Drone deaf - no res & no drone.

[tex]

I must have "fluked" my last two aftermarket exhausts, because I have chosen to run only the front mufler with no resonanator.

Car 1. Ef 6cyl. Extractors, 21/2 inch with Straight through mufler, pod filter & cold air, cam and tune results in NO DRONE.

Car 2. My XR8, which I decided to take the torch to it's exhaust today and cut off the rear "sports" resonator. The sound pre circumcision was deep with the distinctive warble, but had no balls. The sound after chop is still the warble, but much, much better (DEEPER, THROATIER, and just a little bit louder. And NO DRONE. At highway speed, street speed or anywhere, and it doesn't crackle like a "hot dog" either. So off to the exhaust shop to have the pipes extended and the tips replaced. You'd never know un til you fire her up.

MY advice is if possible unbolt your system from the rear mufler back, and hear the difference. It may be worth the trouble.....

[XRated]

I found with my ED I6 (2.5" mandrel bent cat back, straight through muffler) when it was auto I had little to no drone (mainly only when under load though), now with the manual in it tends to drone a fair bit 80km/h+. I'm looking to fit a hotdog or resonator.

[tex]

Why do you think that with the tranny swap it changed the exhaust noise ?

Would it be the fact that the motor is no longer transmitting its power through a torque converter. Im guessing that the overdrive in either transmission would be fairly close, or not ? Both my cars mentioned have been 5 speed manuals, so I'm interested if the Drone only becomes a problem with auto trans equipped cars.

(I've had an ongoing argument about this, a couple of mates reckon that if ya remove the resonator the sound will drive ya nuts.... on my vehicles I've proved them wrong )

[banarcus]

Yep, when mine was an auto teh drone was there in droves as the engine stays in that rev band where the drone is at its most. Since I've had the 5 speed in it the drone is still there, but not all the time like it was in the auto. The muffler places always say that resonators are a necessity on auto cars.

[XRated]

Originally Posted by tex

Why do you think that with the tranny swap it changed the exhaust noise ?

I find the manual seems to keep the engine revs a bit higher at faster speeds. The overdrive in the auto made the revs at 100km/h really low, with the T5 the revs are - off the top of my head - near 500+rpm more. I'd hate to hear it with a shorter diff ratio (that I plan to get) like 3.7 or 3.9.

I have no idea if the torque convertor would make such a difference..?