resonator advice?: Grassroots Motorsports forum: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

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April 23, 2009 10:10 a.m. jcanracer New Reader

Back in '04 I had a Magnaflow 2.25" catback exhaust installed on my Matrix. It came with a smaller-than-stock resonator and for many years the sound was nice and surprisingly deep for a 1.8L 4-banger.

Fast forward 5 years and the combination of 272duration cams, a raised redline and a potentially worn out resonator make this car sound absolutely rice-tastic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOanCwi7Wis

My question is, which of the following resonators would you chose?

18" bottle-style:

http://vibrantperformance.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1021_1033_1054&pr...

or 14" oval:

http://vibrantperformance.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1021_1033_1055&pr...
April 23, 2009 10:53 a.m. cxhb New Reader

whichever is cheaper. its a 4 cylinder, unless its turbo it will always sound rice-tastic.

I quit trying too.
April 23, 2009 11:00 a.m. 96DXCivic Reader

cxhb wrote:

whichever is cheaper. its a 4 cylinder, unless its turbo it will always sound rice-tastic.

I quit trying too.

I agree. Unless you have a S2K, it pretty always ends up sounding rice-tastic. I would go for the first of the two resonators just because it seems to be less restrictive.
April 23, 2009 11:05 a.m. P71 Dork

I use a Dynomax Race Bullet muffler as a resonator on my RX-7 and it helps deepen the tone and not sound so ricer, though it still does anyways (Stupid Rotary). Summit sells them cheap.
April 23, 2009 11:10 a.m. 93celicaGT2 Dork

I stopped trying.... now i just run a straight pipe, no resonator, no cat. It somehow doesn't sound like rice.
April 23, 2009 11:38 a.m. jcanracer New Reader

heh, so i'm fighting a losing battle eh? Fair enough.

But which style promotes greater noise reduction, long tube or regular oval shape?
April 23, 2009 1:13 p.m. belteshazzar Dork

supertrap
April 23, 2009 8:47 p.m. Toyman01 Reader

I took a glass pack, cut it in half, pulled out all the fiberglass, stuffed it full of stainless steel wool, and welded it back together. Cost about $18.00 and works pretty good. Rotary engines usually burn up resonators.(stupid rotary) This one has lasted about 6 years.
April 23, 2009 9:20 p.m. MrJoshua SuperDork

If you like the volume but want to change the tone get the biggest can (length width and height) well packed resonator you can find, but keep it straight through. If your goal is lower volume get a really large can final muffler that makes the exhaust change direction a couple of times, has lots of packing around the pipes, but still flows well.
April 24, 2009 7:53 a.m. jcanracer New Reader

my mechanic suggested the oval shaped resonator due to its larger internal volume and increased amount of packing material.

I guess i just want to cut out the high pitched notes.