Yesterday I drove up the coast to visit the family for the holidays. Lots of twists and turns along the drive, so there was a good dose of "spirited driving" along the way. A couple spots have low speed hard turns followed by a relatively steep climb so there were several seconds of wide open throttle to listen to the exhaust sing. During these I noticed a distinctive exhaust leak "chuff"(for lack of a better term). So it got me thinking about parts I could potentially need to replace soon and what my options would be. The only thing I've done with the exhaust at this point is a pair of muffler delete pipes. I'd like to get a pair of Kinetix HFC's, but I think that will make it louder than I want. What would be the best way to cut back on that added noise without resorting to putting the original mufflers back on? I'm aware that this exhaust leak could just be a gasket that has gone bad, but since my car spent numerous years in the rust belt before I bought her, even a gasket replacement will be a pain, so in my mind I might as well swap some parts as well. Thanks for any input.

 

Since you know exhaust work is happening sometime in the future get under there now with a can of PB Blaster penetrating spray and hose down EVERY bolt ahead of time, that will give it significantly higher chances of coming apart without breaking when you do get around to doing the fix.

Only use 6 point sockets and wrenches, I guarantee a 12 point will ruin stuff, flank drive 6point with an impact wrench works pretty good on rusted bolts though. Just have a handful of extra 6mm or 3/8 bolts/flat washer/lock washer/nut on hand (maybe a couple 5/16 too) in case you do end up drilling out some broken bolts and replacing them.

Honestly the HR sedan sounds great on a pair of HFC's with a muffler delete. Test pipes is going to be a little too loud and you would need to put a resonator in somewhere. You could always add the HFC first and decide then whether or not to toss a Vibrant resonator on it.

 

Where would one of those resonators fit? I imagine I could fit one on each side where the mufflers were, not sure how a pair of glasspacks would sound there at the end.