can I get away with no muffler?

[Hitchhikingmike]

I was just wondering, if I took my muffler off temporarily can I get away with it? I mainly do highway driving and wanted to experiment how much my mpg would increase w/ no muffler. Would it be enough to draw attention of cops pulling in and out of the parking lot and just cruising on the highway?

I know it's illegal and this would not be permanent, just would like to experiment for a couple weeks.

I'm not trying to sound like a bad ass without a muffler, just want to experiment with mpg gains.

Thanks.

 

[XLT]

I would think you would see mpg decrease as well as some power loss possibly. Highway speeds it would drone. City might be ok if you feather the gas. I use to have a glasspack on my f150 4.6 with about 10 different exhaust leaks. It was loud as hell. To my suprise i never once got pulled over. But know i would be a little more fearfull now. My dad got picked up for loud exhaust on his v6 bravada and it only had a small hole in it.

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

why would there be power loss? Doesn't taking off the muffler decrease resistance=more hp?

 

[XLT]

The muffler i believe adds back pressure. If you lose to much back pressure you will lose power. Thats why its also recommended not to go over a certain diameter exhaust pipe when modifying it depending on your engine. A high flow muffler would be ideal. What muffler are you using right now?

 

[Jd0gg919]

I haven't had a muffler for over a year. No cop trouble yet, knock on wood. Just depends on how strict the cops are in your area.

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

stock muffler. I would only consider a high flow/ aftermarket muffler strictly for mpg increase.

 

[XLT]

I haven't had a muffler for over a year. No cop trouble yet, knock on wood. Just depends on how strict the cops are in your area.

Good point. Also if you need to pass emission testing you might want one. I drove my f150 for a year before i sold it and never once had a problem. I drove it like i stole it too. If you want gains i would go with a good aftermarket muffler and not just a glasspack. I just put a flowmaster 50 series on my sohc today and it purrs really nice. I have to wait and see if it will add to my mpg or not.

 

[ajthefishermen]

get a flowmaster or magnaflow there like 60 on ebay does the trick deeper sound alittle more power tooo

 

[Cozmik]

I put a Magnaflow on mine. Sounds good. Has NO baffles.You can hold it up and look right through the thing. Its a straight pipe with some insulation/mesh around it in a can. Close to no muffler but still legal.

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

I put a Magnaflow on mine. Sounds good. Has NO baffles.You can hold it up and look right through the thing. Its a straight pipe with some insulation/mesh around it in a can. Close to no muffler but still legal.

have you noticed any increase in highway fuel efficiency?

 

[Cozmik]

When I put the muffler on I also switched to a K&N drop in filter and removed almost half the plastic in my lower airbox. I wasn't doing any real mileage tracking back then unfortunately, but I did notice just based on the tripometer that it seemed I was able to eek a few extra miles....(when I wasn't on it because I could finally HEAR my V8). My biggest mileage increase was removing my lift and getting rid of my 32" BFG A/T's and adding an SCT tuner.

 

[Joe Dirt]

It does depend on the engine. My V8 SHO was running stock cats/resonators and had the muffler pulled. It was loud from 0-50 and nearly silent on the highway.

Nothing was more fun than pulling up at a light and watching people try to figure out where the big V8 race car was when all they saw was a Taurus...

I saw no MPG gains, I doubt pulling a muffler would give you any, and you will lose back pressure and some torque in the process...

 

[Minivek]

is the 3rd "cat" a cat or a resonator??

Hi guys, as mentioned in the title, is the "third cat" a a cat or a resonator??

thanks

 

[CALDWELL]

( 3rd cat = RESONATOR )


I have now experienced a 40 series Flowmaster, and i have experienced a magnaflow. the 40 series was alot louder, but the magnaflow has a smoother sound when you romp on it. still gets loud, but not until 3000 RPM or higher...


did the same thing as COZMIK ( Air Box Mod / Magnaflow muffler ) and between both i noticed about a solid extra 20 miles to each tank...

i am tossing around the idea of going 2.5'' pipe again...

 

[Minivek]

Thanks guys, man I got this done today, what a difference. I cut the 3rd cat off this morning and then left to get a 2 1/2" pipe welded between the y pipe and my 14" 4x9" maggie. I was like what the..... the sound was insane it sounded like 4x4 open class tractor pull. It had 0 guts but what an insane nice sound.

Now that its got the pipe in, it sounds a lot more civilized, pulls better than before and will have me taking it easy around cops, its got a real nice rumble to it, hopefully not enough to get the cops going after me. :

I'll post a sound comparison clip from before and after the 3rd cat delete.

 

[dirtdigger19]

i took my muffler off a few monthes back, dont do it! It only takes that one d*** cop to pull you over and you have a tickit for noise pollution or whatever he said. Throw on a flowmaster and a k&n gives you more power and sounds pretty sweet

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

I am mainly interested if anyone has every observed mpg gains solely after taking off their muffler or switching to a high-flow muffler. If you have andy data, please share.

I have now been led to believe that there is very little efficiency to be gained by solely removing or switching your factory muffler for an aftermarket one. Most all the reported gains appear to be from a CAI installation.

 

[Scottsu150]

Hitchhikingmike, I put a Dynomax exhaust system on my f-150 with the v6 and got more power and better mileage and when the muffler rusted out i just put a pipe where it used to be. I think the mileage may have dropped 1 or 2 miles per gallon but it sounds good and is not to loud under 2700 rpm.

 

[rocket2ya]

i took my muffler off for about a week a while back and it messed everything up. not only did i get **** gas mileage, but the truck ran like crap. what ive heard is there is not enough backpressure when the muffler is taken off so it runs like crap. dont do it, it may sound badass but it isnt worth IMO.

 

[CALDWELL]

I noticed between both my ( MAGNAFLOW MUFFLER / K&N AIR BOX MOD ), about a 1 mpg increase... I get about an extra 20 miles to the tank. i do mostly intown driving, stop and go traffic. i was getting about 220 miles to the tank with the way i drive. now im seening a consistent 240 to 245 miles per tank.

if you want to see MPG gains with the exhaust alone, then your going to have to increase the pipe diameter of the exhaust system to 2.5'' pipe, with a free flow muffler flowmaster or magnaflow etc. and also the less bends that are in the exhaust the better the exhaust will perform, and will yield better gains...

the thing about just swapping the muffler alone is just a small portion of freeing up the exhaust... the resonator, and then the exhaust pipe reduction just before the muffler is still hurting the exhaust, by cramping the exhaust gas thru a baffle, and space reduction. then another large factor is the 6 major bends on the back half of the exhaust which slows down exhaust travel.

on my RED 03' XLS i had a 2.5'' pipe exhaust that started at the end of the Y-Pipe that ran into a flowmaster 40 series, which then ran under the rear axle, and exited at a 45 degree angle. with the set up i increased the size of the exhaust pipe, and eliminated 4 major bends from the system. that allowed the exhaust to exit much faster increasing HP, and MPG greatly. the only negative of this set up is that there is a loss in low end TQ, but the X would pull like a **** into the high end of the rev range. then once i added a K&N Intake, i gained some of the low end TQ back.

Once you then have the Intake / Exhaust Combo. something to think about is yes i increased my MPG, but i can get even better mpg with a TUNE !. once you install the intake, and exhaust... you have altered the factory FUEL to AIR ratio. now that your X is taking more air in, it is designed to compensate by adding more fuel to balance everything back out. a tune will eliminiate this issue, so that your X will run off that FUEL to AIR ratio, thus further more will enable your X to get even better MPG with the modification of the INTAKE, and EXHAUST...

I hope this will help enlighten some minds lol