OK, so I thought I did enough research, checking out as many threads on this forum and watched as many Crossfire videos that I could find regarding aftermarket mufflers, and I settled on the Flowmaster Super 44.

It seemed to be a popular choice for Crossfire owners. But wow, did I make a mistake, at least for my tastes. To me, it's both too quiet and too loud. It's too quiet when idling and when I actually want to hear the exhaust, and too loud with a booming drone at 2,000 - 2500 rpms, essentially the rpm I found myself in most of the time.

So I though, OK, simple fix, just get a resonator installed and good to go! Again, another mistake. The resonator lowered the frequency just enough to now rattle the interior trim and make me want to pullout what little hair I still have on my head! It actually sounded better without the resonator.

I don't want to go back to stock because I like to hear the exhaust which helps when rev-matching my downshifts, which is kinda hard for me with the original silent exhaust. However I cannot stand the booming drone and rattling interior with the muffler I got now. Looking for advice on what to do, but I figure my only option now is to get a much milder muffler, I'm thinking about a Flowmaster 60 Series Delta Flow?

 

I LOVE my OBX Racing catback, which is a Borla copy. It performs as you described.
Only problem is that it is illegal for street use in California, all other states are OK.
You guys just have too many laws.

When I bought mine I paid $334 including shipping, jeez .....

 

Thanks for the info, it's only illegal in California if it removes the cats, which I suspect it does since it states "this product is not intended to be installed on vehicles registered for highway use."

It wouldn't be an issue if the car was new, since California only does smog test after the vehicle is 8 years old (or if sold within 4 years). But since it's 17 years old, I don't want to go into the process of modding my exhaust every 2 years to pass smog.

That being said, the Magnaflow cat-back exhaust is interesting, but I really don't want to spend $800 after what I already spent. I think I have narrowed it down to either a 50 or 60 series delta flow, not sure which way to go since I also have a resonator that I paid too much to not keep

 

No, a "cat back" does not remove the cats, I still have all 4.
I installed this by myself with common hand tools.

 

Yes I know that, but now I'm confused to why it says it's for off-road use only?

Aftermarket cat-back exhaust systems are not illegal in California. I had a full cat-back Borla ATAK installed on my new RAM Rebel by the dealership when I bought it.

There is a noise limit of 95 DB when at idle, maybe that's why? But that's pretty loud, my RAM will wake my neighbors 2 houses down at cold start, and that is only 91 DB. I can't imagine that Crossfire exhaust will be "for off-road use" only for that reason.

 

You planning on visiting California anytime soon? Would they ticket an out of state car (license/registration/insurance)? No telling unless you look it up I guess...


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Why would they ticket you for out of state? Tons of out of state cars in the state. The only time they will ticket you for an exhaust is if it's too loud, as in a straight pipe blowing over 95 db at idle, which is almost impossible to do on a modern vehicle anyways. I have straight piped Charger/Challenger buddies who's cars don't violate noise ordinance.

If you don't run cats, you won't pass smog, but they don't give you a ticket for that either. You just have to pay a couple of hundred bucks to some questionable smog shop to pass you instead if you don't want to put cats on.

 

Easy, easy... I was responding to Ala_xfire's post. I asked a question based on his "Only problem is that it is illegal for street use in California, all other states are OK.
You guys just have too many laws.". Jeeze... He is right though, CA is crazy full of BS laws.


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Oh gotcha, I'm not originally from this state, I moved here from Texas several years back with the military.

However, now that I've been here, San Diego specifically, it's not really as crazy as I thought regarding laws. You got smog, but it's just every 2 years and if the vehicle is 2000 or newer, it's just a OBDII plug-in, takes like 5 minutes. If you got a new car, you don't do a smog test until it's 8 years old. Easier than other states I've been to where you have to do an annual vehicle safety inspection, they don't do that here.

If they can do something about housing availability and prices, that's my big issue about this state. If you can find a house to buy or rent, it's like 3-4 times what it would cost in most other states.

 

Yeah, seems housing is crazy higher lately all over, as well. I'm originally from NYC displaced to LI before going into the military back in 71 but NY (especially in the metro/city) is gawd awful high. Runaway prices are coming so get ready. About emissions inspections, SC eliminated that many years ago, it was a joke since friends in local garages were getting state inspections with cars and trucks burning oil right as they were leaving the garage! Honest garages were being hit with too much time for the cut of the fee they got.


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I hear you on that!

 

I agree that drone it can get a little much. I just down shift to 4th when it gets to much.

 

Honestly, it was probably something I could get used to, but I made the mistake of adding a resonator. In the past, a resonator usually did a great job in taming a droning exhaust.

But with the Crossfire, the issue is that the resonator has lowered the resonance to just the right frequency to cause my interior/trim to rattle and shake, which is frankly 10 times worse than just the drone alone. I could remove the resonator, but for the money, it will likely be more cost effective to slap on a 60 series delta flow and call it a day.

 

OK, here is my update. I fixed my exhaust by dumping the Flowmaster Super 44 and going with a Flowmaster 60-Series Delta Flow, it's about perfect now.

Before, my exhaust was actually louder with the windows up because of the droning resonance, shook my interior and drove me crazy. Rolling the windows down actually made driving it tolerable, but not a permanent fix.

But switching to the 60-series, which is what Flowmaster recommends for 4-cylinder & 6-cylinder applications along with daily drivers fixed the drone. It sounds slightly more aggressive than stock with the windows up and sounds rather racy with the windows down. This is exactly what I was looking for.

The only issue is the 60-series is only available with single out 2.25" out and the isn't enough room to "Y" the stock exhaust tips. This limited my choices in exhaust tips, luckily my muffler shop came up with a nice solution in cutting and welding a Y-dual 4" exhaust tips and welding it directly to the top of the muffler, looks like it came that way. I'm finally happy now, it only cost me more than double what I should have paid if I knew what I was doing in the first place. I could have bought a Magnaflow cat-back system for the price I paid for all these mistakes, but oh well, sometimes it's a process

 

Exhaust tips look really good on the car.

 

Yes they do, very similar to Borla ( or OBX Racing )

 

Thanks guys, I love they way they look. I'm not normally a fan of big tips on a small car, but they really work well on the Crossfire. That large space in the center of the bumper really lends itself to larger aftermarket tips.