small muffler looking thing??

[Arsoncop]

Can anyone tell want the small muffler looking thing just behind the main muffler in the tail pipe is on my 1998 explorer, and is it nessasary? I want to install a Flowmaster Super 44 and was under the truck looking at the exhaust and saw this thing. My exhaust has two pipes coming off the engine with one tail pipe. I was checking to see if the tail pipe exited the muffler in the center or offset when I was this little muffler looking thing. I would think that if it is there then it would muffle the new Flowmaster sound. so if I can get by without it i'll remove it.

 

[storlied]

Could be a cat, or if it's much smaller.. a resonator..

 

[Charlie]

If it is behind the muffler, it would be a resonator.

 

[manaen]

yeah, it's the resonator and it's there to remove any additional drone from the exhaust.

 

[Arsoncop]

ok the resonator, do I have to keep it? and will it damping the new exhaust sound??

 

[storlied]

Slightly, you do not have to keep it though. It seems the 2 door explorers experience the drone issue a lot worse than 4 door's.
Many 4 door owners have reported minimal highway drone without the res.

 

[Charlie]

My sport doesn't have the resonator.

 

[manaen]

I don't have the resonator on my 4 door, it has very minimal drone around 2100 rpm's then goes away. You'll be fine without it, but it really depends how senstive you are to exhaust noise. I'm guessing if your changing your exhaust you want more tone, so it will probably be a welcomed change. Frankly the stock resonator is a bit restrictive it goes from 2 1/4 to 2".

If it is too much drone when you take it off, replace it with something with better flow. like one of these
http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?N=700+4294923429+4294922711+115+4294804382

 

[MONMIX]

2-door no resonator with flowmaster SUV 50
too loud inside.

 

[gijoecam]

2-door no resonator with flowmaster SUV 50
too loud inside.

I'm the exact opposite: 2-door, 4.0 SOHC, with resonator, and 50 series Performance/SUV muffler, and I get an ever-so-slight drone at 80-82 mph (I usually cruise at 74, so it's not an issue)

Slightly, you do not have to keep it though. It seems the 2 door explorers experience the drone issue a lot worse than 4 door's.
Many 4 door owners have reported minimal highway drone without the res.

Indeed, that's been the general consensus on here... The added length of the tailpipe on a 4-door must have some effect on it... That's the only thinkg I've been able to conclude from all the exhaust posts on here.

The resonator does dampen out some of the sound. If sound is all you're concerned with, run no muffler and use a turn-down. If you need a muffler to be legal, run a straight-through glass-pack like a cherry bomb with a turn-down.

If you want to actually be able to hear yourself think while driving, use a resonator.

 

[Arsoncop]

Thanks gijoecam, my engine is a 6 cylinder 4.0L sohc 98 model, if I ran no muffler would it sound good and not like one of these teenagers and their little car that sounds like a pissed off bee? I am looking for that loud sound. I am running straights on a 1985 Ford F-350 with a 460 ci now, and pulling a horse trailer you can here me coming for 5 miles.

 

[manaen]

I ran my truck without a muffler for a few weeks, I had the stock pipes and just replaced the stock muffler with a piece of pipe. My reasoning was for towing, and not surprisingly I picked up almost 2mpg. I didn't like the tone only because of the poppyness of it. If I was driving slow off road, my friends would say it sounded like a helicopter coming from a distance. So I tried a chambered muffler (just a cheap Cherry Turbo) and I lost the 2mpg again and frankly there was no tone at all from the exhaust. So I went to a 22" long cherry bomb which is like a glass pack but it doesn't have the louvers inside. It is basically like a 22" long resonator, straight through pipe that has many tiny holes with glass packed around it. So I put that on, and took the resonator off because of it's restrictiveness. I gained the 2mpg back and got rid of the poppy sounds at lower RPM.

my general observations are that the 4.0 sounds a little droney around 2krpms then when you start to hit 2200 and up it starts to have a very nice defined (almost v8) sound. I did say almost, it will never sound like the 8 but it can sound good. The crazy thing is, I have more noise inside with the new setup (cherry bomb & no resonator) then with the old setup (no muffler and resonator).

My guess is that the position of the resonator on the first turn of the exhaust has allot to do with how the exhaust absorbs vibration. That first turn must absorb a lot of sound pressure which causes more vibration in the cab. But that is just a theory...

 

[MONMIX]

I'm the exact opposite: 2-door, 4.0 SOHC, with resonator, and 50 series Performance/SUV muffler, and I get an ever-so-slight drone at 80-82 mph (I usually cruise at 74, so it's not an issue)



.

I HAD the resomator.
I should have kept it

 

[Charlie]

You know, maybe I just couldn't stand the drone from the Flowmaster like everybody else because I didn't have a resonator...

 

[storlied]

You also have the 2 door, it's a lot worse than the 4 door.

 

[esploder224wd]

just get a cherrybomb glass pack and get rid of the resonators