I am debating putting an exhaust on my car this year. I want to go all aluminum from the downpipe back, and try to keep it as light as possible. I figure I am taking out about 20 pounds in wire and brackets, so if I can make the whole exhaust for under 20 pounds, I’d be quite happy.
I know must race mufflers are loud anyways, but I would like to find one that would at least keep the drone down a little bit on drives. Has anyone on here done anything with an aluminum 3" inlet and 3" outlet muffler before? What are your experiences and recommendations?
I was just going to say you should contact a shop that has first hand experience and not listen to what a bunch of guys might have read somewhere(maybe a few here have had alum exh?). I can tell you what I have READ but I have 0 factual experienced based knowledge. This thread has some good experience from some knowledgeable people. http://www.norotors.com/index.php?topic=2475.0
Burns makes some ultra lightweight stainless(weigh similar if not less than comparable aluminum) that are extremely effective. They are not cheap though.
You’re the only one that provided a helpful response, lol. I will probably go with what they use at STM, and do a 14 pound exhaust or so, but I was hoping that maybe someone on here has tried one or more different mufflers, and has some experience. They only have one car that uses an aluminum muffler, the rest are no muffler, or traditional stainless.
I will probably go Vibrant 3" in and out, which is around $110 for the muffler itself, but cost doesn’t’ bother me too much, I just want to get something that works well.
Speedfab from that thread owns a really nice fab shop and does a lot of alum exhaust. I am sure if you call him he cal let you know what muffler will work best for you and probably has some around.
ok sorry i forgot to put the recommendations, but the experience is that their “louder” sounding or have a raspier tone, It was a 4" aluminum w/o muffler compared to a 4" ss w/o muffler btw
I suggested the Burns mufflers because in my experience they are much more quiet then the aluminum mufflers offered by vibrant and flowmaster(which are the 2 most popular aluminum race mufflers that I know of). They are stainless but the 2 different ones I have weigh 2.5 and 3.5 pounds compared to the vibrant which is about 1.75 iirc. The heavier of the 2 that I have is their “2 stage” design which is much more quiet than the vibrant I previously had used. All my experience is from a 2.3 eclipse with a holset 35 and 3" turbo back. I am currently building an exhaust for my evo IX which is 3.5" tb and will be using a burns 2 stage on that also.
---------- Post added at 01:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:39 PM ----------
Btw, you may have to have them custom make one for 3" in and out but their turn around is very quick
Did you bother to read anything? He is specifically looking for options in aluminum mufflers and how much ones work over another. These members did some type of testing and research that they just aren’t sharing?
---------- Post added at 11:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 AM ----------
I have used the burns mufflers before and they work very well. :tup:
No one has posted what I wanted to hear yet, and no one here has posted from first-hand experience Here is an example of what I would like to hear:
“Don’t get the Vibrant aluminum muffler, it didn’t quiet it at all”
“The Burns aluminum muffler was 10dB quieter than the Summit one”
etc…
---------- Post added at 02:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:48 PM ----------
I could check into the difficulty of welding a stainless muffler to the rest of the aluminum exhaust, but if this really did quiet a lot better, it would be an option, as long as it could be welded. How much are they per muffler?
Here is an example of what I would like to hear: