Is there a good performance muffler that's quiet?

[iqraceworks]

I currently have a single 2-chambered Flowmaster (3" in/out) dumped under the bed right in front of the axle on my 04' Dodge Ram 1500 Hemi quad cab. For driving around town, and even on the highway it sounds awesome......nice deep idle, pretty quiet when cruising on the highway, and really screams when you mash the pedal. I tow a 25ft ski boat with my truck, and short trips to the lake (1 hour) don't really bother me too much, but the exhaust can get a little loud at times when you starting getting into the gas going up hills.

Now that we picked up a small 19ft camper trailer, and I've been going on some longer road trips with the family......and after a few hours, the exhaust note just gets annoying. It's not bad when you are on flat ground, but going up hills when the motor is spinning higher rpms just gets annoying.....I'm tired of hearing it (so are the wife and kid).

I'm going to cut the Flowmaster off and replace it with something else. I don't want to lose any power, but I do want to lose the noise and interior resonance. What should I try? Magnaflow? Borla? I want something that's quiet.....something that won't get annoying after pulling a trailer for 6+ hours.

[Yosemitebob]

It was designed for the throaty sound, the best system is actually "stock"

[Ag&Au]

I live in an area where one would think it was illegal to run a stock exhaust system. Go back to stock. You and your neighbors will be happy. The only person who likes a loud attention getting exhaust is the driver. If even the driver is disliking it, it's time go back to designed quiet.

Ken

[iqraceworks]

Well, over the weekend I got rid of the 2-chambered 40-series Flowmaster and replaced it with one of the longer 18” bodied Magnaflows with 3” in/out. Instead of just dumping it under the bed in front of the rear axle, I ran it out the side in front of the rear tire. It’s definitely quieter than the Flowmaster was when there is no load, or a light load on the motor…much quieter. When just driving the truck around town, it’s definitely quieter.

But, I pulled the boat over the weekend, and when you are hard on the gas and the RPM’s are up over 3000 or so, I’d say it’s just as loud as the Flomaster was as far as overall volume, but the “tone” is smoother and deeper, and not as raspy sounding. It’s still too loud for my taste, the lower deeper tone of the Magnaflow actually bothers me more than the thin raspy sound of the Flowmaster. The one thing that I did notice was that with the Magnaflow, on straight and flat sections of highway running at 65mph….according to the MPG display on the truck, the Magnaflow muffler picked up 1-2MPG vs. the Flowmaster. I guess that just goes to show how restrictive that Flowmaster really was.

I’ve ordered some more 3” pipe sections, so my next step is to run the exhaust all the way out the back dumping behind the rear passenger tire….just like a standard oem truck exhaust. I’m hoping this will do the trick. I kind of like doing exhaust work, it gives me a chance to break out my mig welder and run some wire through it.

[iqraceworks]

***UPDATE***

My Flowmaster 3" universal tailpipe kit came in, so I decided to do some more work on the exhaust tonight. After getting rid of the Flowmaster muffler that dumped in front of the rear axle (because it was way too loud), and then swapping it for a Magnaflow muffler that exited in front of the rear tire (it was quieter, but still annoying while pulling a heaving trailer for long periods of time)......I decided to run a standard 3" tailpipe setup and exit it out the rear like a standard exhaust.

Here is what it looked like when it was exiting in front of the rear tire. The high pitched raspy Flowmaster sound was gone, but the Magnaflow was much deeper sounding...and droned pretty bad.





The Flowmaster tailpipe kit was a "universal" kit made out of 3" pipe....it took a long time, and just about all of the patience I could find in order to get all of the sections cut to the proper length , and in the correct orientation in order to make everything fit just right. And I have a lot more respect for the guys that work at the muffler shops...welding up under a car or truck with no space, in a bad position, with bad gun angle, and not enough room to even see what you are welding...takes skill! What a pain! But when it was all finished, it made a HUGE difference in how the truck sounds. Much quieter, and much "tighter" sounding if that makes any sense. I haven't pulled a trailer yet, but just from revving it up in the shop a little bit, it sounds much more "refined".....I think I'm finally done with this exhaust project!!