Took car to Magnaflow dealer to get ideas on exhaust mods. He advised against an x pipe since it's connecting to a single outlet coming off the cat. converter....said it'd be a waste of money.

Here's my question...how open or restrictive are the OEM resonators? Would a quality aftermarket version be better than OEM? I don't want to cut them out and then find that aftermarket version mod isn't worth the money.

Price to install 2 Magnaflow SS 18" mufflers with new polished angle/oval tips is $375 installed. How does that sound?

 

the resonators aren't really restrictive. They're there for sound purposes. Hardly do you gain power from removing it. However, if you do the whole piping from the catalytic converter all the way to the muffler section with an x-pipe, you'll gain power after tuning the car.

Unless you plan to run a single exhaust system, do the x-pipe. It can only help with exhaust gas excavation, resulting in more power and less drone. Not to mention, you'll get a deeper tone.

There are a few people on here who have done their system with an x-pipe and had great results.

 

When you say whole piping from the cat converter are you suggesting using the x-pipe and eliminating the resonators? Also, what will I need to tune the car afterwards? Thanks for your help.

 

I just thought about this some more....how can you install an X pipe when you have only one outlet coming out of your cat. converter? The 2 OEM downpipes converge into my cat. converter, with only 1 outlet that connects to a Y pipe in front of the 2 OEM resonators.

 

Basically you replace the resonators with the x-pipe. After the cat, split the piping into two and those two will go into the x-pipe, and from there on out, you have one pipe going to each muffler.

If you have an SAFCII, you can dyno your car and have it tuned. A member here recently did the exhaust mod and tuned his car with an SAFC and gained plenty of power. Of course that was the 4.0L V8 engine so I dont know how much power you'll gain with the GS300.

Actually come to think of it, you might not benefit much from the use of an x-pipe on the 3.0L engine. Removing the resonator on the 3.0L may result in some drone and raspiness. If I were to have a GS300, I would keep the resonator, but rebuild the piping with 2.5" pipes.