound awesome my nxt step will be front mount intercooler

Thank god you posted this. I'm sure its taken OP 3 years of waiting to get this answer from you.

Old ass thread is old, but we do appreciate you reading. :)

did you end up removing those resonators anyway since it was that long ago
if so does it feel that it takes longer for the turbo to spool up now that you took some of the back pressure away

I'm not the OP. LOL, and I drive pu. And yes my resonators are out, as are my cats, as is
the rest of my exhaust system.

And no. ko4 was and still is instaspool.

i still got the stock turbo thinking of upgrading not sure3 what to go wit for my ms3 yet any suggestions

:pat:

KO4 is the stock turbo. LOL, man you have a LOT of reading to do. Please start reading shit before you blow your engine. These cars are awesome, but not very forgiving.

yea i know that jus wondering if you had any suggestions is all