stock muffler with resonator mesh covered?

Robwcormack · April 24, 2019

Anyone tried just covering the mesh "resonators" on the stock exhaust with the factory muffler? kind of curious how much of a difference that would make.

I want the new corsa system BAD, but am having a really hard time justifying spending that much on exhaust

OnTheReel · April 24, 2019

The 6.2 has normal style glass pack shaped resonators. At least mine did. Thought only the 5.3 has the mesh...

Limelight · April 25, 2019

4 hours ago, Robwcormack said:

Anyone tried just covering the mesh "resonators" on the stock exhaust with the factory muffler? kind of curious how much of a difference that would make.

I want the new corsa system BAD, but am having a really hard time justifying spending that much on exhaust

I've been wanting someone to do this....

I already have a Magnaflow installed and have been experimenting with covering the resonators. The difference is surprising! With them all open the sound is actually quieter than stock except during heave throttle. Idle is very very quiet. With them all covered it's much louder, more like I expected, but I experienced some drone when AFM took the engine to 4 cyl or less. Currently I have just the 2 rear mesh holes covered (there are 6 total) and I can hear the exhaust, no drone, but I think I want it a little louder. Still experimenting with it. I'm driving a few days every time I change things around.

I've found the easiest thing to do is to cover the holes with muffler tape. It's an aluminum high heat tape with fiberglass reinforcement to make it stronger. It peels right off when you want it to and if there is adhesive left on the mesh a quick pass with a razorblade clears that up. The roll I got fits right over the mesh hole, so you can't tell it's there (you can see the exhaust from the wheelwells). Nice and clean.

asalinasz39 · May 3, 2019

Hey this sounds like a good idea! I have the 5.3 and stock exhaust. It sounds pretty nice actually to me but sometimes I do crave just a little more like in the old 5.3 with the last resonator removed.

Edited May 3, 2019 by asalinasz39

saber · May 17, 2019

Just covered the back 2 (figured the lowest frequency) very little difference.

saber · May 18, 2019

22 hours ago, saber said:

Just covered the back 2 (figured the lowest frequency) very little difference.

Covered the all six now slightly louder than stock - no drone yet.

BlackLS · May 18, 2019

I covered all 6 of my resonators with aluminum tape.

It is slightly louder than stock at idle and I can actually hear the exhaust while driving.

ShamrockShooter · May 20, 2019

Covered the all six now slightly louder than stock - no drone yet.

What did you use under the clamps?

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saber · May 20, 2019

14 hours ago, ShamrockShooter said:

What did you use under the clamps?

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20 gauge AL sheet from Home Depot, tin snips, SS tie wraps- 15min job

ShamrockShooter · May 20, 2019

20 gauge AL sheet from Home Depot, tin snips, SS tie wraps- 15min job

Think it was worth it after you were done? I see you are running duratacs. On my 16 my duratacs would drown out the sound of the borla system. When I put summer street tires on the exhaust seemed much louder as I could hear the exhaust not the tire hum.

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saber · May 24, 2019

On 5/20/2019 at 12:09 PM, ShamrockShooter said:

Think it was worth it after you were done? I see you are running duratacs. On my 16 my duratacs would drown out the sound of the borla system. When I put summer street tires on the exhaust seemed much louder as I could hear the exhaust not the tire hum.

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Nope!!!

Fire_Hooligan · July 27, 2020

@saber

Are you saying that by placing the 20 Gauge Aluminum with Stainless Steel tie wraps that it wasn't worth it? I was thinking of doing this to my truck rather than going the whole route of placing a Super 44 Flowmaster in and cutting out the rest..... or were you just stating that the durtracs weren't a factor in sound displacement compared to the exhaust?

Fire_Hooligan · July 27, 2020

On 4/24/2019 at 8:28 PM, Limelight said:

I've been wanting someone to do this....

I already have a Magnaflow installed and have been experimenting with covering the resonators. The difference is surprising! With them all open the sound is actually quieter than stock except during heave throttle. Idle is very very quiet. With them all covered it's much louder, more like I expected, but I experienced some drone when AFM took the engine to 4 cyl or less. Currently I have just the 2 rear mesh holes covered (there are 6 total) and I can hear the exhaust, no drone, but I think I want it a little louder. Still experimenting with it. I'm driving a few days every time I change things around.

I've found the easiest thing to do is to cover the holes with muffler tape. It's an aluminum high heat tape with fiberglass reinforcement to make it stronger. It peels right off when you want it to and if there is adhesive left on the mesh a quick pass with a razorblade clears that up. The roll I got fits right over the mesh hole, so you can't tell it's there (you can see the exhaust from the wheelwells). Nice and clean.

@Limelight what brand of tape did you use? Does it hold up for very long? I have heard that it is only a temp solution that should be used.... with you being out of MD did you use it in winter conditions?