Hello All,

I have recently found that not one, but both of my mufflers have rust holes in the top of them, causing this vehicle to sound like a riced-out track car. There may potentially be other exhaust leaks at the manifold but until I can somehow drop the front subframe, I have no way of verifying that. The driver's side muffler (not resonator) has about a 12" rust crack longitudinally, blown out in the center (hold width roughly 3-4in). It was venting exhaust gases upward and actually rusted out my flooring because of this. The passenger's side had a much smaller rust hole but still to the point that it was starting to rust my flooring.

Needless to say, I need new mufflers. I was thinking of trying to repair these but I honestly have 0 clue how I'd do it given the damage. Passenger's side may be repairable but given the current rust, I'd like to not just let it keep rusting and make a different hole sometime later after I've forgotten about it.

Now, for the challenge. I DO NOT want any sound coming out of this exhaust. Obviously that's not possible, but I never actually got to hear this car with non-rusted mufflers and I believe I'd quite enjoy it. I drive 100 miles a day for work as of current and my RPMs sit right around 2k, which is where the drone is. I want QUIET.

Given these cars were designed for this, one would think the best idea is to go for an OEM replacement, and that's true, but OEM muffler replacements are astronomically expensive. It's 700 bucks for an OEM muffler replacement for an '03 like mine, and 300 for an aftermarket one that I feel will end with the same fate. I'd like to go with something different. Aftermarket mufflers are much more affordable than this (even the quiet ones), and from what I can gather, the bigger the muffler, the better job it does at muffling.

Any suggestions?

 

You don’t have a location but I assume it’s back east somewhere. Find a lower mile LS at a dismantler possibly. I have mine just sitting in the garage rafters, but I’m in California and shipping would probably be prohibitive.

 

I'm in a western state actually, which makes owning an LS430 difficult as LS430s don't exist in my state and everything gets rusty. I bought the only one I could find in the state when I got mine last November, and it was from a neighboring state. I think shipping wouldn't be too terrible but I'm still about a thousand miles away from California. I'd be willing to pay a reasonable price for them to take them off your hands, long as they're not rotted of course.

There is a walker quietflow stainless steel exhaust I'm quite drawn to as stainless does way better here than aluminized steel, but I'd much much rather go oem if I can make it work. Just easier that way.

PirateShip is something I've heard people use before, maybe that'd be a cost effective option?