nickstick17

Since I have owned my car, I have never heard how it sounds like from the outside, until today. For the first time ever, my father drove my car to work with me in it (since he was going to do an oil change on it at the end of the day while he had it at the garage). When he dropped me off and drove away, I was shocked and angry to hear that it sounded like it was bordering on rice territory. From inside the car, it sounds fine, if not pretty badass. Nobody has ever told me my car sounds like rice because I think they are afraid to say it to my face.

As of now, I'm running with an AEM CAI, the stock exhaust, except one of the resonators was removed and replaced with a piece of straight pipe because it had begun to rattle. I also have a Cherrybomb muffler at the end, which I put on because it was the cheapest high-flow muffler available when my stock muffler got a crack in it.

Now I know replacing the muffler should change the sound, but I'd prefer not bringing it back to the stock sound or quieter. I intend on doing some exhaust work on it this winter, which includes new exhaust header, piping and resonators (if necessesary) and a better high-flow muffler. What kind of stuff should I be looking at in order to avoid making it sound like rice once I'm finished? Can I just go to a place like Midas and ask them to make me a setup that won't sound like stupid rice?

Advice is much appreciated! Thanks.

Visionz

The sound is all in the muffler you use. Installing a header and bigger diameter piping will increase the sound that you have now.

Get yourself a decent chambered muffler, and stay away from the canister types. Magnaflow, Dynamax, and so on will be your best bet, unless you want to shell out the money for a more high end name brand canistor type, like an HKS.

nickstick17

My current muffer isn't a cannister type, it is your basic oval-shaped kind. I'm not really crazy about the cannister look anyway. So the Magnaflow is probably going to be the right one. Thanks for the advice.

The header, piping, etc. was just another one of my projects for enhancing the performance of the car. Last winter was rebuilding the engine and shaving the head down, this winter will be header and exhaust work.

That brings me to another question --> Dual exhaust on an RD1... good idea? If I can find a 4-2 header, I could make my own dual exhaust setup, but is this a bad/stupid idea? Should I just stick with a single exhaust? I appreciate the advice. smile.gif

Visionz

You dont want a dual exhaust on a 4 cylinder car. Besides, most of the time...it looks bad. There have been a few instances where it looked decent, but those people had kits on their cars to help make it look a little better. Since you have the stock rear bumper with a single exhaust cut out, just stay with a single exhaust. You'll be much happier and it'll look alot better.

nickstick17

Good point. I didn't even consider the one exhaust cut-out. The 4cyl RD2's have dual exhaust though. Well, there are two pipes out the back, I don't know if it's actually true dual exhaust. Is it?

Visionz

No, its not a true....its just a split pipe

DTN

I think the best sound I heard, and most appropriate was with the stock exhaust and a header. It sounded just perfect. Not too loud, but noticable and slightly agressive. I increased my exhaus bore to 2.25 with a magnaflow superturbo muffler and a 30" glasspack. I'm just not impressed. I've tried several combinations of different parts and different brands. Just stay stock and get a header.

nickstick17

Can I even get a stock muffler for my car from Hyundai? Or am I stuck with aftermarket at this point? The stock exhaust wasn't bad, and since I didn't have my CAI or the head shaved down at all before I changed the muffler, I never got to know how it would sound. Perhaps I'll consider that. Then again, it is all about personal preference, and maybe I will like the Magnaflow sound better. Can't hurt to try both, I guess LOL

DTN

make sure you get a resonator. RED ZMAN says he likes his 3" exhaust with a 34" resonator and a magnaflow superturbo muffler. I would go with 2-1/4" at max on our cars. 2 1/4" is good up to 225HP from what I've read. Any more then that and you start hurting performance by slowing down the exhaust pulse.

I have a glasspack instead of a resonator and I think it's too loud and unrestricted when I get on it. It's quiet when I am at idle or slowly acellerating, but it gets the ricy sound when I get on it. I think that's due to the glasspack. The resonator should quiet it down a bit, but then I'd loose the smooth rolling deep bass at idle and light acelleration.... That's all I can really tell you.

DTN

here is my current set up


edit: with a 2.25" exhaust cherrybomb glasspack and a dynomax superturbo muffler.
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Here is with a 2.25" exhaust, thrush glasspack and a flowmaster delta 40 muffler
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I would definitely recommend something a little more muffling then what I have. A resonator would do much better.