Is it to much, I love it loud but a tad concerned. Please come on in if you have any thoughts on this.

Dave

 

I have the fabspeed muffler bypass pipes. I ran them for about 2 weeks but it was a little too much, I found that there is a terrible drone, especially on the highway. The only comments that I got on them were negative. I think they do have a place but that place is the track. Right now I run fabspeed maxflo mufflers and cold air intake headers and cats are stock. I like the sound but I do plan on doing headers and cats. As far as the bypass pipes being too much I think for most people they are. But if you like it loud their hard to beat. I was unsure how I would feel about them but decided since they were inexpensive I would give them a try. One thing I can say is the weight difference was noticeable not having mufflers. Hope this helps.

 

I think you'll find muffler bypass pipes plus AWE cats WAY over the top.

I tried a combination of AWE cat sections (these DO add noticeable power) with the standard cans which was OK but a bit raspy. I then swapped the cans for Tubis and had to get my independent to take the AWE cats off within 2 minutes of firing the car up. I didn't even dare drive it on the road. The volume was ENORMOUS and sounded like a tractor with a hole in the can. Not good! With bypass pipes it would be even louder.

The truth is that the standard cats do at least as much of the silencing as the mufflers on these cars. If you change them for high-flow, it's approx. the equivalent to changing to LOUD sports mufflers. If you are going to use high-flow cats you MUST use mufflers designed to work with them. That's why e.g. AWE cans are no louder than standard with the stock cats but wake up and sound superb with 200-cell. It's also why Tubis sound amazing with the standard cats - they're designed to work with them - but sound appalling with 200 cell.

As an aside, my independent also had some used Fabspeed headers lying around which he installed with the AWE cats and standard cans. These didn't give any noticeable increase in power but accentuated the raspy sound of the system at high rpm - a change (for the worse) in the quality of sound but not the volume.

So I now have standard headers, standard cats and Tubis. Car sounds amazing but goes like standard. As soon as funds allow, I will be getting the AWE headers and cans to match the cats that are currently in the corner of the workshop. Knowing the performance increase available, I can't wait.

Ian.

PS. If the AWE cats can give a noticeable performance increase with the standard motor, they should give even more with X-51 as the standard cats will be having even more of a problem flowing the extra gas. Anyone tried that combination?

PPS. To get all the power from the AWEs you must reset your DME. You'll be quite pleased (to say the least)!

 

Hey Ian thanks for the reply...I just got a post on 6speed from someone who has my setup but with the muffler bypass and he said it is very loud but sounds darn good. I will try it as I bought the fabpseed muffler bypss used for a good price and see how it goes. I am more worried about the police as we have noise pollution regs now here in California.

As far as resetting the DME it will do that on it's own, although resetting it is faster as you won't have to burn through several tanks of gas by the times it adjusts.

Did you ever finish your X51 project??

Dave