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My new to me 1984 12a Rx7 has the stock exhaust with some aftermarket cats. Car feels bogged down and i plan to replace the stock Nikki carb here in the near future. I feel like I have heard whispers of the RB exhausts being lower quality and tinny versus 15 years go. Should I just do a single outlet header and presilencer to the original muffler?
for what it's worth, i think i had read in one of those RB exhaust threads that they had traced the ones that sucked to some contracted manufacturer they were using for a while. to solve the problem, they moved manufacturing back in-house. i'm tempted to say that i read that in thread that was started this year, so you shouldn't have to trudge through too many to find it. worse comes to worst, you can always contact them to see if my memory has failed me yet again.
I'll speak on my experience. In 2021 I bought the PR Extreme 3" for the FB. combined with the universal 3" presilencer and a GESI Catalytic, my turbo '80 sounds rather unasuming. Definitely a sporty tone, but Ill never draw attention to myself. I'm more than happy.
next up. my kids GSLSE.
He had a bit of a basket case with his exhaust. right now he has the stock manfold, the Bonez catalytic/ silencer a new midpipe and the standard RB muffler. all decent quality. He's been driving it for about a year. Still looks good. Hell, his radiator fan make more noise than his exhaust.
I feel Racing Beat had corrected whatever errors were made in the past.
They make all of their stuff inhouse , I literally walked into their factory on accident a week and a half ago and the guy who was working there was kind enough to give me the address to the showroom They make the mufflers , the headers and the presilencers.
Not to knock on any one here but that infamous picture of the discolored muffler was caused by that members mistake by in running such a lean car. His header was glowing cherry red and his muffler turned two two colors .
For a time RB was having the muffler outsourced and the quality wasn't as good .
So installed the long primary system this weekend. I seem to have a significantly loud tinny sound at higher rpms. I need to rule out anything vibrating causing it but i am worried that this is what is sounds like given how loud it is. It really isn't anything like the old stuff. The rear muffler is very light relative to an old Powerpulse. I recall reading some folks mention a break in period but that seems unreliable.
Anyway, i will check the heatshields and anything that might be causing this....
So installed the long primary system this weekend. I seem to have a significantly loud tinny sound at higher rpms. I need to rule out anything vibrating causing it but i am worried that this is what is sounds like given how loud it is. It really isn't anything like the old stuff. The rear muffler is very light relative to an old Powerpulse. I recall reading some folks mention a break in period but that seems unreliable.
Anyway, i will check the heatshields and anything that might be causing this....
The effect has mostly but not completely gone away for me , The first few days was as described. I'm gonna put 1000 miles on it before passing judgement. Some exhaust sound like garbage after a while and some sound good , they rarely sound the same. My dad got one for his beater toyota truck and at first it was noisy but now it is more bassy and quiet after a year of daily use , at first it was raspy. My exhaust has gotten quieter in the two weeks i have had it too .
The effect has mostly but not completely gone away for me , The first few days was as described. I'm gonna put 1000 miles on it before passing judgement. Some exhaust sound like garbage after a while and some sound good , they rarely sound the same. My dad got one for his beater toyota truck and at first it was noisy but now it is more bassy and quiet after a year of daily use , at first it was raspy. My exhaust has gotten quieter in the two weeks i have had it too .
I will definitely update when i put some mileage on it or if the sound goes away. Regardless, i dont recall this being an issue 15 - 20 years ago.
Okay so it’s been a few hundred miles of proper driving. And it’s still awful. It’s absolutely nothing like their old product. I see someone mentioning them making parts I house but this muffler just simply is a cheap Chinese looking thing. Perhaps they weld the tips and inlet tubes on or something. It really is a big let down over their old power pulse I knew. I was worried when I installed it and it was so light….
at this point, I’m not sure what I’m going to do given the limited options out there. I’ll have to find a different rear muffler.
the header is good. The mid section is good. But the power pulse muffler is (still) junk.
Okay so it’s been a few hundred miles of proper driving. And it’s still awful. It’s absolutely nothing like their old product. I see someone mentioning them making parts I house but this muffler just simply is a cheap Chinese looking thing. Perhaps they weld the tips and inlet tubes on or something. It really is a big let down over their old power pulse I knew. I was worried when I installed it and it was so light….
at this point, I’m not sure what I’m going to do given the limited options out there. I’ll have to find a different rear muffler.
the header is good. The mid section is good. But the power pulse muffler is (still) junk.
The humming has gone away for me . I ask what temps are you are in because I noticed the humming was really annoying when the temperature was bellow 60 degrees until the car warmed up but it is virtually gone once it's 75+ deg out .
In the last two weeks the muffler seems to have settled in and the humming has gone away. The first day the car sounded like a hollow tube with lots of air running through it , even my dad said it sounded horrible but apparently after doing much research many exhaust have that " issue" which goes away after repeated heat cycles NOT distance . I have cycled the car through 36 heat cycles since I purchased my exhaust and within the last week has the humming gone away and my car has also gotten quieter over all . Are there better mufflers , 100% . Is their old muffler better out of the gate 100%. Is that horrid hum forever ? Nope .
Why did I put up with it ?
Every single last gen ~> ford focus<~ after market exhaust sounds like that for at least 700-1200 miles for whatever reason and then one day they don't . I only know because A friend of mine was livid with his new exhaust sound on his focus RS because it sounded like wind humming in a can but was told by the manufacturer that he needed to break it an and it eventually did . I was unfortunate enough to take a trip in his choo choo car and hear the humming .
I say cycle your car through a heat cycle twice a day and see if the sound changes . I wrapped my headers and the exhaust tips are golden now and some purple around the inlet of the exhaust as well. It may just be that RB expects these mufflers to get slapped on race cars that run alot hotter than our street rods and as a result the exhaust just settles in at a snails pace.
The OLD RB exhaust is a tank that weighed like 4 times a stock muffler and I don't think any heat cycles will do it in at all so out of the gate it just sounded nice .
It is also important to note that the muffler i got was for the 79-80 and was heavier than the OEM one by like 50 % I had to use a jack to lift it in place.
The humming has gone away for me . I ask what temps are you are in because I noticed the humming was really annoying when the temperature was bellow 60 degrees until the car warmed up but it is virtually gone once it's 75+ deg out
I don’t think the exhaust, which is warmer than the ambient air by quite a lot should mind if it’s a nice spring day or summer. That said 65 to 100 degrees air temp, no difference.
[quote] I have cycled the car through 36 heat cycles since I purchased my exhaust and within the last week has the humming gone away and my car has also gotten quieter over all . Are there better mufflers , 100% . Is their old muffler better out of the gate 100%. Is that horrid hum forever ? Nope .
Why did I put up with it ?
Every single last gen ~> ford focus<~ after market exhaust sounds like that for at least 700-1200 miles for whatever reason and then one day they don't . I only know because A friend of mine was livid with his new exhaust sound on his focus RS because it sounded like wind humming in a can but was told by the manufacturer that he needed to break it an and it eventually did.[\quote]
I have cycled it a few dozen times at this point. my rx4 was only the RB header to the universal RB 2.5” and it sounded much better. This isn’t a humming, more like metallic ringing. It’s almost like there is no packing.
The OLD RB exhaust is a tank that weighed like 4 times a stock muffler
this one weighs significantly less than stock.
anyway my time and money will force me to give it a little more time but I’m not optimistic.
Mine sounds like that above 6000 rpm but deeper , yours has a very pointy tinny noise . I also have my tail lights insulated with a new gasket and insulation in the back so that may muffle it . I will take a video later .
My dad bought one of their (we believe) old stock mufflers. His is mounted his on his GSLSE along with a 90's RB header and mid pipe. He too had/has a very harsh metallic tinny noise, especially under any sort of acceleration. His car is mainly driven for autocross, so it gets many heat cycles for the amount of milage. After some use it has gotten noticable better. The current drone I would consider annoying but bearable for short drives. It would be irritating on any sort of trip. As mentioned by many the quality is way off their old high quality systems. We are hoping that the drone gets better, the quality is a bummer for what he paid. I still think that Racing Beat has some awesome stuff, and I hope that their new exhausts fix these issues. I have liked everything else I have ordered from them recently.
My thought is the current design is what hurts the sound quality, not the material. The primary's used to collect at the rear muffler inlet. Does not appear to be the same on there later mufflers. And the header wrap works too...
My thought is the current design is what hurts the sound quality, not the material. The primary's used to collect at the rear muffler inlet. Does not appear to be the same on there later mufflers. And the header wrap works too...
The stock 81-82 mufflers are like that. I tried it with the rest of the RB exhaust and it didn't sound good, very tinny.
Then I found an RB muffler like in lwrobins' photo and the tone got a lot deeper.
The stock 81-82 mufflers are like that. I tried it with the rest of the RB exhaust and it didn't sound good, very tinny.
Then I found an RB muffler like in lwrobins' photo and the tone got a lot deeper.
Never mind , I just noticed the pipes collecting before the muffler on the old one.
Mine sounds great now . That being said I have good reason to believe i may have cooked the **** out of mine, I left the choke on while spraying carb cleaner and my headers started glowing orange , also my muffler is golding and bluing . Ever since that day the humming it made went away..
05-25-23, 04:45 PM
