I'm planning to exhaust for my 58 Chrysler with a 354 Hemi. I'll probably use some sort of oval case 'turbo' mufflers. I know I won't be using Flowmasters. Below is a link to a typical resonator sold by Summit. I wonder just what these do for an exhaust system? Do they remove resonances or make the sound more distinct or?? In other words, why would someone pay the money to add these to their car? What's the benefit? http://www.summitracing.com/parts/vpe-1792/overview/
It mellows a harsh exhaust, takes the ugly out of it. They go behind the muffler near the end of the pipe. I would get my exahust together and if it is too rough or tractor sounding add them on later.
Looks like a small glasspack to me. A resonators job is generally to remove drone from an exhaust system. Chrysler uses them on some new cars as does Ford on the new Mustang
Ford used resonators on 312 exhaust systems in 57; They were just ahead of the rear bumper,..easily removed,..and the stock mufflers had a nice rumble. One local actually used the resonators in place of the regular mufflers.... 4TTRUK
I have used glass pack blanks to act as a resonators on customer cars that were too loud for them with little success. 2 1/2" tubing will not be much help in reducing noise. Remember a highly efficient exhaust system that reduces back pressure will not be efficient at sound control. If you are not racing it where you need efficiency at high RPMs large tubing is a waste of money. Every body thinks they need 3" exhaust when they never get the engine above 5000 RPMs. I limit my exhaust to 2 1/4" on street drivers. Bigger is not always better especially if you are concerned about noise. Noise is a very personal thing. Too loud for one guy is too quiet for the next. I always recommend asking the owner of a car that you like the sound. It can be a problem because I can't hear the sound in the guys head that he wants.
I just spent an hour driving a rebuilt GTO in a parade a couple weeks ago that had a fresh 389 and magnaflow mufflers and I can confirm that they are not too loud, not too obnoxious, and they sound more like a muffler than the (to my ears) underwater burbly flowmasters. It's a 4-speed car so I had to rev it to clear it several times and was constantly feathering the gas and clutch pedals and we were still having a conversation inside at normal volume with the windows open. I would put them on my car. Those resonators look like what the OEMs put at the end of the tailpipes to quiet'em down just a bit more. My brother-in-law has one on his Toyota SUV that looks very similar and has similar dimensions. If you have the room for them and your car sounds a bit too harsh or loud they outa do the job.
Porknbeaner nailed it as he often does. put the car together without them and then if you get more of tew wrong noise in the car than you want and go from there. When it comes to pipes there can be a fine line between rack and racket and and you may or may not need the resonators to be on the good side of that line.
What kind of MagnaFlows? I don't necessarily agree an exhaust system has to be loud to flow well. Most modern cars have quiet systems that still allow the engine to make lots of power. The problem with putting the car together without them first is (#1) I don't like rework and (#2) the system with them might be markedly different than without them so I'd wind up wasting a lot pipe.
Greg, you need to have a look here. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=747599 And here http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=737874 I did a lot of experiments, spent a bunch of time documenting results, spent a bunch of money doing it, and lots of general inquisitive behavior. I did the turbos and resonator set up too. Not the vibrant but I did it. Hope that helps you out.
Thanks 31. It appears you like best the rear X pipe with no mufflers at all? My thoughts on that are twofold...first, it's probably too loud for my car. Second, there is no way I can actually run a rear X-pipe if I plan to keep the gas tank in the car as it sits between the rear frame rails. I've read all about X-pipes in the magazines, at least mounted behind the header collectors, and in the two cars I have used them on I have not been thrilled with the sound. I haven't done a lot of scientific testing but it seem the old style H-pipe gives a better sound.
For that particular project yes, that will work the best. It works so good I want to try it on a completely different set up and see. My buddies 96 f 150 will probably get an experiment lol. But there's lots of other info there from other posters that help quite a bit, also Pipe length, muffler placement, diameter transitions, venturi cones, Mega phone cones, muffler opinions. The other threads links are some really valuable info too. I had an OT project that I was muffler size restricted with. So I took it to a muffler shop and wound up with a pair of small round can mufflers that were for OEM universal small displacement imports up to 3 liter. 3 liters x2 is 6 liters and someone always comments on how nice it sounds. Shop owner had no idea how that would work before hand, but he liked it too. Back to your original question on resonators,
Here is an X pipe I did in an OT car...as you can see there is pretty much only 1 place it is going to fit. I'm not wild about the way this exhaust sounds. It's not bad but not great either. The mufflers are Walker Super Turbo's.
I had a pair of Magnaflows on a '64 Chevy II Nova SS with a fairly stock 283 and powerglide. The resonating sound coming through the floor was too much. So, I added a short pair of glasspacks behind them and it worked great. I still think the powerglide was the biggest problem, around town it held the RPM's at the perfect spot for extra noise. The car I drive now is a '63 Falcon with a 260 and Ford-o-Matic. When I got it, it already had glasspacks on it. It sounded great except when you stood on it, then you would get the annoying "braaaattt". I put on the resonaters from a '65-66 Mustang GT exhaust system, just before the tail pipes. It still has a nice low rumble as you would expect from glasspacks, but no more annoying "braaaattt" at WOT. I am also running true duals, no x-pipe or h-pipe.
my daily driver is '10 challenger rt (small hemi), flowmaster exhaust, super 44s and resonators, which i think sounds perfect--barks when you put your foot in it , but no drone like it would have without the resonators. and you know super 44s are pretty loud!
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