Resonator

[MP5rYda]

i've had many people tell me that my car is all INTAKE and no EXHAUST!

so i've thought about removing my resonator.. has anyone in the club done this.. and what are the pros and cons to doing this?

thanks!

[7plymaple]

I have done this. It gets a lot louder. What kind of Exhaust do you have now?

[YP5 Toronto]

Unless the resonator is smaller in in/out diameter, there are no gains in performance.  It just gets louder.  If the resonator is smaller than the pipe leading in or leading out, then taking it out or replacing it with a larger one would allow the exhaust gasses to leave more readily.

My car has a resonator also, which connects to the back, middle part of the air-box, perpendicular to the air filter. The tube(about 2" diameter) would then face the rad, so I turned in and shoved it into the grill, to draw fresh air. Yes, it is louder, but I believe in my cars' case, it allows for better breathing. As I gave the car throttle, there we quite a bit of vacuum from the tube. Since the resonator is hollow and sealed, the extra breathing must help. Disconnecting it, was the first thing I did to the car, when I got it 3 weeks ago, so I didn't drive it long enough to be able to discern a difference. Just remember, that these are cars designed for average Joes, with 1.5 children, and don't need to hear that stuff. I don't give a rats' patoote, so it's worth a try.

one more thing..you can never have intake that is TOO free flowing, or exhaust that is TOO free flowing....ask a the Top Fuel Drag guys if they need backpressure....on street cars, longer thinner intake/exhaust promotes torque, low rpm power; short thick intake/exhaust promotes hp, high rpm power...

[MP5Navy]

Josh the resonator in question is not the air box resonator but rather the resonator on the exhaust side of things.

Removing the resonator will just make you sound more like a Civic, you will not realize any performance gains. The Brullen Exhaust meet in May was an eye opener. Call up Brullen and get them to replace your down tube ($150). I had this and other stuff done at Brullen but the down tube change was the best exhaust mod so far - more pull in the top end and less bog down at the start of acceleration.

Oh, I see...ya true..exhaust resonator removal pretty much just makes it louder(I'm sure if our cars had 400 hp, with rosonators, we might get a couple hp by removal)

[MP5rYda]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

Mr. 1.6 - i have a custom axle-back magnaflow exhaust

Jason - well i didn't do anything to my piping cept for the axle-back so yeah.. i believe there wouldn't be any performance gains.. jus wanted to know if it would sound better without the resonator! thanks man!

Gen1GT - umm.. yeah i was talking about the exhaust end of the resonator!? but thanks anyway!

MP5Navy - civics, huh?! hmm.. why doesn't that sound like something i want my car to sound like!?.. i do want something that'll make other people's heads turn when i come roaring down the street.. but what is 'sounding like a civic' sound like?! secondly.. can you explain more on the 'down piping' and how far it goes?! would that be considered to be like having a cat-back piping? if so.. $150.. damn! i want!!!

thanks again to all for the feedback!
much appreciated!!

haller back!! yeah yeah!!

[YP5 Toronto]

Gen1GT,

Not to start a battle, but there is a point were opening your exhaust too much will have negative effects.  Cars that are turbo'd require the realease of "hotter" exhaust fumes than a normallly aspirated car.  That is why Drag/Fuel cars require NO exhaust tubing, they need to get the hot crap out of the engine.  Ask a couple of reputable exhaust shops and they will not do 3"inch tubing or higher on a car that is normally asperated or even those running NOS. They have had too many people come back upset with the new performance of their car.  Moreover, i have seen Dyno sheets of friends that insisted on being able to say "I have 3inch tubing from the header back" and then crying over the fact that the car is performing crappier after spend the $$$.  2.25-2.5 inches are typical sizes for 4-6 cylinder engines.  I know many of you may disagree, but many of the top NA cars on the North American Drag series do not go to 3" or higher.  If you ask me to back it up with technical jargen or to show you a degree from air flow dynamics engineering, i won't be able to.

Someone correct me if I am wrong or if I don't make sense. (not being sarcastic).

[MP5Navy]

Jay you're absolutely right.

In regards to the Brullen Downtube....
Richard will remove the second cat and replace the pipe that goes between the bottom of the first cat back to where the flange is before the resonator. This tube is mandrel bent stainless 2.25. Because we have two cats it's hard to say if this is really cat-back tubing but I guess you can consider it that way.

Sounding like a Honda? My buddy has a DC Sport cat-back with DC 4-2-1 header and his note is raspy, metallic, and rich in the midtones. Have you not noticed our exhaust sound quite heavy and full lower grunting in comparison to a Civic?

[7plymaple]

Yes Jason I read in sport compact car more than a year ago that you cant make the pipe too big. But they said it wasnt to do with the fact that the car needs back pressure as many people think.

They said that it was to increase velocity. The smaller the pipe the faster the air has to flow through it. Plus the entire volume of the pipe will contain moving air (instead of turbulant air). This gives the air/gas moving through the pipe momentum.

When the intake and exhaust valves are both open for a split second before the cylender goes from the exhaust stroke to the intake stroke the momentum of the exhaust gasses will create a vacume as it keeps going even though the cylender is not pushing out exaust or pulling in fresh air. This vacume helps to evacuate left over exhaust gasses that usually dont get evacuated from the cylender giving a more pure mix in the combustion chamber.

Well thats how I inpreted the article. http://msg.toprotege.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[MP5rYda]

whoa this post ended up to be a discussion bout the right piping! i jus asked if it would sound better with or without the resonator! LoL! http://msg.toprotege.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Jason, we're both right. There's a big difference between what you can do for a car that is strictly used on the track, and one that you actually drive. One the track, the motor is running for perhaps 5 minutes at a time, so cooling is not an issue. For the street, we have to worry about noise, cooling, exhaust gases not entering the vehicle, etc. My example was stricty theoretical. If I did put 3" exhaust on my car, it would run like crap below 5000 rpm. Which makes it totally unappropriate for the street. But when it comes down to it, your cars' engine is just a big air pump...and the faster you can get a higher volume of air in, explode it, then get it out, the more power you get. But like I said, street and track are two different worlds....

[Familia 323]

Ryan, removing your resonator will certainly deepen your exhaust note if that's what you're after. Don't worry, it won't sound raspy and tinny like the Civics as Dave pointed out. Mazda cars typically produces deep and solid sounding exhaust notes... http://msg.toprotege.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[MP5rYda]

Thanks Eric!

now i want the downtube!.. cuz of its performance gains!.. and if it still doesn't gimme the 'head turning' sound i want.. i'll end up removing the resonator as well!.. whoa, spending even more money that i don't have! http://msg.toprotege.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/crazy.gif

[Familia 323]

Hey Ryan, your PM box is full, kindly delete some of your old messages... http://msg.toprotege.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[MP5rYda]

i only had one message in my inbox.. but i deleted that.. hope it works now Eric?!?