Wow, I had the Walker 17749 mufflers for years when I had a 2/1/2" X pipe exhaust. I never had a drone with them. They were relatively quiet at idle and cruise until you stepped on it, just what I wanted. When I went to a 3" X pipe system, I wanted the same characteristics. I listened to a variety of cars at my local cruises, and settled on a set of Magnaflow mufflers. They are the 14264 muffler. https://www.magnaflow.com/products/...-exhaust-muffler-14264?variant=18434154561651 They were very much like the 17749 Walkers. The system is remarkably quiet at idle and cruise. In a walk around, you can just about hear the MT headers. Only when you walk behind the car can you hear the deep note of the exhaust emanating from the N25 exhaust tips. When I open it up, they scream though. Very happy with the sound. Absolutely no drone. I can take the car on a long drive without a problem, as I did driving the car 3 hours down to Cecil County 4 years in a row.
every car is different, drone at a certain rpm not all the time, gear ratio makes a big difference and so does an X-pipe or headers. some guy's might not even realize they have a drone or it does not bother them. my magnaflow or borlas never drone but they also were a lot louder then the dynomax
Take up the carpet and use more sound deadening materials can do it inside the doors too. With a more stock rear gear 342 or less, the engine will be at a low rpm 12-1700, may be the spot where the drone can come in. I have more stall and my engine will get past that during driving. I can lock up the TQ in 3rd so I would bet I may, probably do, get some drone at those speeds at 30 -45 mph. I am just used to it, on the highway I don't feel it or hear it as much. I use the Flomasters with 3 chamber and Delta Flow 50 is what I am going to replace these with. You would want the last one in the Flomaster group or use the one above the delta 50 which is the suv delta 50. I think thais called super 50, 3rd from right in the pic on the site I provided earlier. You could then add your resonator at the end of the exhaust system if there is room. But that is what I would try if I wanted quiet, Superquiet is a stock muffler, about all you can do there.
I wouldn't have expected much of a change at all adding the bullets. They do nothing to lessen the noise. I wasn't kidding- they aren't mufflers!
I just want to say I appreciate the contributions to this thread. Every car/engine build/pipe brand/driver/use case is different. It’s pretty obvious that the same parts used by a unique combination of car and owner will give different results. No one-size-fits-all. Especially when you’ve got the kind of brain that doesn’t stop honing in on the droning. I can’t unhear it. Meanwhile my wife was riding shotgun with me the other day and I pointed it out to her. She said “I didn’t notice or think it was not supposed to be that way, but now that you pointed it out it’s annoying”. Later that day after I stuck extensions in the ends and it tuned out a lot of drone, I made her come for a ride with me just to make sure I wasn’t hearing things. Nope. She said it was much more pleasant. too bad those extensions sticking out looked so ridiculous. I could have lived with that sound. Someone on the boards had mentioned a joke about king tailpipe extensions making the car look like a wheelbarrow. That describes it.
I didn’t anticipate the bullets behaving like mufflers, the point was to disrupt the flow enough to reduce the drone. They have resonator qualities to them so that’s what I’m after. The 17749s don’t need to be quieter, necessarily. The whole thing just needs its harmonics tuned out.
Something I remember seeing the other day, since I used the word harmonics in another post: damper weights securely attached to exhaust pipe. Apparently there are vehicles that come with these from the factory. The automotive equivalent of striking a tuning fork and stifling the ping by touching the fork to your thigh. what if… I found the part number and clamped a few to my tailpipes. Or made some… a short length of pipe, capped at each end, filled with lead. Or… a collar I can put around the pipe made of hunks of thick bar stock. The capped pipe may make people suspicious of my intentions. Maybe I can find something laying around here that’s heavy and can be clamped to a tailpipe just to try it.
My 03 Mercury Marauder had large rubber dampers welded to the mufflers, I had them transferred to the 18” magnaflow mufflers I put in. They cut down the drone somewhat. You may be able to find a part number from a Grand Marquis or maybe find one in a junkyard to remove.
the hangers came with the TA kit. An “L” bracket, rubber strap with holes to bolt to the L bracket, and a small bracket that gets clamped to the pipe with a u-clamp is riveted to the end of the rubber strap. they’re kinda crummy, actually. I don’t like them. I’d though of getting the hooks to bolt/weld on so I can use those rubber oval things that modern cars use. I keep meaning to take pics or video and post but I forget.
I didn't like the hangers that came with my T/A exhaust kit either. So I ordered the correct GM style hangers that go in front of the axles and at the end of the tailpipes from In Line Tube. I also have the T/A down pipes that fit great, along with their full 2-1/2" kit. I bought the 17749 mufflers elsewhere because they weren't carrying them. I do have some drone at certain rpm's, although not sure where because I don't have a tach. I've sort of learned to live with it. Thought about getting resonators to install at the end of the tailpipes like the factory did. Not sure if the drone or the look of the resonators would bother me more.
I'm thinking of trying just that. My noise is more a resonance (I think) I've seen and fixed noises in rooftop A/Cs by massaging/bending pipes.
Hangers were used by auto manufactures made from tire carcasses. They were dealing with known issues of noise transmitting through metal connections, and drone. The use of tire carcasses (from rejects) saved money (from lost use of the tires) and time/material sources for a more costly solution. Remember, every penny saved is two penny's profit. A difference of 3 in the plus column. No one was building cars in the 60s and 70s to still be in use 50-60 plus years later.
The reproduction OEM tail pipe hangers work really well providing your tail pipes are made to go in the right location. I would not use the oval donuts anywhere.
I have a beef with TA… they specifically told me to use offset/center (17748, for example) and that was incorrect, their old instruction sheet was incorrect, showed the number of hangers that were not in the kit, and when I spoke to the owner he said “yeah, you need offset offset, it could be done the other way but it’s too hard to do”. not very confidence inspiring.
No, I was only stating that the problem was known, and how often "problems" were solved. In this case, using plied tires to fashion hangers that survived for many years. (as well as steering shaft/gearbox rag joints) Even most of the "rubber" isolators made today would never last as long. If you want, there is "science" to solving this, but you will need to do calculations, then add a closed "J pipe" offset that acts as a "sound trap" (in the military, with radar systems, we called them "wave guides".) The J pipe will end up being the same diameter for the frequency (wave dimensions) and separate them from the exhaust flow. Basically what a resonator does, but it does not flow through.
