Lets talk exhaust tone for a few

[Nick_S]

So basically, I dislike just how quite my car is. It is a daily so I don't want a loud, droning exhaust...but I'd like a bit more tone to it. I searched around a bit but I am notoriously bad at searching. What I'd like to do is remove the large rear most muffler and add some sort of more performance oriented piece in it's place, preferably one with a nice single, or dual tips. Thinking Magnaflow or something similar, maybe even an Ebay knock off if anyone knows of some decent quality ones. I don't want to spend the money on a full catback because 1)Don't have it 2)not looking for actual performance gains. My question is though, will it sound like I just hacked off my muffler? Will it sound nice and sporty but not drone on the highway? Will it not sound any different?

I'm sure this has been done or discussed before but please humor me with videos of exhaust tones or opinions and setups.

Pic of car.


Nick

[iamsam]

Dude, how are we even supposed to begin to help you if we don't even know if your car has an M50 or M60 in it? That will make all the difference.


That said, I don't know if E34 wagons only came in a certain engine or not, but I would venture to guess M50.

[Nick_S]

Dude, how are we even supposed to begin to help you if we don't even know if your car has an M50 or M60 in it? That will make all the difference.


That said, I don't know if E34 wagons only came in a certain engine or not, but I would venture to guess M50.

Yea probably would have helped to say that :rofl: it's an M50.

[klavender1]

I don't know but I do know if you take the catback portion off and crank up the car, it sounds NASTY! In a good way. :D I do not recommend driving it around like that. :)

[StereoInstaller1]

You and I are in the same boat it seems.

My E34 has exactly the same issue. It has a deep enough note, but it is quiet. Too quiet for the car and it is ugly. The sad thing is, because it is such a noisy motor, the racket is all ticking and squaking, like M20s always seem to do. You and I have the exact same exhaust system, but your M50 should be much quieter mechanically.

"Muffler delete" is a phrase I have heard and heard the results of. It is much louder, but sounds like ass IMO. Very raspy, ghetto-fab exhaust note, just crap IMO. The cars I heard it on were piles of shit, so maybe that was part of the story...but if I wanted a honda, I would have bought one, y'know?

The challenge is finding that "right" muffler. I want dual tips, something nice and sexy, but clean, not all fucking high-carb bullshit. Here is the issue though: I have yet to find a proper dual 2" inlet muffler that has proper tip spacing out there, not one.

...and then there is the whole "catback" bullshit...$800 for a catback with what YOUR idea of good tone or nice look is? Lick my sack! You had that shit made in China for $75 a whack, I am all OK with $250, but $800? Suck me!

I have my old POS Ebay muffler sitting around. It is 2.5" single inlet, dual DTM tips were cut off years ago and I also have a bunch of "Y" pipes. The same one is likely all over ebay in a zillion different tip configs. This one was on my last E30 when I bought it in 2002, it was loud back then...and I have put 75,000 miles on it since then, most at full throttle. Trust me, it is worn the fuck out, loud as hell on that car, but sounded glorious.

People begged me for that damn exhaust. It was sexy and obnoxious, but it really was loud. Every cop in town knew where I was and what I was doing, thats for sure.

It shrivels my balls to think I am that close to cutting off a perfectly working, good condition stock muffler to have some craptastic Y pipe and empty shell of a "polished stainless" ebay muffler welded on in hopes of just a tiny blurble when off the throttle or being able to hear the exhaust over the racket from underhood on those rare 3rd gear runs to 75MPH getting on the freeway. A manual transmission in a 5 series means throttle blips on downshifts, and that shit has got be be heard, even if it is a weenie 140hp.

Luke

[iamsam]

Dang Luke, I'm not even sure what you said...


Anyway, OP, try a Flowmaster 40 series. It has some decent baffling to cut raspiness and leaves a deeper note.

[be34st]

I had a Magnaflow 14815 on my last M30'd E34 with no resonators and it sounded glorious. Dont know much about the M50 however.

[Nick_S]

Luke, I'm not 100% positive what exactly you said but I agree...I think.
I have found Jegs sells a magnaflow y-pipe that is dual 2in inlets with a 2.5 outlet. I'm not huge on going dual back to single possibly to a dual tip but again, I expect no performance gain, just looking for sound.

[iamsam]

....so are we assuming M50 then?

[Nick_S]

....so are we assuming M50 then?

Post #3

[StereoInstaller1]

Yea probably would have helped to say that :rofl: it's an M50.

....so are we assuming M50 then?

Damn, you feeling slow this morning?

8-)

Here, cliffs: my exhaust sucks too, imma stick my shitty old ebay muffler on it, hope it ain't too fucking loud.

Luke

[iamsam]

Post #3

ha whoops I read that post wrong.

[Nick_S]

Damn, you feeling slow this morning?

8-)

Here, cliffs: my exhaust sucks too, imma stick my shitty old ebay muffler on it, hope it ain't too fucking loud.

Luke

Think I'm going to order one myself from ebay. My muffler is pretty new so I'll be saving it in case I hate it.

This one doesn't seem to terrible and is what I'm looking for aesthetically.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-DUAL-TIP-N1-EXHAUST-CERAMIC-MUFFLER-2-5-INLET-UNIVERSAL-/200901918772?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2ec6b00034&vxp=mtr

ha whoops I read that post wrong.

:drink:

[StereoInstaller1]

Mine is exactly the same case, but had DTM tips. I cut them off, so it looks exactly the same.

Mine is just 100,000 miles older

[Nick_S]

Mine is exactly the same case, but had DTM tips. I cut them off, so it looks exactly the same.

Mine is just 100,000 miles older

Great! I'm assuming the y-pipe will need to be fabbed up as I can't seem to find a decent one with the pipes close enough. The Magnaflow one I found is 4in center to center and it appears mine is 3in center to center. I'm going to call the exhaust shop tomorrow and make sure they either have one, or can fab one. It's a cheap shop in the ghetto but they do pretty good work. Welded my E30 muffler up for $22 two years ago and it's fine.