I recently had a 3" x-pipe installed (EBWerks) with cat-bypass pipes. As you can imagine it is quite loud. I love the sound but my neighbors aren't especially fond of it, especially when I start it in them morning before work. I was wondering...are there any standard length cats that my actually quiet the car enough to prevent it from setting off alarms? I love the sound but it honestly is a bit much.
I don't want to go back to the stock exhaust but I need to do something. Any ideas?

 

Can EB set you up with some cats? I have 100cel on mine and it's quite tasty. Tried straight pipes for an hour and that was horrible.

 

cats alone will not help.. you need mufflers...

 

Mark is right. Cats alone will not be much better. Catted or catless X-pipes are not for everyone, in fact, I don't feel they are a good fit for most people - they are exactly as you describe it. I see people come on here and say there is hardly any drone and the sound is not that loud....I know better and just shake my head when I read this stuff.

We make an X-Pipe, but it's modular and the cats, mufflers, tips, etc. can always be added or deleted, so the customer can change the sound if it's too loud or too quiet. That way, if you don't care for the sound level, we can tailor it and you are not stuck with a specific sound. It's because we know these types of situations will occur and we have a remedy ready to go.

IMO, for 99% of users, a cross-flow muffler set-up like many here are running is the best choice. The drone of a catless X-pipe really takes away a lot of the driving pleasure for most people...

 

Install a big stereo

 

Yes John I have to agree. There are times when I love the sound (freeway on-ramps) and times when I don't love it...about 3 minutes after the on ramp when I am cruising at 75 and can't hear myself think.
The exhaust is top quality, beautifully made but i think I am in a bit over my head.
I read many threads about this very setup where people said it wasn't too loud and some have even posted that there is very little drone on the freeway. This is just not true. The drone is very loud under normal cruising conditions. The power difference is phenomenal but it is not worth it.
If it wasn't a daily driver it would be fine but I think I will be going back to stock until I can find a way to quite these pipes down. They are somewhat modular but I don't think they have a way to quiet them just yet.
I'm guessing cats alone certainly probably aren't going to do it.

 

Hey Mike,

We are working on something but I will tell you, it is more restrictive than the free flowing you have now. I even though of asking 911 tuning ( Maski) if he wanted to partner up in selling me his mufflers so it can fit out setup after the X pipe ( before is a no no for flow) , we are working on using race motorcycle mufflers, very light, simple and reduces drone and using helmholtz theory.. I'll keep you posted Mike, but we are working behind the scenes for a solution that is straight bolt on.

 

Make some type of resonator/muffler that fits where the cat delete pipe is??

 

I was thinking of that too but that area seems like it is so close to the turbo that it would destroy flow. A resonator closer to the tip, after the x pipe somewhere seems like something that may be effective, especially if I add some high flow cats instead of the bypass pipes.
I'm in a really quiet mountain town with a shared private driveway right now and two neighbors have already called my wife (they don't have my number) to ***** about the noise. Next month we are moving to a condo where there is a huge shared parking garage. In the garage at work this thing sets off every alarm within 40 feet so I will probably have to go back to stock in the mean time which bums me out. It is really easy to get used to more power and losing 40-50hp is gonna hurt.

 

Protomotive puts his there on his big HP systems..

 

Really? So in place of the stock cats, arguably the best tuner around for our cars puts the muffler in this location? If that's the case then I made an incorrect assumption. I've just never seen that done on a turbo car, but I'm still new to 996 turbos
I know there is a way to make it work I just hope it doesn't involve throwing away the money I spent on this exhaust to replace it with one that costs even more $$$ Like I said once you've felt some of the potential of this engine it is hard to fully cork it up again.

 

You will not give up any noticable power with a full 3" muffled system. Assuming you have a straight thru design muffler like our SpeedTech. It muffles the sound, but has very little effect in restricting exhaust flow. Our straight-thru designed X-flow muffled systems make exceptional power - so you can have the best of both worlds, if you chose the proper product for your application. That said, you don't even need a 3" muffled system, which will still have some drone, to get great sound and performance. A 2.5 muffled system is truly the best of both worlds. It makes great power, is totally comfortable and sounds absolutely fantastic...just my 2 cents on this subject (with a lot of real world experience testing all of this)...

 

Mufflers will not restrict at entry level HP.. not even at 700whp... we did 870whp ( catless with 4 mufflers).
try "burns stainless" they make some nice mufflers... the rick though is to make the X so that the muffler does not hang too low...
goo dluck
mark

 

Mufflers are you friend. My Speedtech 3.0 is very easy to live with. I'd listen to Markski and John.

 

+1 on the mufflers. There was another thread that I saw that had some really short mufflers, looked only to be a few inches long. Might want to give those a shot.

edit: found it from the BBI headers thread. It's called a Burns stainless muffler. Dunno how much noise baffling you'll get with that short of a pipe though.