ScottW911

OK, so I'm not the most aggressive "modder" out there, but I finally did something to change, if not improve, my 2002 C32. I had a spare hour or two today, so I visited a local muffler shop for a resonator delete. Thirty minutes later (took that long because he went through 5 sawz-all blades and had to re-cut the new pipe after one mis-measurement) and $50, I found a new level of enjoyment in my car.

In my line of business, I need to frequently transport clients. Having a vehicle that sounds like it should be running hot laps at Laguna Seca is out of the question for my profession. But, having something that has a definate growl when pushed, now that is sweet. This simple mod has given me the best of both worlds (business vs. fantacy street racer). With the windows up, there is no perceptible sound difference inside the vehicle. With the driver's side windows down (after all, this is winter in Southern California, 74 degrees today) the sound is subtly "growlier" and has a nice little burble around 3500 rpm. Thank God I can put my windows down in December.

Anyone hesitating in removing their resonator should get out there and get it done tomorrow. This is the way our AMG's were meant to sound. Yee Ha!

By the way, I snapped a few photos of the install, mid process, with my phone. I wasn't able to snap the completed project because the guy was too fast at dropping the lift. There are plenty of other threads, showing some final outcomes, posted though.

FrankW

finally...

ScottW911

Better late than never!

c32used

Great! I am planning mine real soon.

FrankW

you bet

too bad i have to keep mine on now since the weltmeister is pretty loud as it is...lol

ScottW911

Don't wait. I was shocked at how easy it was. Really, I decided to call the shop at 1:00pm and by 2:30pm I was humming along with the tune the engine was emitting.

Go, real soon.

ScottW911

Yeah, I tried listening to the video you posted and my PC must be messed up. I couldn't hear a damned thing. I really wanted to hear that before I did the Resonator thing.

c32used

I am just shopping around for best price. Out here in Chicagoland area I found $90 so far.

ScottW911

$90? My guy quoted $50-$60, depending on how hard it was to get to. The kid doing the install kept saying how easy it was. Find a decent small shop. It is not really complicated to do the work. $50 should be fair.

jgsx

Just MAKE SURE they use stainless steel pipe

c32used

Why stainless steel?

c32used

In IL things are more expensive thats why. I had one guy quote me over $200 once and I left shop really fast!

360_iti

I was toying with an idea to change the pipe into 3".
I'm not sure how, but ideally it would run from the cats (including the Y pipe) all the way to the muffler. I'm sure the deep bass growl would be more dramatic. Plus the throaty sound from resonator deletion, you might be able to mimic V8.

ScottW911

I saw how the muffler guys can go from smaller to larger tubing, I don't know how they could reduce the tubing to match the opening of your AMG muffler.

jgsx

I went to two places, both wanted $50. They were the first two random exhaust places I saw

jgsx

I tried 3" pipe from the where the rear cats used to be to the stock AMG mufflers. It made the car higher pitched sounding, kinda like a G35

jgsx

Because that's the correct material. A lot of shops use mild steel if you don't ask. Mild steel will rust, and the stock piping is stainless steel. You're not supposed to weld mild+stainless together

1via

If you ran 3" from the cats and got rid of that rediculously huge monstrosity they call a muffler in favor of something that was still tasteful and had good sound while decreasing back pressure i imagine you would feel noticable gains.
Just a thought. Itd be cool to see someone tread on territory most consider to be uncivilized(or something along those lines...). AMG mufflers are nice and all, but theyre still stock and not geared to performance as much as they should be (imho).

haha

sales@eurocharged.com

Very clean!

5150_C32

did you feel any power gains?

///AMG4EVER

Thanks for the post. I've been hesitating about removing my resonator for the same reason: business; but this gives me green light to do it...

Although I've done a few mods to my car, they are for the most parts OEM. I wonder what the reaction is going to be with the CF front lip and those old school oilfield guys...

GDawgC220

True, SS is the best piping to use but expensive and most shops don't stock it (at least here in the NE) and have to order the piping. So what do the shops use? They used aluminized steel piping, which is coated to prevent rust and corrosion. If you don't live in salted areas, you're good for a long while but down the road somewhere, it may start to rust or corrode. It is also less expensive to use aluminized piping vs SS piping, which is why most shops carry aluminized in stock.

jgsx

Yup, but I know that c32used lives in Illinois, and the roads are salted here. My car has salt all over it at the moment. The first time I did it, they didn't use mild. I had to do it again with stainless, so I paid the 50 bux twice. I wouldn't try to save a few bucks when it is going on a Benz.

360_iti

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottW911

I saw how the muffler guys can go from smaller to larger tubing, I don't know how they could reduce the tubing to match the opening of your AMG muffler.

The 3” tube would have to go all the way, otherwise what’s the point. Therefore we need to enlarge the muffler opening to 3”. Like I said, I’m not sure whether we’d be able to do it easily or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgsx

I tried 3" pipe from the where the rear cats used to be to the stock AMG mufflers. It made the car higher pitched sounding, kinda like a G35

Jgsx, higher pitch ? Huh.. that’s weird. But what do you mean by rear cats?
My thought was to run 3” out of the cats, 3” Y pipe, 3 “ straight pipe to the muffler. No resonator. See pic. Your thoughts ?

jgsx

Ah, I see. I actually have that setup on my car at the moment, except that I also eliminated the rear cats and replaced that with 3" pipe as well. The tone actually improved with time. Intially, there was a lot of high pitch rasphy tone under certain conditions. Most of that went away, probably from soot building up in the new clean piping. The car actually sounds very good now. I got to hear it VERY well when I had 6 dudes trying to push my car out of the snow while my rear tires were spinning.

EDIT: The rear cars were actually replaced with smaller piping (I think 2.5" on each), and then the Y pipe fed into 3"