Rolf de Graaff

Maybe this question has been made over and over again but I want to remove the resonator or secondary cats.
What is better for sound and/or performance?
If I remove the resonator, should I install an x-pipe or straight pipes?
It is so difficult to hear the differences on YouTube


Thanks!

w204nyc

Removing the resonator will give you drone at high speeds

Rolf de Graaff

At what speed will this be?
Is it nice to hear or annoying?

douwe22

x pipe instead of sec cats, straight pipe resonator!

douwe22

there is no drone, at least not according to my ears

w204nyc

I removed the secondary cats and there is no drone. Took the resonator off and there was drone around 60-90mph. Put the resonator back on and drone is gone. I had a straight pipe for secondary cats and x-pipe for resonator.

w204nyc

And no drone is not nice at all lol. Very annoying

Overspooled

I have straights on both secondary cats and resonators and have 0 drone. Nothing at all . Sound is great too

MikeTc63

+1 also straight on both and honestly no drone and actually pretty quiet in cabin .. Sound is perfect IMO

vtune

I just had my secondary cats replaced by straight pipes. Exhaust note is the same, but you hear it more when you step on it. The whole car feels better too. You can tell there is more air flow now. The engine revs better/faster and seems happier. Shifts sound much better too. I suggest you do this, and see how you like it. If you still want more you can replace the resonator with an xpipe to get more noise.

MaroonC63

Mb did very well by keeping the cabin quiet. Straight pipe both

crazy1eye

Replace secondary cats with an x-pipe

ruey220

for those who want to see what's in the secondary cats, I hope this doesn't encourage you to add more smog to the air, but just so you know what is going on:

I have the two secondary cats which are attached together, compared to the Magnaflow Ultra High Flow cats I installed to get better flow, better sound and still help clean the air that comes out.

If I was to estimate the additional flow based on how much sound increased I'd say it gets 2x more flow than the stock ones. You can also see how much more restriction stock secondary cats have vs primary.

Soon I will change the larger Primary Cats with HJS cats to finish it off and headers. I worked my way from back to forward on this one since they were easier first, and do the hard ones later, while I still can enjoy the car on each minor improvement and feel the incremental gains of both sound and performance so it doesn't get so boring.

Jasonoff

Either you have any vids posted?

I have straight pipes for secondary cats and I'm considering straights for the resonators.

johnnyblaze

For those of you removing your resonator now, and then getting long tube headers, hang onto your resonator.

I had no resonator with long tube headers and it sounded awful... it lost the AMG sound.

ruey220

it does lose the AMG sound but the trade off is it get a bit louder. I was thinking at first I've lost the growl of the engine above 3500rpm but the tradeoff is now it sounds like a race car screaming like mad.