Ok, I had some major exhaust leaks from the OEM system. The cat was split down the middle, the split air pipe was looseo n the inside rattling around, almost all the flanges were bad, the y-pipe was split almost all the way down the middle, and the header > engine gasket was in tatters. The car did have new HKS-knock off mufflers and pipes from the previous owner though.

I replaced the y-pipe a couple of months ago with a nice Racing Beat unit (only $100, sweet), purchased a used pre-silencer that looked to be in decent shape, and just recieved the Racing Beat streetable header a couple fo days ago and put in it last night.

Install went w/o a hitch and everythign is lined up perfectly and sealing very well (new Racing Beat gaskets all around, no leaks in sight anywhere ).

Here's the old and the new for reference (pre-silencer painted with corrosion resisting high-temp paint because it had a scrape along the bottom that was corroding a little):



I didn't get to start it last night because I was waiting for some fiberglass to dry for my new intake box, but I started it this morning and did a sad panda face. I was hoping that this setup would be the same volume, or maybe even quiter then with the bad gaskets and split cat.

Anyways, here's the video: right-clicky, save.

My car sounds like an extremely pissed off whitey-hating weedwacker :sob:. It's frickin' LOUD. I feel like such a god-damn ricer now.

Ok, I understood that putting that header on would increase the volume, but I thought the pre-silencer was supposed to counter-act that, and dammit, I had an almost wide-open exhaust after the pre-cats (which were gutted) before.

Would purchasing the racing beat mufflers fix this.... or maybe there's a cheaper alternative ($440 for both is much more then I'd like to throw at this thing after the last few puchases)?

 

Wow your exhaust is so quiet, I'm envious

^^ And that's actually serious btw

Racing Beat mufflers would probably quiet it down a bit more, but in no way is the pre-silencer meant to fully counter-act the increased volume from the header and such, it's just meant to bring it down to "tolerabe" (for some) levels.

 

Your car sounds rotor-licious. Wait until you can drive it around and feel the power difference, then see if you still hate it.

 

Really?!.... the wife is going to kill me. There's no way I'm putting that stock **** in there. With the rest of my little bolt-ons and tweaks the car runs so much smoother and pulls a measurable amount harder then it ever has.

I suppose it is still quiter then the big-*** trucks that cruise around here (shaking my windows ), but ****, I'm going to get a head-ache from it, lol.

 

If you just have the HKS cans, which I am assuming are straight through, then your whole exhaust is straight through. CONGRADULATIONS! You've built a race exhaust, well sort of. I would think it would sound great like that. It would also be very loud. put some chambered mufflers on it that have walls in them or converters or a turbo and all of the aforementioned, and it will get quieter. They will break open and be loud in 6 months. Mazda made an exhaust that was heavy, complicated and rusty, but it was quiet. The best thing to do for a quiet exhaust is to go ahead and cutt out the exhaust diffusers in the ports and raise the exhaust ports up and down. shape them like a sideways martinsville racetrack, sortof like a big rectangle with rounded corners and put a nice bevel on the edges. This will make the car really quiet with an ISC header and a couple of magnaflow cans right off the ends of those header pipes. All Joking aside, I love the word dDub used, "tolerable". That is all any straight through muffler will do unless you stack lots of them. They make for great throttle responce and top end, but cops in my area already know what RX-7 means. They were very firm with me and they know my car. I'll be installing more mufflers soon.

 

This is how it was for about 8 months to a year http://home.comcast.net/~rx7pics/before.MPG

This is it now http://home.comcast.net/~drewrx7/after.MPG

Still LOUD :| but it's quieter at least.

 

So that's with the Racing Beat cat-back then? Does anyone happen to know how much a pair of those mufflers go for used?

I know a local guy that has two brand-new OEM mufflers that he'll sell for cheap as well. Good idea, or bad idea?

 

You'll lose power with the OEM mufflers. You'd be better off dropping a little more cash, and going with a good set of Racing Beat mufflers. Just one man's 2 cents though.

 

hehehe, sounds just like mine, except for yours idles.. i like the sound

 

My car sounds exactly like yours. I hate it also. It started after installing the RB collected header also. I also have brandless knock-offs for mufflers. That seems to be the root of the rice.

 

I wuold say my car has strait thrue exhaust with gutted cat, downpipe and two bit strait thrue mufflers and it relitively quiet. But then again I have a Turbo in the way of the exhaust flow..



Gil.

 

O and your exhast sound good, nice and deep, but a bit loud. Just add a bigger midpipe muffler.




Gil

 

No that is not racing beat catback! Heh...

The first video, the "before" video, was a racing beat collected header to 2.5" straight pipe back to dual ebay BOMZ GT mufflers straight through and most likely blown.

The second vide, the "after" video, is the same as the before except I added a Borla XR-1 muffler in the middle to quiet it down. The after video is still WAY LOUD, and racing beat WILL be quieter.

 

OK... heres the deal... That big iron POS that USED to be on your car actually knocked some of the noise down because of its dorky design.

The Pre cats being hollows acted as two more tone dampening chambers and so did the hollow main cat...

If you check out some of the new performance mufflers out there... you'll note that they don't have any packing material in them.. just a series of baffle plates designed to cause the sound waves to cancel themselvs out. Pretty much the same thing happens, albeit to a much lesser extent when you run the exhaust throught the empty cats and the manifold.

As for the racing beat presilencer.. you should hear a car without it.... if you think it sounds like a weed whacker now... GEEZE... It seems to knock out some of the annoying tinnyness of the exhasut tone, but doesn't really make it an quieter.

Get a set of racing beat cans.. If you want higher flow, get the turbo II catback cans... (not the full 3" cans) cause the the Turbo and N/A cans will both work on the same Y pipe.. Theyu flow good, but really give a deeper tone and not very loud at all.. well, with that header they may still be a bit loud!!

 

Yes which was the main point of me posting that before video when I had straight pipe, I was trying to say that it could be a LOT worse.

 

I didnt find it to be all to loud. The cannons give a ricy sound as exspected but not all that bad. Sounds good in low revs I like.

 

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

The wife kinda groaned when I told her it was louder. I'll just keep an eye for some decent Racing Beat cans and eBay some more crap off and work some overtime to save the money up.

Until then the neighbors will have to live with it. The one at the other end of the block just bought a super annoying glass-packed ghetto blazer so we can take turns disturbing the peace.

 

That reminds me. I took the one i just built for my gf and the naighbors have ben coming over for the past 3 days and complaing that its to damn load. And it seriusly is very quit. I mean quiter then a civic with a fart cannon. Its a throtty sound compared to a connon thow. Its quit agervating when naighbors feel they have the right to come over and complain and try and give me ****. Makes you want to have a firework show each night at 11pm

 

I know all too well about neighboors being upset about exhaust noise :|



I got a good laugh out of that, especially because of the random capitalization of letters. That's also a big contributor to me putting the borla in.

 

YEA! I love it. That is the best lettor ever.

I live on 10 acers so when my "naighbors" complain I yell STFU Bit* its my property call the cops. and they go back inside. Someone new moved in and they calld the cops one time for my track since I ride 2 hours a day on it and the cops came and kinda laughed and said its my property I do what I want.

But she lives in a naighborhood I want to blow up at them to but feel bad at same time and agervated I cant make car run however I want spechaly when testing it at like my house.

 

Sweet, what kind of track is it? I've seen that letter before as well, I like how they signed it, lol.

My dad mentioned how I could maybe put some stainless steel in the cans and just tack some black wire mesh in there to hold it in place and it might take the edge off the sound a bit, but I'm not sure how well that work. I know I've seen a few stainless steel packed cans before, but I don't think you can just shove it in there and hope it does the job, right?

 

man, uRizen, I don't mean to laugh at your situation b/c I know it's expensive and it sucks tobe disapointed, but watching that video, listening to the RRRIIIIINNNGGGADINGADINGADINGA exhaust and seeing the title of the move "damnexhaust.wmv" REALLY cracked me up! sorry man

"damnexhaust" heh heh heh best. title. ever.

 

Its is a super cross track "dirt bikes" I am a professhional rider and mainly only run the SX series so thats what I do. I have ben out the last seson for injurys. But starting to ride again now so the new naighbors never new I rode.