2nd Gen or 3rd Gen 3.8 exhaust resonator/muffler removal.

resonators don't choke anything, they are hollow. they just give a space for the sounds to bounce around and cancel each other out a little.

i wonder if those front larger ones are just small mufflers? that back on is for sure a resonator.

you might not like how it sounds when you take the resonator off. we had to add one to my son's car because someone took the stock ones off and it was hard to ride in the car on the highway. the cabin noise was just so rough on the ears and head

busemans said:

resonators don't choke anything, they are hollow. they just give a space for the sounds to bounce around and cancel each other out a little.

i wonder if those front larger ones are just small mufflers? that back on is for sure a resonator.

you might not like how it sounds when you take the resonator off. we had to add one to my son's car because someone took the stock ones off and it was hard to ride in the car on the highway. the cabin noise was just so rough on the ears and head

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^This

Also, removing restrictions will lower your overall power. Gotta have back-flow and scavenging

Sometimes when you think you’re doing something good you’re actually working against yourself. It’s a truck not a performance car so personally I leave my trucks alone in that category. I just drove 2600 miles round trip and prefer the quietness to make the ride more pleasant. My Challenger has quite an aggressive bark to it and since I don’t take it out often or for long rides it’s tolerable.

Clint

Clint said:

Sometimes when you think you’re doing something good you’re actually working against yourself. It’s a truck not a performance car so personally I leave my trucks alone in that category. I just drove 2600 miles round trip and prefer the quietness to make the ride more pleasant. My Challenger has quite an aggressive bark to it and since I don’t take it out often or for long rides it’s tolerable.

Clint

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Couldn't agree more at this point. My toy cars have a nice sound, my daily driver doesn't need to grate on my ears. I have spoken about how I did a Dual inlet muffler and resonator delete on my 2007. in Hindsight, I should have just left it alone. The loss the 'quietness' was nice at first, but after a few thousand miles was annoying.

The only positive was that my truck ended up having a unique sound though so everyone could always tell when I came over. The dog even learned what my truck sounded like!

As stated, the resonators are more than likely straight through so little to no gain would be seen.

Sometimes you gotta do some pioneering! Cut em off and let us know how it sounds!

The Nismo exhaust kit removes all three of them.

Also hollow resonators generally do nothing, good or bad. They suppress a fraction of a decibel of noise usually; collectively the three here suppress probably .5db which is nothing. They are dumb, but you'll also gain nothing removing them.

The Nismo exhaust isn't really very loud, it just has a nice trucky burble with a bit of sporty sass at high RPM, and it has absolutely no more drone than stock when coasting. The stock exhaust on the 3.8 is a stupidly overbuilt waste of metal and I have no idea what Nissan was thinking.

When I removed them from my 4.0, I originally only removed the front two. The exhaust was reworked to a dual inlet muffler to remove the notorious crimp/restriction at 'Y' where the exhaust pipes combined before the stock muffler. The rear resonator was left in place. I had a VERY noticeable and annoying drone at 60-75mph. After I chopped the back of the exhaust off, it became quiet as a church mouse at those speeds. I still retained the nice sound and burble at idle I liked though. While they may not do anything for volume, they may cancel or induce harmonics. Honestly, cut them out, if you don't like the sound, put them back in. As others have mentioned, you're not going to gain any HP by removing, so if that's your goal, leave the truck alone.

Everyone perceives and tolerates sounds differently, I only like an aggressive sounding exhaust on a manual transmission vehicle as it’s a completely different sound as you hold it through each gear. In an automatic you fly through the gears and suddenly there’s relative silence.
With a truck especially when you tow there’s and annoying drone and it get old so fast. My friend had one on his Silverado and he drove from Georgia to me in NJ and the first thing he asked where the nearest muffler shop was and we went and had those mufflers swapped for traditional ones. He’s never put another custom system on again. He was only in his late 20’s then so it’s not like he was an older guy.

Clint

I always figure, "there's a reason they put that on there" and then decide to leave it alone. After all even though I graduated college does not mean I'm an engineer. That and 25 years worth of internet learning only make me dangerous with a toolkit, not competant.

The Penultimate Frontier said:

I always figure, "there's a reason they put that on there" and then decide to leave it alone. After all even though I graduated college does not mean I'm an engineer. That and 25 years worth of internet learning only make me dangerous with a toolkit, not competant.

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That's what the engineers want you to think. x-files music

Aftermarket performance exhaust:
At cruising speeds @lower RPMs and when 'on the throttle' is when drone can/will kick in. Throttle on = drone. Coasting/off-throttle = little to no drone. Monotonous & mind numbing for many folks & passengers.

I LOVE custom exhaust sounds/systems, especially V8s...while also HATING drone. Trying to corral a raspy/ricey V6 is a chore.5 that begins w/ experimentation.
If one wants loud exhaust only, then they are the ones who will most likely be content w/ their V6 + aftermarket exhaust system.

I know I’ll get hammered, but why do people want loud exhaust. Is the concept to make a 5000lb truck
a performance truck.

doneill127 said:

I know I’ll get hammered, but why do people want loud exhaust. Is the concept to make a 5000lb truck
a performance truck.

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There is a big difference between a nice aftermarket exhaust and a loud obnoxious droning exhaust - people in this thread seem to be conflating them.

The current go to kits for the 3.8 are the Nismo and the Z1. I can attest that the Nismo is neither loud nor drones, it just sounds nice.

The 3.8 is a smooth, powerful motor, and trucks in general are associated with a bit of an exhaust note, which in stock form this truck does not have. Some people just like to hear it a bit, it makes driving more engaging, it's not because we think it's a Ferrari.

Much of these noise preferences come(s) down to which perspective one puts emphasis on: the sound in the cab vs the sound at the tailpipe.
JMHO, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna put up w/ unwanted/undesirable noise/drone while sitting/cruising in the Captain's chair. I'm the common denominator...not the folks I'm driving past.

SoupAssassin said:

There is a big difference between a nice aftermarket exhaust and a loud obnoxious droning exhaust - people in this thread seem to be conflating them.

The current go to kits for the 3.8 are the Nismo and the Z1. I can attest that the Nismo is neither loud nor drones, it just sounds nice.

The 3.8 is a smooth, powerful motor, and trucks in general are associated with a bit of an exhaust note, which in stock form this truck does not have. Some people just like to hear it a bit, it makes driving more engaging, it's not because we think it's a Ferrari.

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Well said.

The Penultimate Frontier said:

I always figure, "there's a reason they put that on there" and then decide to leave it alone. After all even though I graduated college does not mean I'm an engineer. That and 25 years worth of internet learning only make me dangerous with a toolkit, not competant.

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I know why they put them there...so you could crush them when off roading. I think the resonators are actually rock magnets.