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'05 Mercedes E500, '14 Porsche 911, '97 Jaguar XJ6, Lexus LS and IS (s), Mk6 GTI (s), Saab 9-5 (s)
E500 Exhaust: Muffler+Resonator Delete, x-pipe, and j-pipe (miracle pipe)
Hello:
This is my exhaust story. I read these forums for years and debated back and forth with myself whether I would finally do the exhaust on my own car, and I finally did, and here is what I learned:
First of all, I have a 2005 Mercedes E500 and it is (was) completely stock. I wanted an exhaust that had a mean, snarly, V8 sound to go with the car's 5.0L engine. I wanted to get people's attention here and there, and I wanted to drive around with my windows down and smile at the sound of my own car! Basically, I wanted my comfortable Mercedes to sound like a badass sports car...while still being a practical and comfortable sedan. To that point, I did not want any drone and I didn't want so much interior volume that I would lose what I saw as the car's greatest strength: cruising comfortably.
Bottom line:
I now have a custom system consisting of a resonator delete, x-pipe, rear muffler deletes, and J-pipes. It is incredible. Better than even my wildest dreams! The car has a distinct and exotic "bark" to it, it roars, it echoes off trees and buildings, but when you roll up the windows, it is quiet and ZERO DRONE!! J-pipes are basically the most amazing things I have ever come across. I don't know how they are not more popular. If you are on the fence, like I was, and you're reading this, DO IT! You won't regret it and, I promise, there is zero drone or tiresome interior volume.
Exhaust History:
I started by installing an OEM E55 rear section exhaust that was removed from a stock E55 AMG. I cut out my bumper and welded in the system. It was very easy and an exact swap-out with the stock system. The car looked great, but basically sounded no different. So, next, I removed the resonators and installed an x-pipe. After this, I definitely noticed more bass and the exhaust had a much nicer sound. Still, it was extremely quiet and nearly unnoticeable in the interior. Spent a lot of money and saw very little difference.
After driving around for almost a year with the AMG system, I decided I had to try again. So, I did a complete muffler delete. The car sounded cool, but it was way too loud in the interior and had so much painful drone I got headaches and frustrated by the end of any drive. It didn't sound good inside the car, either; it was just a wall of low-frequency noise and no real discernable exhaust note. On the outside, the car sounded awesome. I could not drive the car like this, though.
Next, after reading about j-pipes from some other posts on this forum and from Mustang, Camaro, and G8 forums, I decided I'd try it. Not an easy decision, though! The muffler delete was so unpleasant to drive that I really didn't believe that a simple j-pipe would make enough of a difference. I couldn't believe that it would actually be able to get rid of this much interior bass and drone. But, thanks to the great posts by GredD, AMGAffalterbach, and many others, I went for it.
The J-pipes yielded incredible results. Almost unbelievable. 100% of the interior drone and bass is gone, and all that remains is the good stuff! Snarl, bark, and an almost metallic, exotic V8 tone. Reminds me a lot of Maserati V8s. I am so glad that I decided to do a J-pipe and not go back to stock. Honestly, there is basically no drone in the interior, you can cruise very comfortably, passengers won't be annoyed, you can hear the radio easily, commute without getting angry at the noise...it's perfect. It makes me smile every time I drive.
Another big advantage of the J-pipes when you go with a muffler delete is that you actually get a little back-pressure again and I have noticed that this helps the low-end compared to the muffler delete without the j-pipes. The top end power is awesome (not sure how much better it really is, but at least it sounds spectacular!).
System Details:
-Resonator Delete
-X-pipe
-Rear Muffler Deletes
-Custom bent j-pipes (29inch pipes of whatever diameter your exhaust is, bent into a j, and capped)
-AMG-style Quad Tips (requires custom bumper cutouts)
Media:
I attached some photos and here is a link to a youtube video of the exhaust. In the youtube video, I am limited by the rev limiter. But, under heavy throttle and above 5,000rpm or so, this exhaust absolutely screams! It's pretty wild.
Again, I'd like to extend a big "thank you" to everyone on this forum who experimented with this before me and took the time to post about it. Couldn't have gotten here without you! I hope this post may help others in the future, and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this type of exhaust setup. Also, if you're in the Bay Area, I highly recommend 50-50 Muffler. They did an outstanding job.
'05 Mercedes E500, '14 Porsche 911, '97 Jaguar XJ6, Lexus LS and IS (s), Mk6 GTI (s), Saab 9-5 (s)
Thank you. And yes, the Porsche is such a wonderful and unique car. There really is nothing like a 911! It's a fun contrast to the E500, especially with its traditional manual transmission. I love it.
I do have a set of E55 mufflers (the ones pictured). Send me a PM if you are interested.
The quad tips are looking bad-***! Glad to see someone outside the forum taking AMGAffalterbach's advice and actually going with the muffler delete & j-pipe, then actually hearing a satisfied result.
It sounds great man! Really like what you've done, excellent write-up and it seems like your extensive research payed off. GregD was the original inspiration for doing this, and it seems like it's been gaining a little bit of popularity over the years. Thanks again for the mention and it's always satisfying to get such a great result without sinking thousands into an aftermarket system.
Hopefully Klein or one of the editors can bring some attention to your write up, for an older platform the M113 has really stood the test of time. I like that Porsche a lot by the way, great color too
'05 Mercedes E500, '14 Porsche 911, '97 Jaguar XJ6, Lexus LS and IS (s), Mk6 GTI (s), Saab 9-5 (s)
If anyone is curious to hear what it sounds like from inside the car, I just posted a new thread with some videos shot from the interior. Hard accelerations and standard driving!
ARfisch, could you detail or draw exactly how your x-pipe and j-pipes are installed in relation to the complete underside exhaust? Just a simple line drawing so I know how to relate this to my muffler guy. Dimensions as to pipe size and length would be great. Does it have to be a mandrel bend for the j-pipe?
'05 Mercedes E500, '14 Porsche 911, '97 Jaguar XJ6, Lexus LS and IS (s), Mk6 GTI (s), Saab 9-5 (s)
I think the best I can do for you would just be to take a picture of the rear-section of the exhaust. That's the only "complicated" part. I don't really think you'll need a drawing of the rest, once you get your car up on the lift it will be clear. Here's what I mean:
1) Once on a lift, you/your exhaust guy will see the "resonator" (located roughly in the center of the car). Just remove this and put in an x-pipe in its place. Any exhaust guy will know exactly how to do this.
2) The rear section is a similar story...the exact dimensions and placement really don't matter that much, it's just up to individual style. The j-pipes, bends, and tips can go wherever they fit/you want them. All that matters is that you make the j-pipes ~29inches in length. If you search the forums, you'll find pictures of different looking j-pipe setups on these cars and they all work equally well.
3) Piping dimensions are up to you, won't effect the sound. I did 2inch. Easier to bend and work with and I figured I might get a little back pressure back with that. Who knows. It seems to have worked!
I might be misunderstanding, but it seems like the J-pipes are now your resonator. The length (29" in your case) would be dependent upon the pipe's diameter, and many years ago - back when I remembered the physics of it - I might've been able to talk a bit more in detail about resonant frequencies and wavelengths and such. That said, a bit of research should be able to match the length/diameter ratio of the setup.
The J-Pipes replace your muffler essentially, you still have resonators upstream in the exhaust. They reflect sound waves back and cancel out droning frequencies. The calculations are relatively simple, but the values you need can only really be found experimentally, this page summarizes it:
A lot of these questions have been addressed ad nauseam in other areas of the forum, so I don't want to hijack Arfisch's thread more than I already have but here it is:
1) Resonator delete will generally change the tone of the exhaust without making it, from what I know, much louder than stock. If you still have your mufflers in place, a resonator delete won't lead to generous increase in exhaust loudness from a decibel perspective. I'm sure there's some increase, but generally you'll get a more muscle-car or larger displacement V8 tone from doing this.
2) Muffler delete with J-pipe won't affect the tonality as greatly as a resonator delete, there will be a noticeably deep grumble with one, but this is because the muffler delete will make the car a decent amount louder. This is primarily noticeable at full throttle, however - it isn't uncomfortably loud and won't attract a lot attention unless you're really on it. Some people get a bit of popping and crackling with a muffler delete especially when it's colder. The J-pipe will just help reduce in-cabin drone, doesn't change the note greatly. The M273/M113 are great sounding V8s even with mostly stock exhaust systems, you're just unveiling the natural sound of the engine this way.
I chose the second option and it suited me perfectly. You can do both, or pick one, but either way it's a pretty cost-effective option to get a noticeable improvement from the stock exhaust which just sounds like a bunch of rushing air from what I remember. Plus, since we are talking a W211 E-Class here, it's still possible to be surreptitious around cops without attracting too much attention.
Last edited by AMGAffalterbach; 03-04-2016 at 01:33 AM.
Congratulationon your new exhaust Arfisch, it sounds amazing!! I have a 02 Ml55 and I amhaving the same DRONE issue you used to have. It is horrible inside the carbetween 1500rpm and 2000rpm.
Previously,I did a resonator and muffler delete with an x-pipe and true dual all the way.Sound was great but the DRONE was there!! So I decided to put back the stockresonator only, but now not only I can barely hear anything, but the DRONE isstill there, exactly like before.
Byany chance, would you have a picture of the J-Pipes from underneath your car?
I thought doing this will get some sound but got little heavy tone will need to add j-pipes next. Any ideas about getting little bit louder sound I been looking for xpipe but can't find where to buy one any deas?
'05 Mercedes E500, '14 Porsche 911, '97 Jaguar XJ6, Lexus LS and IS (s), Mk6 GTI (s), Saab 9-5 (s)
I'm not quite sure what you did there in that picture, but it looks interesting. Sorry to hear that it didn't result in the sound you were going for, though. If you want to mimic my setup (which I'm still really enjoying), you just need to replace the resonator with an x-pipe (you can just have a shop fabricate one or use whatever generic ones they have in stock--Magnaflow, Flowmaster, etc.) and then replace the rear muffler section with a j-pipe setup.
Again, the x-pipe is just generic, any exhaust shop will have one that they can install. As for the j-pipe, I apologize for not posting a picture sooner, but here is a picture of what my j-pipe looks like. See my original write-up for some more details on it, but I really don't think it needs to be super exact. As long as it is close, it will work. I have seen various different looking ones on forums and in person and they pretty much all work.
Thanks for the picture!! I unfortunatly do not have room to install a similar setup. I ended up ordering an aftermarket muffler. I ll post a video once intalled.
I like th e results hate the drone not all the time becauseusually I'm doing 70 75 but certain loads you hear it badly heavy this will be next step. I was worried with some u tube videos that I heard they eliminated the mufflers and it was very loud o I bought the thrush 5 inch glass pack single chamber and modified it just a little so it will be up in there and still have room to install J-pipe that was the thought but now I also need to remove the resonator also to get the little bit snarl that I want I will post some pics of what it looked like while doing the setup
Any ideas on pipe to buy or will it be heaped to spend a day or two butchering my resonator and welding two straight pipes together I also heard for the drone they have insert you could weld inside to lower it I'm open to any ideas and I will post news update and maybe some sound videos to hear the diference
Hey guys I'd like to know what are some good mufflers for an 04 e500 I'm looking to make my car louder it's much too quite I'm wanting it to really growl at high speeds, anything will help thanks!
02-01-2016, 01:01 AM
