V8Pathy wrote:hmmm..magnaflow on a V8 pathy should sound pretty good.

Yup, it will surely sound awesome. This thread is making me go to my local muffler shop and replace mine I wish I could hear one first before I replace mine.

mtbpath wrote:Overall I am very pleased. Its only been 2 days.
well, my observations about the Magnaflow exhaust system.
the muffler is 2 inlet and 1 outlet.
as you can see from the pictures, the 2 piping into the 2 outlet is a lot better compared to stock. No restrictions to flow.
muffler is 22" long. 2.25 dual inlet/2.5 outout. 5x11 oval. satin stainless universal muffler.
I had a chrome tip installed. its a 3" tip. The only stock pipe I left on is the piece before the tip. Either the muffler guys are too lazy or its really difficult to make one.
between 1500-2500 rpm it has a nice low deep sound. sounds like it has a V8.
at freeway speed, its not noticable at all. cruising at 65-80 mph, there is no humming inside or annoying sound. you can actually carry on a conversation without the muffler drowning you out. of course you still hear the muffler as you rev up but not to the point that its too loud.
with the stock pipe you got a lot of resticted flow and when you floored it you hear a lot of engine sound. but with the new piping, when you gun it you hear it in the back not up front.
more comments to follow later this week...

Your muffler looks like the POLISHED ss and not the SATIN ss in the picture.

mtb,

Anything to report after having your exhaust on for a month or so? What performance/ economy gains have you noticed? Any tests or recorded results?

Thanks.

mtbpath wrote:Overall I am very pleased. Its only been 2 days.
well, my observations about the Magnaflow exhaust system.
the muffler is 2 inlet and 1 outlet.
as you can see from the pictures, the 2 piping into the 2 outlet is a lot better compared to stock. No restrictions to flow.
muffler is 22" long. 2.25 dual inlet/2.5 outout. 5x11 oval. satin stainless universal muffler.
I had a chrome tip installed. its a 3" tip. The only stock pipe I left on is the piece before the tip. Either the muffler guys are too lazy or its really difficult to make one.
between 1500-2500 rpm it has a nice low deep sound. sounds like it has a V8.
at freeway speed, its not noticable at all. cruising at 65-80 mph, there is no humming inside or annoying sound. you can actually carry on a conversation without the muffler drowning you out. of course you still hear the muffler as you rev up but not to the point that its too loud.
with the stock pipe you got a lot of resticted flow and when you floored it you hear a lot of engine sound. but with the new piping, when you gun it you hear it in the back not up front.
more comments to follow later this week...

I have a Borla set up on my Pathy, Cat back with headers, dual out. I did the cat back first and noticed the same thing as far as engine noise went. Diminished engine noise, more or less relocating the engine growl to the back end of the truck. There was a slight improvement in MPG. When I unplugged the battery it was getting about 13.1 MPG. (I take my Pathy offroad a bit and I'm not a granny driver by any account.) After the Cat back it improved to 13.9 within it's first 300 miles. Keep in mind that was with the wife driving to and from work and I hadn't really taken the truck offroad during that time. It maxed out at about 14. After I did the headers I've been around 14.9 to 15.1 MPG regularly. Take what you will from that, it's not a bad investment.

Horsepower tests have concluded that my Pathy improved by 14.5 hp coming in just shy of 285 horses. With the K&N intake she's pushing 300 hp. That was running just conventional oil too. I felt that the trucks weakness was the low end when I first got it. Now it's noticably better. After I got everything I had the honor of being "called out" by a Dodge Ram Hemi on the way home right after I had my headers done. Didn't take much for me to acknowlede the challenge. Needless to say, he got a pretty good look at my dual out set up for as long as he could actually see me that was.

To say that the truck sounds like a V-8 would be an insult. It has it's own unique growl that's for sure, but it doesn't sound anything like a V-8 in my opinion. If you want an idea of how your Pathy would sound with a Borla system on it you can visit this website:

http://www.borla.com/

Keep in mind it does sound better in person, but it's close.


Oh, one more thing. I'd advise against Spintech anything. It's loud and can get annoying. It's also been known to drop your gas mileage quite a bit. I had several friends go from Spintech, because they wanted the noise and it was cheaper, to Flowmasters or Borla not too long after because of the noise considerations and drop in gas mileage. Ultimately, your rig your call.

mtbpath-

I just discovered this forum this weekend and spent a couple of good hours pouring through old posts. Lots of great stuff.

Your exhaust setup looks like it was executed well and I am considering copying it very soon. I did want to see if you could provide an update briefly mentioning your experience with sound, power, mpg, whatever, etc.

Any feedback will be appreciated, even if you don't have details.

Thanks

Well, I had the Magnaflow dual in single out installed yesterday, pretty much the same as mtbpath and I must say I don't care for it.

When accelerating, there is loud sound at 1750 rpm inside the cabin. It seems more sound from the muffler itself than the exhaust pipe. It is an annoying drone. Off the accelerator-quiet, on the accelerator-loud, on/off/on/off, etc. Almost at that point like there is no muffler.

Nice hum at idle, nice growl (working well with the cold air intake) on significant acceleration.

The problem is that drone comes at a very common acceleration/cruising around town point. Once again, I am OK with some deep sound, especially coming out the end but not so much in the cabin from the muffler.

Magnaflow says to give it 800-1000 miles to break in. We will see but I can't imagine it changing enough.

Now I am investigating other options including other mufflers or possible adding a resonator.

bbermann,

Thanks for the info on your own Magnaflow install. Please keep us updated on the sound issues.

Post some pics if you can. Even though you said its about the same as mtb's, I would like to see it.

I was also impressed with mtb's exhaust system and am seriously concidering doing about the same thing later this spring.

I've been consulting with some people in the exhaust industry and it seems resonance is my issue. I have an appointment to put the stock resonator back March 10th. The stock resonator is a straight flow through design with no restrictions.

I hope to post good news shortly thereafter.

Kinda amusing, because what Spintech's are really good at is taking out the flow frequency resonance and leaving the higher frequency stuff alone .

I found with purely my 2-into-1 Spintech and nothing else it was simply too loud, so I also added the tail resonator back on and now it's perfect.

Regardless of what muffler used, I think a lot of people would end up very happy to simply replace that big middle can with something freeflowing and do away with that damnable stock Y-pipe.

I found with purely my 2-into-1 Spintech and nothing else it was simply too loud, so I also added the tail resonator back on and now it's perfect.

Carl,
When did you change your exhaust sytem? Did I miss that? Last I read was that you had the Gibson cat back sytem and were disappointed with it.

Yeah, I ripped off the Gibson and had a local exhaust shop rebuild the pipes from the Cats back to a 2-1 Spintech and then attached the 2.5" Gibson tail pipe.

That didn't work as well as I had hoped, definitely less bassy, but still too loud over all, plus some rubbing from the pipe that squeezes through between the body and rear subframe.

So then I pulled off the 2.5" Gibson tail pipe and replaced it with the OEM unit, which has the small resonator and a flattened section to go over the subframe, but is smaller at 2.25".

Now the sound is perfect, no rubbing, I'm a happy man. Haven't had time to Dyno it yet, will at some point here...

bbermann wrote:Well, I had the Magnaflow dual in single out installed yesterday, pretty much the same as mtbpath and I must say I don't care for it.

When accelerating, there is loud sound at 1750 rpm inside the cabin. It seems more sound from the muffler itself than the exhaust pipe. It is an annoying drone. Off the accelerator-quiet, on the accelerator-loud, on/off/on/off, etc. Almost at that point like there is no muffler.

Nice hum at idle, nice growl (working well with the cold air intake) on significant acceleration.

The problem is that drone comes at a very common acceleration/cruising around town point. Once again, I am OK with some deep sound, especially coming out the end but not so much in the cabin from the muffler.

Magnaflow says to give it 800-1000 miles to break in. We will see but I can't imagine it changing enough.

Now I am investigating other options including other mufflers or possible adding a resonator.

sorry your setup is not what you expected.
what other mufflers did you have in mind to replace the Magna?
when it comes to sound and how loud a muffler can be it basically comes down to the person. I don't mind my setup but it can be loud to others.
If anyone is planning to do an exhaust setup and would like to hear my setup in person if your in LA/OC, I don't mind setting up something.
I to wish I was able to hear in person what an aftermarket exhaust would loud. but like most of us we have to take that small risk and hope for the best.
on our vehicles, once you open up those piping to something better and start moving more air flow thru, your gonna get more 'loudness' as a result.
keep us informed with what your gonna do next.

First, to mtbpath, I want to thank you for giving us a great thread to create a better exhaust system than OEM. I mean that sincerely.

So, I had the OEM resonator (rear muffler) put back on yesterday while keeping the Magnaflow up front. Big difference. This took care of 70% of the resonance I was hearing. While I was not looking to bling, I did find a resonator tip and it seems to have helped a bit more so it will stay also.

My Pathfinder seems happy with this result. It sounds nice and feels like it moves a little smoother and easier. I believe the exhaust has complimented the CAI significantly.

Any trick to posting pics? This is new to me.

Any trick to posting pics? This is new to me.

There are probably many ways to do this. You need to have an online photo hosting account. I use Photobucket.com .. It is free.

Get your pics in your computer first.
Create an account on photobucket.
Download the pics from your computer to photobucket.
Once you have the image on your photobucket account, copy the link/ code from under the picture. There are four to choose from... use the "IMG code" to post the pic to a message board, such as this one.
Past it to your topic reply on Nissanpath.

I hope that helps. Cant wait to see your pics... My Pfinder is next for exhaust!

Here are bbermann's photos...