Hey all,

I am trying to decide if I should swap my mufferless pipe-only catback with a regular nice stainless steel aftermarket one. See, I thought it would be great for performance to keep a mufferless catback, especially after adding a hi-flow cat. However, I am growing increasingly worried about my neighbor.

A few days ago, about 8:45 pm, I started the car to check some things since the DP install (the FD is on jackstands in the garage). I let it go for a few minutes, and when it warmed up I revved it slowly to 3000 or so RPMs a couple times. Then I let it idle, and a couple minutes after that the man who lives next door came out in his pajamas and a coat (!) to tell me it's rattling his house and I woke one of his children up. I'm on pretty good terms with them (I THINK...) so I told him no problem, I'd shut it off. (He's a Mechanic BTW).

Today, It had been over a week since I last ran it. As soon as I got home from work (about 5:45 pm), I fired it up to just let it idle for about 15 minutes (no revving ). About 2 or 3 minutes after I fire it up, I see someone (most likely the lady) turn on a light in their bedroom (in my neighborhood, the master is facing the street and next to your neighbor's driveway & garage), peer through the shades at me for a minute (I smiled, nodded, and waved ), then leave the room and turn the light off. This was at quarter to 6!

So now I'm worried that anytime I fire up the 7, I'll **** them off. Especially since, I love to go for late-night cruises on the weekends. So I am thinking it might be best to throw a good catback with a muffler on there. I'm also considering rigging up some sort of pipe that I can attach to the tip, and route the exhaust out of the side door of my garage into the back yard. That way, I can leave the garage door closed completely and the sound hopefully won't be noticable. (I would just open the door, detach the pipe when I was ready to go, and back out as promptly as possible).

Whew! Kinda long winded but I wanted to get this off my chest. I used to HATE other people making lots of noise when I lived in apartments, and now that I'm in a house and have a "toy", I want to be as courteous as possible without sacraficing enjoyment of the FD. I don't want to be paranoid every time I go to start my car up!

So! Poll time. What do you think is louder? My current setup - DP, stock cat, mufferless pipe catback? Or what I'm thinking of doing - DP, hi-flow cat, nice flowing aftermarket catback w/muffler?

Also, do you think my "pipe out the side door" idea is good? Is it dangerous? If it would work nicely, I just MIGHT go for DP, hi-flow, mufferless straight-pipe catback.

Thanks guys! If you read all of this then kudos to ya!

 

i am no expert but when i got my highflow i didnt notice much of a sound difference between that and the stock cat. No idea about the garage idea but it seems like it should work. Lastly I think if i were you id go d/p, hfc, nice exhaust. I think with the way most of the exhausts these days are performance shouldnt suffer noticably. (not really sure though). just my .02

 

i've got a greddy PE exhaust for sale... flows really well, and is not crazy loud like some of the others..... lemme know

harrison

ps, don't put the exhaust out the side.......

 

I see the head lines now..."man overcomed by carbon monoxide"

hehe

 

yea, i dont think you should do the whole pipe going outside your house thing, it will prob. still leak, and im sure its gonna get real hot, so it could burn your house.

as for exhaust set up: high flow cat, and a rb dual.

id go ask your neighbors when its ok to work on your car. they cant be mad if you ask them when its ok to work on it.

 

I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that having a muffler will be quiter than not having one, regardless of what type of cat is on the car.

 

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Just to clear a couple points up - As far as the "pipe" idea goes, what I mean is to attach a separate pipe to the end of the exhaust pipe (and make it airtight somehow). When I start the car and while it's warming up in the garage, the pipe would route the exhaust out the side door of my garage into the back yard (as opposed to the driveway). It is a detached garage, not attached. That way, I could keep the main garage door closed and there would be no direct noise hitting my neighbors house.

Don't they do something like that in auto shops, to vent if they run the car indoors?

As far as the neighbors go, it's not a matter of working on the car. I want to be able to start it for the purpose of driving it without worrying about annoying them. No revving, just let it warm up a few minutes and leave. The trick is sometimes in the summer I like to leave to cruise at 10, 11, even midnight!


Honestly, I'll most likely throw a new catback on there. That RB dual DOES look mighty nice!

I would guess that a DP, Hi-flow cat, and RB CB combo would yield more Horsepower than a DP, stock cat, and straight-pipe CB anyway, do you agree?

Thanks again for the replies, guys!

 

my garage is set up with an exhaust attachment.

there is a pipe (plastic/metal flex) that attaches to the tail pipe when running inside the garage for each car.

if you choose to use this type of tubing for your rx, sitting there and reving while the tube is attached may be an issue. if you are just running it, it will be fine.

if you are running your car in a garage that is attached to your house, you need to be very careful!

not a big difference in sound from a stock cat to a high flow (have had both). the cat-back is what makes your neighbors turn into "noise police"

big will

 

id havta agree with everyone on this, the rb dual plus high-flo cat will be MUCH less then just mufferless pipe. And the RB dual is one of the quietest catbacks around. Even then you wont really have to consider the "routing out the side door" idea. Once you have the hi-flow, rb catback, and ur current downpipe it shouldnt wake the neighbors.