Well, I've been driving the car for the past few months on sunny days and so far, no issues, other than the fender hitting incident. With the fenders rolled and the suspension dialed in better, no more problems there. But, I still find the exhaust noise too intrusive for comfortable driving. It's tolerable when cruising with no real droning, but any acceleration and it's not enjoyable. I'm sure there many here who would love it, but for me it detracts from the driving experience. So, on to exhaust #3.
When I was really unhappy with exhaust #1 (Magnaflow muffler and straight pipe from there), I got some advice from Doug Martin (
@rx1900), to look at a chambered muffler and adding a resonator. At the time, I decided to go with the Stainless Works turbo chambered muffler and a Vibrant resonator. Hussein (
@lookforjoe) used the same muffler with, what else, a Volvo resonator
. He seems pretty happy with his and mine was much better than the Magnaflow, for sure. Another muffler that Doug had suggested was from
Solo Performance. So when I decided to bite the bullet and try again, I decided to look at what they had. They have several different stainless muffler lines. I talked with one of their reps about what I currently had and what they recommended. I ended up choosing their Stealth muffler, which is their quietest. Their Stealth series are chambered but the center chamber has packing in it to reduce noise level. Yes, I will be giving up some performance, but this car is so much faster than I could have imagined that I am fine giving up a little. To me, it doesn't make any sense to have put so much effort into this build to end up with a fast car that I don't enjoy driving.
They had one that is about the same size as the SW muffler so I ordered that one. It is 14 x 9 x 4" with a 2 1/2" offset inlet/outlet. The SW muffler measures 14 x 8 x 4 so that makes the offsets a little different, so it will not be just a "plug and play" swap. The construction seems to be very high quality. They look to be mostly handmade as they are beautifully TIG welded and highly polished. The SW muffler is made from more stamped out pieces and seemed to be more mass produced. Still good quality, just different. Pricing is about the same for both. Here is a comparison of them side by side before I started chopping up the exhaust.
Here they are after I cut out the muffler.
One thing I discovered after looking more closely at the insides, is the size of the internal pipes. When I was talking with the Solo rep, he said that the internal pipes on the Stealth are 2 1/4" but they can put 2 1/2" inlet/outlets on it. He didn't think it would make much of a difference. When I looked down the inside of the SW muffler, turns out it has only 2" internal pipes. I have no idea what difference that would make. I don't think it has any packing in it as it sounds like an empty paint can when you tap on it. The Stealth has a definite dull sound with tapping.
Here are the pieces ready to start assembling. I am just waiting on some new 45 degree bends and a couple of V band clamps to show up tomorrow, then I will get started. Doug encouraged me to keep the resonator on it, so that is my plan. Rather than weld it in, I am going to connect it with V bands, so I could play with swapping it out for a straight pipe or a different resonator if I want.
If anyone is interested in a slightly used SW muffler, PM me.