kjlindgr

Stock cars are dumb.

That said, I took a little time yesterday to chop the stock resonator out of the Merc. It's a pretty popular thing to do based on the research I did browsing around this forum. I watched a bunch of videos and the sound clips were favorable so I decided to give it a go. A certain nameless vendor sells a resonator delete kit for $199. It's a weld-in kit that comes with pipes and...well...that's about it. Mama didn't raise no fool. I know the cost of pipe, and there ain't $200 worth of pipe in that kit. After ordering up some 2.75" 304 stainless pipe at the tune of $60, the fun began.

Stock resonator chillin' out. I soaked the connecting clamps with PB Blaster just so I wouldn't have any surprises removing them:




The shatty thing about this exhaust design is that the passenger side muffler is attached to the resonator, but the driver side has a separation clamp. Just makes things very cumbersome to man-handle by yourself. Here's the cat-back fully removed:







Stock resonator raped of it's inlet and outlet pipes:




I cut two pieces of the stainless 2.75" piping...each 17.25" long and TIG'd them in:







The car has just a hair more growl to it. On a scale of 1 to 10...1 being stock and 10 being open headers...it's probably a 1.5 or 2. Very subtle change, but a good change.

Next up, custom long-tube headers!

str8ridin

Nice job! Thanks for sharing the pics.

shardul

iTrader: (1)

nice work, but i dont think it is a DIY since most members out here dont have access to a welding machine.

AZIPOD

Wow, nice work. I'm surprised that you didn't experience much change. Does it make the exhaust sound more raspy though?

kjlindgr

I agree that this is probably not a DIY for most people. It was more of an example in cost savings for those that would need to pay for someone to install a $200 kit versus the same thing you can get for $60.

kjlindgr

I was surprised it didn't change the tone much either...but the resonator design is pretty straight-through so I guess it makes sense.

Nope, not raspy at all. Still very mellow....but I do have both sets of cats and the mufflers fully in tact.

Herstal57

Ditto on the nice job.

Jen_Kenne

Peter Egan would have approved of your welds. Nice work!

What of the rear cats, as well as the headers? Custom - as in you'll build them? Smart, considering that the various vendors sell them for thousands and make them out of expensium.

More photos on the project!

Did I say nice work? Nice work.

Estate55

That is a nice weld. Did you get your extra pipe locally or order it from somewhere online?

Timeless

I would be interested also in this info. I would have to take it to a muffler shop and tell them to just do it...but would be nice to have the materials to hand them.

kjlindgr

Thanks for the feedback guys. I've been building custom turbo/intake manifolds and exhaust/intercooler systems for a few years now. Nothing on a mass-produced full production scale, just one-off's for custom applications. All the cars I've worked on in the past are full-out drag cars so this Merc is going to confuse me on more than on occasion I'm sure. Drive-by-wire wut?

Anyway, for long tube headers, they'd be fully custom built. There is something to be said for the bolt-on simplicity and convenience you get from a purchased final product though. Don't want you guys to think I'm baggin' on the vendors here at all.

I ordered the piping for this application since I don't do much in 2.75" and we don't have much locally. For regular old 304 stainless straight and mandrel exhaust bends (not for headers), I typically order from www.verociousmotorsports.com. They have a good selection, prices, and shipping quotes. I also like that you can order smaller chunks of pipe for applications such as this and aren't forced to order 12' sticks or dumb quantities like that. I ordered the 4' stick and had a wee over a foot left. If you trust your exhaust guy, you'd be able to get away with ordering a 3' section of piping.

prodigymb

nice welds !!!

TopEndS62

how does it fee? low-end torque loss?

kjlindgr

No torque loss that I can tell from my butt dyno. The stock resonator is straight-through as well so there's really no added restriction or back pressure with the stocker that I could see.

Nait Sirhc

I wonder what the sound difference would be if you went with an X-pipe instead of straight pipes.

Timeless

Thanks for the info! Think I will go order a 4' section.

Timeless

Ok, got the res delete done and would agree with everyone else that the change is very subtle but noticeable. Just a slight elevation of sound which is fine by me.

Again thanks to KJ for the heads up.

Also, none of the muffler shops around me seem to do tig welding, but the welds they did were pretty good.

e55,,

Timeless what does it sound like on the motorway in the cabin, Any drone?

Timeless

Nothing...just like it was. I am pretty sure the mufflers would have to be changed or removed for drone.