Been playing with my exhaust

Been playing with my exhaust

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V8Monaro

Original Poster:

211 posts

194 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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Hi everyone,

Up until yesterday my Monaro VXR 6.0 had a Milltek exhaust which was 2 completely seperate pipes running from each cat with 1 rear silencer on each, nothing in the centre. See below:


This has always made the car fairly loud and have a very burbly muscle car sound, which has been great. However I fancied a change and did not want to spend a fortune so yesterday I had an X pipe welded in which I have no pictures because the garage put the car on the floor before I could have a look.

This has had some interesting results.
The power delivery is very different now! I guess it feels like the car has a little less low down torque now but is a lot quicker to rev, and there is definitely more grunt towards the top of the rev range then before.
The noise has changed somewhat, I supose it is now les burbly and more raspy, reminds me of a V8 M3 and a bit like my dads SL55, less old school I suppose. Still sounds great just different.

The only downside is it actually seems to have made the car a little quieter, which was not my plan. It's a different noise but slightly less of it, I want more! I am thinking about going mad and just deleting the 2 rear boxes and going straight through, have some fun with it for a while.

Has anyone else had a similar set up? I am just curious as to how loud it will be, and if it will sound good or just be lots of horrible noise. Will it affect the performance atall?

I had cutouts fitted a while ago these were rediculously loud but the noise was not pleasant, so I got rid of them.


I guess this is because the cutout is essentially a big hole halfway though the exhaust, this also made my car very slow so I just had the orignal bit of pipe welded back in. This is where the x pipe now sits.

In an ideal world I would rip it all out and start again, but I cannot justify £2-3k on it at the moment when I already have high flow cats and a decent system to start with.

Anyway any comments on the changes I have noticed and if straight pipes with an X has been done before and how it will further change things will be great.

Thanks
Karl

mikeyb1987

2,356 posts

154 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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The standard Milltek exhaust should have had a H-pipe. I'm guessing this has been removed at some point?

I had a Milltek on my car when I bought it, sound very woofly and bassy. It reminded me of the Walkinshaw systems. I ended up selling that and getting a custom cat-back/sports cats/headers (inc X-pipe) from AAS.

jonnM

1,102 posts

139 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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V8Monaro said:
The only downside is it actually seems to have made the car a little quieter
Well that's no good! Take it off and throw it in the bin! smile

KMud

2,924 posts

156 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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Mirrors my experience going H to X, less woof, more 'busy' sounding.

BigbadVXR

256 posts

171 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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Mines got a miltek system fitted with an X pipe then only small rear silencers.
Quite happy with mine and don't want it too loud wink

Tattooboy

7,946 posts

178 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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I ran my old Monaro VXR for a while with straight thro pipes, it was proper LOUD, was fun for a while but after any decent runs in it, I use to get out with ringing in my ears like I'd been in a nightclub standing by the speakers all night.

I think if you went this way, you would swap back fairly quickly.

Ask ARAF how loud my car was, scarred the living daylights out of him on a run one day coming off a slip road joing the road he was on!! hehe

As I said, it was fun for a while, but that's it !

ARAF

20,759 posts

223 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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Tattooboy said:
I ran my old Monaro VXR for a while with straight thro pipes, it was proper LOUD, was fun for a while but after any decent runs in it, I use to get out with ringing in my ears like I'd been in a nightclub standing by the speakers all night.

I think if you went this way, you would swap back fairly quickly.

Ask ARAF how loud my car was, scarred the living daylights out of him on a run one day coming off a slip road joing the road he was on!! hehe

As I said, it was fun for a while, but that's it !
Yeah, especially as we were on a standard exhaust, and not expecting you - let alone rip along the sliproad and out in front of us. hehe


Addressing the original question, we're just playing with our exhaust at the moment, and will soon have cats and X pipe only before the cutouts.
As your X pipe has changed the tone and volume, how about trying the cut-outs again, as long as they are after the X pipe?

V8Monaro

Original Poster:

211 posts

194 months

Friday 15th August 2014
quotequote all
Thank you for all the answers so far. The car is purely for fun and as I do not drive it very far really loud is great, adds to the occasion. However I would like a nice noise, the problem I found with cutouts was it was not a very nice noise, just sounded like an exhaust blowing.
And the main thing that puts me off is that the performance of the car was affected so much, that is what I want to avoid.
I cannot see why straight pipes would effect performance atall but then I thought this about the cutouts!

Would straight pipes be as loud as open cutouts? I would expect not quite but hopefully one of you knows for sure?

ARAF

20,759 posts

223 months

Friday 15th August 2014
quotequote all
Depends where your cut-outs are. Ours are just before the rear silencers, so a long way back.


MyM8V8

9,457 posts

195 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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It has been proven by a forum member that not running an H or X crossover costs you mid range power. I couldn't do that for whatever sound.

SturdyHSV

10,094 posts

167 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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Mine is all straight pipe with an X-pipe, it has the wortec switchable back boxes for when I need to sneak somewhere hehe

There's a V8UK meet in Somerset tomorrow, you'd be very welcome to join if you wanted to hear mine over a wide range of situations hehe


Coatesy351

861 posts

132 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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Without a balance pipe you tend to get a really annoying bark to the exhaust note. In australia they call it Thong clap. Translated it means at certain rpm it sounds like hitting two flip flops together.
It Usually sounds worse outside the car. The old 253 holden v8 was really bad for this without a crossover pipe.
My housemate recently picked up a WK statesman and it had no balance pipe on the aftermarket twin system. It made the same "Clap" noise. So he had a balance pipe fitted. Exhaust sounds much better now. Another benefit is they are supposed to help exhaust scavenging.

Edited by Coatesy351 on Friday 15th August 17:37

ARAF

20,759 posts

223 months

Friday 15th August 2014
quotequote all
Coatesy351 said:
In australia they call it Thong clap.
Over here, you can get a course of antibiotics to clear that up. hehe

Sparkie 15

47 posts

125 months

Friday 15th August 2014
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My Vu ute has a Corby motorsport system with H balance pipe, decat pipes fitted& one cherry bomb style center box, not too noisy unless pushing on, only made irritating as its a horrible auto lol.

StefanVXR8

3,603 posts

198 months

Saturday 16th August 2014
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My SSV has had the rear silencers removed and straight through pipes put in. It drones badly at 2,000rpm, annoyingly so. However, at the legal limit here of 80-100Kmh on the dual carriage way it ticks over at 1,000 rpm and has a lovely tick over burble. Under hard acceleration it sounds great but under load at low speed does my head in!!

Stef

ARAF

20,759 posts

223 months

Saturday 16th August 2014
quotequote all
StefanVXR8 said:
My SSV has had the rear silencers removed and straight through pipes put in. It drones badly at 2,000rpm, annoyingly so. However, at the legal limit here of 80-100Kmh on the dual carriage way it ticks over at 1,000 rpm and has a lovely tick over burble. Under hard acceleration it sounds great but under load at low speed does my head in!!

Stef
See what we have done above. Whisper quiet on a run, but when the cutouts are fitted.... smile

StefanVXR8

3,603 posts

198 months

Sunday 17th August 2014
quotequote all
ARAF said:
StefanVXR8 said:
My SSV has had the rear silencers removed and straight through pipes put in. It drones badly at 2,000rpm, annoyingly so. However, at the legal limit here of 80-100Kmh on the dual carriage way it ticks over at 1,000 rpm and has a lovely tick over burble. Under hard acceleration it sounds great but under load at low speed does my head in!!

Stef
See what we have done above. Whisper quiet on a run, but when the cutouts are fitted.... smile
Yeah, thinking of having some rear silencers put back on for the moment and then review it again.

Stef

V8Monaro

Original Poster:

211 posts

194 months

Monday 18th August 2014
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Well I guess there is only one way to find out, I can always put a different rear box on afterwards if straight pipes are not to my liking.

My cutouts were fitted a foot or so in front of the rear diff as you might be able to see in the picture.

It does not sound like straight pipes have affected anyone elses performance before?