I had the resonator (small muffler located about center of the car) cut out and replaced with a straight piece of exhaust pipe just to see what it would do to the sound of the stock exhaust. Pretty satisfied with the results. Cost me $30 and about 30 minutes of downtime waiting for the work to be done. Here's what I ended up with...

At idle, the exhaust note is slightly more noticeable with a definite "burble" compared the the original sound. Rev the engine (no load) and there is a definite db difference. Moving out from a stoplight and the tone is deeper (dare I say 'sporty"!) with just a hint of a rasp above 3500 rpm. At cruising speeds there I didn't notice any difference in the sound inside the car (windows up or down). Absolutely no interior drone or buzzing noted.

I doubt I gained a single HP out of all of this but the results was just what I had hoped for.

 

You could have picked up a few hp/tq here or there, but its probably not significant beign that the resonator is downstream of the cats (more restrictive than the resonator). Either way, if it sounds meaner, cool!



Side question, PT, you a pilot?

 

Nice..But..

The best mod to the stock exhaust system is removal of the muffler.IMO.Feel power and sounds so aggressive . -$0

 

No. Wondering why you'd think I was?? Retired military but no aviation experience (except jumping out of'em). The standard joke is that I wanted to be an aviator but the military found out I knew both of my parents, so I was disqualified .


There is much to be said for an "aggressive" exhaust if that's what you're looking for. However, I just got rid of an '03 Mustang Mach 1 with 2 chamber flowmasters, an X-pipe with hi-flow cats, and all the resonation, droning, and interior panel buzzing I could stand. I had one particular buzzing noise in the rear seat area that I used like a shift light!! With the Z it's nice to be able to carry on a conversation or listen to the radio at highway speeds. The slight increase in my Z's exhaust note after this simple mod works just fine for me!