Ok guys, I am looking for something to give the XK* a little rumble, sort of reminicent of the mucle car rumble at idle. I have seen some videos and heard them from Europe (Borla, Blue Flame, etc) and read a few posts which has me even more confused. Why the confusion; well, do we remove the center muffler and go with a crossover adn then use the stock pipes? Do we keep the center muffler and go with straight pipes back to the tips? Do we need to replace the catalylitic converters?

Second to that, looking on the Flow master and the Magna flow web sites, there is nothing listed for Jaguar? What is that story?

Can a local muffler shop such as Meinikie do the work needed to install this kind of stuff? Or does anyone know inthe south NJ are a shopcapable of doing this kind of semi custom work?

Please help.

Joe

 

For me, removing the center muffler and adding an X-pipe didn't do much for the sound. Eventually I'm going to remove two of the other four mufflers, I'm just not sure which ones yet.

 

Removing the center muffler and putting in a H pipe as far forward as you can really makes it growl. It's even a bit raspy at full acceleration. It's louder than I thought it would be reading the forums. I almost wish I could tone it down just a little. Oh well, it's done and not worth any extra effort, IMO.

 

I'll address the Flowmaster/Magnaflow question since I have Flowmaster 40 series on my car (and I should get a couple more exhaust clips, since I've had some requests) If you haven't already, check out my thread here about it. There is no bolt on system from either company, so you'll have to go custom to use their products.

I worked with Exhaust Pros locally. They have a mandrel pipe bender and a guy who has done exhaust work for years. What I had them do was create a system that essentially mimics the stock system only with 2½" pipe. I used an custom built H-pipe (you could easily use an X-pipe, your choice) where the beginning of the center muffler used to be. From there the exhaust goes back and the two intermediate muffler are eliminated, it continues back over the axle (originally I was going to go under, but I decided against it) and two Flowmaster 40 series mufflers (center in, offset out) sit where the very rear mufflers used to. From there the exhaust exits from two Magnaflow exhaust tips (there is plenty of discussion on the perfect exhaust tip, and, to me, it depends on the rear valence '97-'00, '01-'04, '05-'06) It's aggressive, but not over the top (although some may say it is, I may have the loudest XK exhaust on here) You could tone it down by using 50 series rather than 40 series.

Here is a comparison, green is stock, red is my custom system:


I did it all for around $550.

If you are curious on a Magnaflow system, my pipe guy originally wanted to use a dual in/dual out muffler similar to our center muffler only with better flow and sound, use that to replace the stock center muffler and then run just pipe all the way back, eliminating the rest.

My advice would be to go to a local exhaust shop (I'm not sure a Meinike does anything custom) and talk to their guys. See if they are willing to put the car up on a lift and then bounce some ideas off of them. Hopefully you can get in on a slow day, that is what I did. I happened to get in really early spring and the exhaust guy quoted me a great deal if I could get in before the Spring/Summer rush came. If you wanted to go even cheaper than mine (although your labor may be higher, I live in the sticks ) you could simply put an H in place of the center muffler, eliminate the intermediate mufflers, and replace the rear mufflers with a set of your choosing. This would essentially duplicate my system only using as much of the existing pipe as possible.

 

Keith, of the four rear mufflers, do you know which two, if any, are glass packs and which two are actual mufflers? By glass packs I'm talking about a perforated pipe that goes straight through with no baffles. I think some people call them resonators. I'm thinking that my next mod will be to remove the two glass packs and leave the actual mufflers. If that doesn't make me happy I'll reinstall those and remove the actual mufflers.

 

FWIW, glass packs are straight pipe mufflers surrounded by a baffle filled with fiberglass. Resonators are empty cans with redirected airflow. From what I understand the center muffler leads to two separate mufflers and the cans closest to the pipes are resonators. Then again, I may well be wrong.

 

Sorry Sam, I don't know which ones are which. I didn't think to inspect them and i didn't think to keep them. At the time, I knew just replacing the center muffler wasn't going to cut it, and I didn't think of reusing the other mufflers. I loved the low metallic echoey rumble (technical description, isn't it ) of the Flowmasters so I went that route. I have a friend with Magnaflows on his truck (5.3L Chevy V8) and while it wouldn't sound the same, it is quieter on full throttle than my car…and louder at normal speeds and I didn't like the sound as much.

If I had to take a guess, I'd disagree with you guys and say, just by shape, that all four of the rear are chambered mufflers, but I'd keep the back two if you are only going to keep two. Those intermediate ones are small and I'd bet the car would be loud with just those…and even though I like loud exhaust, that would probably be too much for me. It would probably still be quieter than my old Cougar with side exit exhaust and just glasspacks and headers

 

That describes a muffler. Here's a video that shows how a muffler works, along with a muffler that has been cut open.

HowStuffWorks Videos "How Mufflers Work"

I did some homework and found some pics. The first is a resonator, the second is a muffler.





However, many mufflers have built in resonating chambers to reduce certain frequencies. In general, mufflers like the one in the second picture are going to be quieter than those in the first picture.

Sooooo... of the four rear mufflers, are either of them a straight-through piece of pipe with holes in it? Because removing that one will cause the least increase in noise. If I'm going to remove mufflers I would prefer to start with the ones that cause the least increase in noise.

 

yank it all out and throw some side pipes on that baby. HA HA HA

 

Yes, as you notice the airflow is being redirected as I said. If it were a straight pipe, it would just be a glass pack.

And I didn't dispute or even mention that.

I have no idea. My previous comment was what I read here as I have not inspected them first-hand.

 

According to XKRacer (whom I consider to be one of the most knowledgeable XK dudes on the planet) the small guys in front of the axle are mufflers and the aftmost are straight through resonators. I have the same type of setup as K.Westra, except I have a Magnaflow cross-pipe (instead of an H-pipe). Got rid of the mufflers and put 2.25 inch mandrel bent pipes up and over the axle. I left my rear resonators in place where he used Flowmasters. I like the sound. Pleasant at cruise and noticeable when accelerating. Nice burbble at idle. It doesn't sound like a muscle car (got the Corvette for that stuff), but I'm not really sure you will ever get that sound from an XK8 with the stock catalytic converters on board.

Cheers,

 

What the hey, I'll give this a try too.

A muffler operates on the principle of expansion. An input pipe will disperse the gasses, usually through baffles, into some bigger cross-section chamber. The gasses will exit through another pipe, usually with more baffles, and usually with the same cross section as the input pipe.
This keeps the guys at Meineke from getting confused.

A resonator contains some sort of tuned structure, designed to selectively gobble up sounds based on frequency. Usually there's a single pipe, input-to-output, some sort of sound-absorbing material, and I don't think it matters whether there's a bend in the pipe.

A real-world device could of course have both muffler and resonater elements in it. What do we call such a thingy? Dunno.

Like everybody else, I may or may not have this right.

 

I put two straight pipes, instead of center resonator and I am not happy with the sound I got. It does have some rumble to it, however if I step on it, now I have a rather farty rattle from the back, like I have loose valve in then engine, but it rattle out of the back
All in all, it is a bit ghetto. Therefore, now that I got out of my recent legal battle, I can plan on Nameless Performance down pipes and exhaust for about ~$1900, I think...

 

I had the stock cats removed and installed a set of Nameless high flow cats and left the rest of the exhaust system intact on my 2005 XKR. What a difference! The Nameless high flow catalytic converters provided a little extra boost and just the right amount of growl when you push the accelerator. The extra growl is there when you want it but unobtrusive when tooling down the highway.

 

Actually it does. A straight pipe going through the center of a can packed with fiberglass is the very definition of a glass pack.

It doesn't really make any difference, just kinda arguing about semantics. Most 'mufflers are a combination of resonator and baffled sound reduction anyway.

*shrug*

 

No matter how you slice it, Nameless is the best product all around, however there is always Mina Boutique, or something rather, for those thrifty tuners

 

And then this guy said:

 

A comment, those with the XKR and the flow through cats, I understand you do get a nice sound, but what kind of sound will you get with an xk8?

 

Read post #3... that's my impression from my XK8.

 

there's a thread somewhere else in the xk8-r subforum with more than a few xk8s with some exhaust mods. Take a listen.