Muffler Question

[pugsy]

My muffler has a hole in it. I need to have it fixed in order to emmision test it. My question is: it's not loud at all with the hole in it, would it make a difference if I cut it out and put a straight pipe in it's place. It's a '92 and there's 2 CAT's before the muffler, and a small resonator type muffler after it. I'm thinking that will dampen the noise enough and I'd be able to just get rid of the muffler.
Would this cause any adverse issues such as back pressure problems or loss of power?
Thanks

 

[Glacier991]

It's pretty loud without the muffler, but not insanely so. Would it violate noise laws ? I dunno.

 

[badge49]

I just got my smog done here in Cali. They told me they don't care about anything from the cat(s) back or before the MAF. I passed the smog, but defened the tech.

 

[pugsy]

Here, they won't even put it on the dyno to test it if there's an exhaust leak, ie. hole anywhere in the system.
Glacier, how can it be that much louder if it's not loud right now with a hole in it? It's cold up here and when it idles, you can see half the exhaust coming out of the tailpipe, and a good portion coming from under the truck (from the hole in the muffler).

 

[Mud Bug 94]

with a resonator its not too bad... a resonator is basicly a glasspack or cherry bomb.

 

[Anime]

I've had a hole in the muffler of my a X a few times and it's only a bit louder, but with the muffler off, the 4.0 OHV is VERY loud, especially under heavy acceleration, at least compared to how it sounds with a quiet stock-type muffler or something like a dynomax super turbo. I'm pretty sure you can count on losing a lot of low-end torque stright-piping it from the cat back, too. Perhaps you can just slap on some muffler repair tape as a temporary fix, but a new muffler would be best, both in terms of noise control and performance. Even a glasspack /cherry bomb as suggested would be better than a straight pipe, probably.