I know I talked about the Flowmaster, but it was too loud in person. There was another car ahead of me and got it installed and I said

However, I did get a Magnaflow universal muffler fitted and piped. This is the one I got:



The guy had a hard time installing it because of the complexity of the pipe bends. After about an hour of playing around under my car, he got it. I paid a total of $120 for the muffler, installation, piping and a 3 in exhaust tip. The bending is not mandrel, it's crimping. However, I had him use a 3in pipe so that it won't be to restricted. It's not a looker, the pipes. I plan to paint them black and leave the muffler at its stainless steel color.

As for the performance, here goes.

When I first drove it off the lot, I was like "where the fu$k did the torque go?" Seriously, our cars are one of the torqueiest 4 bangers around and it disappeared. Stock, I think the tC has good torque from 2,500rpm to 4,000rpm. I was disappointed at first. I thought like, "wtf did I do?".

However, when we jumped on the freeway, I hammered it and I was like "WHOA!!!" There was now a surge of power above 4,800rpm. Before, with the stock exhaust, the car runs out of breathe at around 5,100rpm but this one seems to give more ooomph till about 6,000rpm.

Cruising in the freeway is quiet, barely noticeable. However, when you hammer it, there's a nice growl, not overpowering.

I also noticed that my rpms dropped slightly going 80mph. I think it went down about 150rpm. Barely noticeable.

I've only put on about 30 miles with this exhaust. I'll find out more next week when I put a tank full of gas and see if there's any improvement or it actually got worse.


Bottomline:
To be honest, I'm really torn between putting the stock one back, or just leaving it in there. It didn't add more power, as my butt dyno tells me. It also didn't zap power. But one thing it did is that it changed the characteristic of my engine. It went from a low reving, high torque asthmatic engine, to a higher reving, low torque track and field star.

I might keep it on for a while. I had the muffler bolted on, so I can bolt the stock one back. Right now... I'm really 50-50 about keeping it. However, $120 isn't a bad risk.

Here's the sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Vk0mpdgt8

 

subtle and low key... but nice and deep. That's awesome!

lol, I was all ready to post a message "can you make a recording" but you're obviously ahead of the game

 

Looks nice. 2 quite for my taste

 

yea, if it was just a little louder (just a tad), I think it'd be perfect

the fact that there is no exhaust drone is nice. The reason I'm not getting an aftermarket exhaust is because I don't want exhaust drone on the highway.

 

this one doesn't have drone at all. I go down a hill and run on low gears while not touching the gas and no drone.

I agree, if it was just a little louder. But you now what, maybe the muffler needs to be broken into. I read reviews about this muffler that it gets a little louder after the absorption material gets broken in.

However, I really miss the low end torque of with the stock exhaust.

I wish they'd make an exhaust system that retains the high back pressure during the low rpms, and a valve kicks in and channels the gases into a low back pressure at higher rpms.

Now that would be _____in.

 

Nice exhaust. Any pics of the exhaust on the car? I want to get the hks hi-power exhaust myself. However, the price is high and I don't know if I plan on keeping my tC for a while. If i get the exhaust, I don't know if I should keep it on the car when I trade it in, or sell it separately. Oh well, I guess I have time to check it out.

 

Sounds good man. I was thinking about getting the precision muffler exhaust and I know that they use magnaflow mufflers. Sounds real good, you have persuaded me to either pick this up for a little less, put in the labor and have a nice sounding exhaust. Or, buy the Precision muffler one and call it a day.
Either way, sounds sweet, i'd keep it on there for a while.

 

exhaust drone?? im confused i guess you could say im a newb but i have been in the business for a while just never heard of it

 

Drone is the sound that wants to make your head explode. It's very irritating and unbearable on long drives.

 

I know what you mean. I did the same thing back with my old Solara 4 banger. Put in a cat-back exhaust and lost all the torque, but gained a lil in the top-end. An exhaust probably nets you 1-2hp. Gas mileage also suffers.

 

I'm happy that I didn't sink $300 - $500 on an exhaust system. Imagine if I didn't like the loss of torque and want to put the stock one back... I would've just lost hundreds of dollars.

you guys ought to really think twice.

 

what were the sizes of the inlet and outlet? 3"?

 

there is no such thing as a loss of torque technically speaking, it is just moved farther up in the powerband. And the exhaust nets you about 6whp 6tq so its not to bad

 

put the stocker back on, and consider yourself lucky for only losing 120 bucks.

or...I guess you could drive around at 4800 rpm all day.