This thought has crossed my mind, but I am afraid it would look like crap. I have seen trucks running very flat rectangular tips, and I am sure those would work. Otherwise, I am not sure of the legality of running them "almost" exiting the vehicle in front of the front wheels. May not pass inspection. Been looking around for Magnaflows or Glasspacks. May do a set of glasspacks, slip on, and just try them out as dumps and see if the drone goes away or is at least substantially reduced. May run them straight exit first, then put the down turns on. Just playing around here...If I got serious, I would just rebuild the entire setup.
Just FYI, I got a pair of 3-chamber stainless Magnaflows on sale at Summit. Had a system built with 2.5" exhaust pipes with X-pipe and 2.25" tail pipes. Drone/resonance was so bad around 50 MPH I had to have the Magnaflows replaced with Thrush Turbos which reduced the drone/resonance by about half. I also installed more insulation in the rear quarters and under the package shelf. Its tolerable now. Before swapping mufflers, I asked the Magnaflow tech what to do about the resonance. He says ... "install resonators" ... duh!!!
Hmmm, all this talk about droning, even with turbo mufflers and tails, I guess I'll just keep my DynoMax super turbos. Never any interior noise from them and they sound good when you push the loud pedal.
I totally agree! I love my Dynomax SuperTurbos, they will be going back for sure. Never had a drone issue.
Whoa! Thanks for the feedback on the Magnaflows! I would have hated to spend the money and half a day working on them, and have the same drone!
My sidepipes come off the factory manifolds, then down and a 45 straight to the pipes. Bought them already fabbed to fit perfectly to the factory cast iron. Braided flex pipe bends welded in place to the bends and flanges and I dont think it's restrictive at all. I will never in a million years go back to common exhaust. I do need to retighten all the connections though.
Should have mentioned I have Doug Thorley shorty headers. I wasn't expecting the 3-chambers with tail pipes out the back to be a problem, but it was really annoying. My bro wore ear plugs on the trip to Silver Springs. Wasn't too loud outside, just inside at around 50 MPH. When I asked the pro that built the system what to do he said the only thing to do was replace the mufflers. Thought maybe the X-pipe was the issue but he said not.
Ditto on the Magnaflows. we've installed several different arrangements on Marauders and Mustangs and they drone to varying degrees depending on pipe size, x or h pipes, stainless or aluminized, etc. The Flowmasters have done the same thing. The common denominator was that they all droned and this on a heavily insulated car(Marauder). These were all rigid systems(no flex couplers) so that adds food for thought on PAINTANK's setup... The only car I've put them on that didn't drone was a 2011 Mustang 5.0L
What about the cars that have flex pipe from the factory? We dont have any kind of inspections here in california.
If it's on your car from the factory, like a lot of front wheel drive cars have, you're good. But we aren't allowed to go Autozone and buy a piece of flex pipe and add it to a car that wasn't originally equipped with it like we're discussing here. I just brought it up because people need to check their state laws before doing something like this. 'Course, too, here in PA, for a long time we weren't allowed any modified exhaust or suspension, including tires. No traction bars, non-stock mufflers. It was always a thrash getting your car ready for inspection by changing to your "legal" parts for one day. Unless you had a buddy that worked at an inspection station.
