vidsoritdidn'thappen...

 

Cant tell too much here(or see much), but I just did a quick little nightime startup, idle, & rev clip.
But here it is--
Frontier with testpipes - YouTube

 

Oh the other thing I forgot to mention is these are a straight thru design and no louvers or restrictions of any type. Basically these tone the exhaust down just like when I still had my primary cats, but without their restriction.

 

Sweet, thanks for sharing. Exhaust is one of the last things on my list. Most systems I've heard and seen were rather unsatisfying. But it looks like you've put a lot of work into showing us how it's done.

 

It's a fine line getting to sound good vs rice. That sounds more like a 350Z, I like it.

 

Yeah it is hard getting that sound right. Now I have a decently deep idle and when putting around revving a little going through the gears, it sounds pretty sweet. With the exhaust note along with my intake, I spend 90% of the time with my windows down and the radio off just so I can hear the sweet sounds.
Only issue I have sound wise, which you can hear a little in that clip, is valvetrain noise. Those Brian Crower cams gave me some power and a little cam lope which I like(again you can hear some in that clip), but it also increases the valvetrain noise. I checked my bucket clearances very carefully so I know they are good. I guess the extra lobe lift just added some noise. In fact the cam noise I think actually contributed to my exhaust noise too when I went catless. That was the "rattlely" noise I mentioned. The resonators have totally eliminated that.

 

Love it! With my set up (refer to signature) I get a lot of that raspy tingy sound and it drives me absolutely nuts! I'm thinking of pulling the flowmaster 40 out and throwing it straight in the garbage! Haven't decided what muffler to go with next (any recommendations?). But maybe I'll throw a couple of these in the line up as well!

 

The flowmaster 40 is one of their free-flowing mufflers, so I can see you get some extra noise from it. A flowmaster 50 series SUV generally gives a nice deep sound (for a DOHC V6) and not any rasp.
So I would suggest that flowmaster, or just get one of these resonators for your tailpipe. Vibrant even make a "ultra quit" resonator too. It's about 12" x 4.5" x 6.5" & is suppose to very good. A lot of Z guys get them(and the one I got) to take rasp out when they get a serious exhaust. I didn't have room for the big ones, but these little ones still did the trick.

 

So your saying to use the resonator as my tail pipe? Will that throw a CEL at all or no?

 

No, I mean that's a pretty easy place to put it--in your tailpipe, not instead of your tailpipe. Might not work as good that far back, but it should help.

 

Sounds nice, definitely took alot of the rasp out. Wish I would have put some different mufflers on. I didn't like the flow-master 40s ive heard so I went with magnaflow, There so loud.

 

Sounds much better!

 

Just sounds sweeter and sweeter! Guess your exhaust is done...until you can think of something else you havent touched on there haha!

 

Good find.
Forgot all about Vibrant until you brought them up.

 

cold start on my X.

setup:
doug thorley long tubes, Vibrant resonators welded in place of secondary cats, "custom" y-pipe into stock muffler.

this video is the exhaust at its loudest point (cold start), once warmed and while driving its truly quieter than stock.

VQ40 Xterra: Doug Thorley Long Tube headers + Vibrant ultra quite resonators+ OEM muffler - YouTube

 

Rodney,
Hey!
Where did you get those resonators? They sound like exactly what I need. Right about the flowmaster 50. I tried magnaflows, tossed, then a Flowmaster 40, then finaly the 50. I removed the rear cats, but left the front ones in (so far). The torque losses were pretty noticable under 2000-2500, w/o cats. I want (still) to do a spring set up or something like BMW has been doing for low rpm back pressure on their car mufflers for years (They use a solenoid and a dual path muffler).
Racers used to hold something over the exhaust leaving corners (when they had co drivers/mechanics riding). Check iot out, this is 100% TRUE...

Anyway I'd love to get a couple of those resonators so I can ditch the other two cats...maybe make a priority todo the other bypass/exhaust setup..

DYnomax had some setup with a spring loaded "throttle blade" type cutoff inside its dynomax muffler.

 

I got them from Amazon. You had your cats off when you got tuned correct? I figured the Uprev tune would have fixed your lowend loss. I know it did mine. It took me a year of driving around without rear cats before I finally got my tune. After Uprev got their hands on it, my lowend was fine. You know it took about 1 yr after we all visited Uprev to get tuned. Really sucked waiting that long to get the 08+ ECU's ready to be tuned.
But even now, catless, all 2.25" duals with no restrictions, louvers, baffles, etc.--all straight through--I have great throttle response and good lowend power.
These resonators have no restriction, so they won't help on lowend power loss after removing primary cats, only a good retune will do that. But they will help keep the sound moderate after their removal.

 

So are these billed as faux cats? I'm confused becasue you said you built your own faux cats, but these are straight through also, so I don't know how you've gained a reduction in noise.

 

I had fake cats before I installed these resonators. Those fake cats were custom made by myself. But the were a bit rattly and my truck was louder than I prefer, thus the reason for going with my resonators instead. And even though these are straight through design, they still have perforated tubing surrounded with sound deadening material.

 

I see. Sounds more or less like a glasspack.

 

Pretty much. I had a good chance to drive it a lot this weekend and I am still very pleased. My tone is pretty deep now with very little rasp. I think their position so close to the headers make them even more effective.
Here is what they look like inside---

 

OK, that's a bit different (better) than a glasspack. Glasspacks have small "claws" that face the exhaust stream which slows it down...or something like that but they are not so great for performance, but good for sound if you like it loud.

 

Ideally, resonators are placed further downstream of the manifold because if placed too close they will burn-out the sound absorption material. Placing resonators where CATS once were WILL cause packing burn-out much quicker. The only downside is increased noise over time.

Just thought its important to point out since it hasn't been mentioned.

FWIW: The term "glasspacks" only refers to its (iconic) bullet shape and more specifically its packing material, fiberglass. A traditional glasspack can have either a louvered or "perforated" core. However, today they offer "glasspacks" that don't use fiberglass packing. They may use higher temp rating packing because fiberglass packing burns-out rather quickly (if gets too how).

/old skool hot rodder OFF/