Loudest exhaust setup with no/little drone
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 7
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From: canada
Loudest exhaust setup with no/little drone
Hi,
I own an IS350 2008 and a HKS axle back. I think it's not loud enough in my taste. I've watched many videos on this forum. Some suggest an invidia midpipe for sound enhancement and some suggest deleting 2nd cats& muffle & resonator. Since I already have an HKS, wouldn't deleting these kill the point of buying an aftermarket exhaust system? isn't the most expensive part of HKS is the muffler ? I am really not a car guy.
Now the drone inside cabin is pretty bad when I am reving the car 1.5~3k beyond that, the car has little or no sound enhancement compared to stock
My goal is to have to loudest sound and little/no drone. Any advice will appreciated
I still have the stock exhaust at home, I will consider putting it back on and delete muffler&resonator&2nd cats. Or, get a straight pipe if the price is right.
Thanks
I own an IS350 2008 and a HKS axle back. I think it's not loud enough in my taste. I've watched many videos on this forum. Some suggest an invidia midpipe for sound enhancement and some suggest deleting 2nd cats& muffle & resonator. Since I already have an HKS, wouldn't deleting these kill the point of buying an aftermarket exhaust system? isn't the most expensive part of HKS is the muffler ? I am really not a car guy.
Now the drone inside cabin is pretty bad when I am reving the car 1.5~3k beyond that, the car has little or no sound enhancement compared to stock
My goal is to have to loudest sound and little/no drone. Any advice will appreciated
I still have the stock exhaust at home, I will consider putting it back on and delete muffler&resonator&2nd cats. Or, get a straight pipe if the price is right.
Thanks
I thought more noise = more drone? 
Just to clarify a few things:
Deleting secondary cats/resonator is different than your axle back exhaust.
Axleback = muffler + Y pipes
Catback = axleback + midpipes (which may or may not include secondary cats).
I may be wrong with a few technical terms, but you should get the main idea.
In my experience, a resonator delete sounds bad and produces a lot of rasp. I have the HKS Hi Power + Invidia midpipe combo and its the loudest "out of the box" setup and has zero drone
Just to clarify a few things:
Deleting secondary cats/resonator is different than your axle back exhaust.
Axleback = muffler + Y pipes
Catback = axleback + midpipes (which may or may not include secondary cats).
I may be wrong with a few technical terms, but you should get the main idea.
In my experience, a resonator delete sounds bad and produces a lot of rasp. I have the HKS Hi Power + Invidia midpipe combo and its the loudest "out of the box" setup and has zero drone
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
From: canada
I just checked a couple videos on youtube. Removing resonator with a straight pipe is much lounder than hks+invidia. Another question is would removing muffler&2nd cats&resonator + hks be a good option? Would this ruin the point of having an HKS? If so, I dont mind to sell my hks and replace all of them with a straight pipe and leave the primary cats there.
I just checked a couple videos on youtube. Removing resonator with a straight pipe is much lounder than hks+invidia. Another question is would removing muffler&2nd cats&resonator + hks be a good option? Would this ruin the point of having an HKS? If so, I dont mind to sell my hks and replace all of them with a straight pipe and leave the primary cats there.
I've had resonator delete setups and midpipe setups. HKS + Invidia is the loudest non custom setup for our cars. If your looking for louder, you should go with a custome setup with straight pipes.
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
From: canada
"straight pipes" as in no muffler/secondary cats ? Does it mean I have to take off the HKS and have the shop to build 2 custom straight pipes to connect the stock manifold(header) like it is an aftermarket exhaust but it doesn't have any airflow restrictions ? Can you explain a bit more? How does custom pipes (parts w/ labour ) cost normally ?
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"straight pipes" as in no muffler/secondary cats ? Does it mean I have to take off the HKS and have the shop to build 2 custom straight pipes to connect the stock manifold(header) like it is an aftermarket exhaust but it doesn't have any airflow restrictions ? Can you explain a bit more? How does custom pipes (parts w/ labour ) cost normally ?
And that setup will have tons of drone. Like I said before, I believe louder = more drone
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Why would you want it that loud anyways. Your not even going that fast lol. A nice tuned tone is enough for me. IMO. I wouldn't mind getting a F Sport with my Invidia set up thou instead of the Tanabe.
I though that too, but everyones different. Like I said before, I think my setup is quiet and considered adding headers, but it didnt make sense to me
IS350 5zigen aspec exhaust and invidia mid pipe - YouTube Here's a video of my set-up. I used to have the HKS with the Invidia mid pipe but decided to buy back my 5zigen because it's like the only one in the United States that I know of. Anyways I believe that it is louder and has more drone than the HKS + Invidia mid pipe. If you want a loud set-up with little drone, I have 1 suggestions/option for you- You can keep your HKS, buy silencers for it, and install a JoeZ intake pipe. I had the silencers for a while and even with the mid pipe and my afe intake, it was very quiet inside the cabin. Hopefully this has helped you. You'll just have to do a little bit of searching for the exhaust silencers since i can't find the link I had a while back... they should only cost like $50-$60 USD
Dont the silencers alter the sound of the exhaust?
I'm running PPE headers with PPE full exhaust and it is definitely fairly loud and there is a little bit of drone on the freeway, but overall I love it. It sounds mean as all heck at WOT.
Yeah bro it was either keep the hks which is common, or get my 5zigen back. Maybe if you're ever down in SoCal I can show you! As far as the silencers go, I honestly felt that it made the hks just as quiet as my friend's 350 with the tanabe and cat delete. You'll barely hear the exhaust on the freeway. It's funny how such small pieces of metal can make such a big difference as far as cabin drone goes