I am going to install two straight through mufflers in place of the rear mufflers soon and I'm wondering, should I get rid of the factory center resonator, or should I lop it off and put in a piece of pipe (or I was also considering replacing it with a glasspack muffler but that would be an extra $80). I'm just wondering because I think removing the resonator would save weight, but maybe the resonator helps give it a cooler mellow sound. I guess I'll probably just leave it, or at least test it with it the resonator in for a while.

 

A glass pack muffler is a resonator in itself. I did the same thing to my 01 Explorer SportTrac and kept my factory resonator with no glass pack. I get a lot of compliments on it. Never thought about doing it to my X type. That might sound pretty good or extremely annoying. Let us know.

 

If you don't know, then don't do anything with it until after you do mufflers. I took mine of when I still had stock mufflers and it made it a bit louder. Personally I like the sound of the mina mufflers and no resonator, although its still too quiet for me. I'm a little strange though ha. That stock resonator is pretty heavy, so are the stock mufflers. I'd guess I lost like 40lbs or more by changing the mufflers and losing the resonator.

 

Yea... The resonator looks pretty heavy duty. I've heard the back mufflers are really heavy. I guess I will try it out with the new mufflers and get used to the sound and then if I want to I could always go back and get the resonator removed later. I was almost tempted to keep the stock mufflers but I wanted a little bit more of a high performance sound.

 

I am pretty ticked with the place I bought the mufflers from online. They gave me a tracking number and I assumed they were going to be here yesterday. Then I check my email in the afternoon and they have some excuse about there being a "fitment issue" with a lot of their customers, so they are returning the whole batch and it would be another 3 or 4 weeks before they get them back in, and said I could wait or get a refund. I already scheduled a time to get them installed so I told them I couldn't wait a month for the stupid mufflers. The reasoning they were giving me didn't make sense. They wouldn't exactly say what was wrong with them. I went to the other vendor and they pulled that same style of muffler from their listings too. So there are no other mufflers in that same dimension, so I went with my backup choice. It's roughly the same size, but the tip is about 1 1/2 inch shorter. I looked under my car and think it will fit because the stock mufflers have some space before the bumper. Anyways, they are supposed to be lightweight. They look hand welded, where you can see the seams. They first ones were computer welded with smooth edges. I kind of liked that look but I think they are b/s'ing me with that excuse about fitment problems. So anyways, I am going to try out those other mufflers. I am afraid they might be really loud, but I am going to keep the resonator unless I decide later to remove it. I think they are gonna look cool. They have 3.5" burnt tips, and they almost look like a street bike muffler. There were a lot of cool options for a 4" tip, but I went out and measured it and 4" would just look ridiculously huge. The stock tips are 2"x3" ovals, so a 4" circle tip would just look gigantic. I decided 3.5" was the largest I would want to go. Hope they fit alright. Should have them in sometime next week.

 

The freaking muffler project is on hold indefinitely now at least until I get this water pump problem sorted out. The pump is leaking at the pulley (main seal I think), and being dumb I tightened all the bolts around the pump and snapped one off. Soooo... the money I wanted to spend on doing the mufflers is now going towards yet another coolant part. Also means no sway bar bushings either for the time being. Hoping I can get this broken bolt out without damaging anything.

 

Yesterday after my water pump issue I emailed the muffler seller and asked if he could cancel my order, then I get an email today saying they are being shipped tomorrow so I don't know what the status is. I hope he sees my email and cancels the order. I was wanting to do the muffler upgrade but I would like to get my car running well before I start modifying further. I did the lowering springs before I fixed the thermostat and now I fixed the thermostat I am finding my water pump is going. I know if I get mufflers I will want to drive my car hard to hear the sound and if the cooling system is not 100% I will probably mess something up.

 

One muffler shop suggested I do this, then I took it to my friend who works at another muffler shop and he said that would be super loud and he wouldn't do it. He suggested the Magnaflow style straight through mufflers. I like those but you have to buy tips for them, and the good tips can be as much as the mufflers! I found a couple mufflers with tips that I like, but I'm not sure if I should get them now because I've been putting a lot money into my car lately.

 

Got the new mufflers installed the other day. Forgot to mention it because of my water pump issue. They had the silencer baffles in them for a few days, partly because I couldn't get them out because they were stuck in there, and partly because the shop recommended I leave them in. I took them out today and it is awesome (I left the factory resonator installed under the car). 1st, 2nd, and 3rd are pretty loud but when it gets to overdrive it's quiet as can be. It's a cool sound, I like it. It's strange because you think it should be a silent car but then it growls when you go.

 

So far I really like the mufflers. It's a little louder in the lower gears but when it gets to 4th and 5th it starts quieting down and by in 5th it's just quiet as can be. The exhaust really flows out of them. I switched out of sport mode and have been driving in normal mode now but it drives like it's in sport mode. When you start it up it sounds kind of like a v8 truck, but when it warms up it quiets down and driving around it sounds a lot like a turbo diesel car if you know what those sound like. I personally dig the sound. It was a big change going from the stock sound to these but I'm getting more used to it. The important thing is that it quiets down on when you are cruising 50mph or over. I was afraid if it droned real bad at freeway speeds, it would get on my nerve, but once you get going it's like it's not even there. It feels like the fuel mileage has improved as well.