beran earms

I have been following along on the " make an 89 sound better " thread with interest and figured I would ask the same for a MY 86.5 5 speed. I already have an RMB in place but still a little tam for my liking. Still in place are the 928 113 212 01 cats and the 928 111 093 / 094 intermediate silencers With the RMB. What I would like to achieve is the toughest sound and feel without being too obnoxious. Trying to get a v-8 exotic rumble. I plan on installing the X pipe but would like to hear any suggestions and combinations using or eliminating the parts I have. I was listening to a new mustang and it was shrill and crackly and basically sounded like crap, the pipes did look small diameter though.I know this is not a mustang but this sound is what I would like to avoid. As a side note I am also planning chips and all that goes along if that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance JD

bureau13

If you replace your cats with an x-pipe, it will make a significant difference...at least it did on mine (I have a Borla muffer instead of an RMB, but no pre-silencers and I also have headers, although I don't know if that matters much). This mod will also give you more power and allow you to make the most of the Porken chips if that's what you're planning. They (the chips) didn't impact the sound directly, other than to make me want to press the loud pedal more frequently.

beran earms

Jeff, did you maintain the large "intermediate silencers" in your system or did you substitute them for something else? And yes Porkenchips is the plan.

Kevin in Atlanta

My favorite combination is stock exhaust manifolds, X Pipe, hi-flow cats, GT resonators and GT muffler. Tried with RMB but that rattled the windows and the neighbors.

SwayBar

Dat's a winning combo!

Is a GT rear muffler different sounding than an S4 rear muffler?

merchauser

+1

IcemanG17

The 87 s4 5 speed I have now is full x pipe (no cats) with the big s4 middle mufflers plus rmb.....it’s quite nice...loud at high load-rpm but fine on freeway

Jason89s4

I'd suggest you replace the cats with the X-pipe and see how you like it. That is my '89 setup (stock except X-pipe replacing cats, and a RMD). I love the sound. It has a nice low tone at idle, won't wake the neighbors pulling out of the driveway, but it will when you get on it. (Also, headers will make it louder.) You do want to make sure you have at least the factory sound-deadening parts in place in the hatch area, or it can get a bit loud inside the car. (While I was in the middle of some work in the hatch area, I drove around for a while without the carpet, the foam cover that goes over the spare well, and no tool tray in place or the foam pieces, and it was too much inside.)
Jason

The Forgotten On

I basically have the GT setup in my 89. Small resonators and a twin tip rear muffler. I think it sounds great. Plenty loud, but refined like a Porsche should be.

That is my opinion of course. I had a RMB on my car but never really loved the sound outside of WOT at 5K+ rpms. The twin tip sounds different than the normal single tip S4 muffler to me as well.

But everyone has their own preferred sound as we have seen. I like having cats as well because I cannot stand a car that stinks, plus I think they smooth out the exhaust not and make it not so raspy.

SwayBar

Anyone have a GT muffler for sale?

SwayBar

I also second the recommendation to replace the cats with an X. The X also provides more power.

NickTucker

I am just about to replace my cats with an H pipe I got from Kevin a year or so ago. Perhaps I will do that today.
That will give me H pipe --> Small intermediate --> rear muffler. My RMB wasted away and I need a new one.

captainOCD

Pretty sure I don't have much left in the way of cats (I found chunks of them in the rear muffler) on my 86.5. That with the rear muffles sounds pretty good if you ask me, and still not too loud when just cruising down the highway.

928 GT R

Make sure the cats are empty of broken up cells. Taking them off and running a pipe through them is a good way to break up any remaining cells and getting them completely gutted. Otherwise you may be losing performance by having a bunch of broken chunks of the catalyst impeding flow.

bureau13

They were long gone by the time I got the car. I think the only stock bit at that point was the cats, which I've since replaced, so I just have two custom (I guess) pipes running from the x-pipe back to the Borla. No intermediate silencers at all.