This Saturday I'll be heading to Rohr Autowerks to get my resonatorectomy. I've been going back and forth researching different exhausts and trying to decide between the M7 and the Maganflow. Then I made up my mind.

Right now I have a JCW Exhaust. It's never been aggressive enough for me though. I wanted something with a deeper tone and a little more scream when I hit the Go Pedal. So instead of spending the 800-900 bucks on a full cat-back system, I decided to just take off the resonator and see how I like it.

I've searched the boards numerous times and found the same information each time. A little bit of a "crappy" sound on a cold start but once it's warmed up, it sounds real nice. ie: deeper tone and a little more growl and burble.

What do you guys think? Do you think I'll be getting what I expect?

-Thad

 

can't be bad to try.....

I have a mate who did the same thing, and all i know is, that resonator hasn't been reinstalled....

 

I just heard a JCW car with a JCM header installed (resonator removed) & it's louder than any aftermarket car or motorcycle system that I've run in the past...

 

HI Thadeus13,

I had my resonatorectomy 1st week after getting my JCW...I have loved it since!

Nice tone..gets better with more miles..pops and cracks even better too!

 

I wished I would have done the same thing before installing the Borla Race....but I ended up selling my used JCW exhaust for "almost" what I paid for the Borla......Don't get me wrong, I love the sound of the Borla, but would have prefered to keep the JCW tips.

 

I'm that mate, and I tell ya now it makes the exhaust sound like it should have from the moment it was fitted. Its awesome

 

Every time I see this thread title pop up I keep thinking oh my gosh...that poor person. Can't they treat that with radiation or chemo?

Sry I will go away

 

I'm glad to hear that you all enjoy it more without the resonator.

I do have a quick question though. The resonator was replaced with a straight pipe. How did your shop or you get that pipe in place?

I understand one side is a flange connection with two bolts to the header assembly and the other side would have to be a straight pipe-to-pipe connection.

What's the best way to do this?

 

I just had mine done a couple weeks ago. Sounds and feels better.
My guy cut the pipe a little behind the flange and in front of the res, and expanded the ends of the replacement to fit perfect, then welded it.

 

Thats basically it - you could replace the entire pipe (John Cooper Garages in the UK actually sells the pipe without ressy), but its not worth it when you can just cut and stick a bit of straight through in .

 

Chad over at Detroit Tuned has a few stock exhaust systems lying around that he has for sale ($10). I asked him to cut a 48 inch piece from one of them to replace my center pipe/resonator. I'll be trimming it to fit and installing it tomorrow. For $10 plus shipping, it's a steal, and I can always re-install the resonator if I change my mind or want to sell my car.

 

You can also get it from myminiparts.com

http://myminiparts.com/proddetail.php?prod=MMJCRE&cat=7

 

Partsman, do you happen to have any pictures of what the end result looked like?

What do you mean by "expanded"?

What I'm getting is that you cut close on each side of the resonator so that you had some pipe after the flange and then the gap and then the rest of the exhaust. Then by expanded, do you mean that you had the pipe stretched a little so that it fit over the two ends of each pipe and then welded on?

I just don't want to go into this without an idea of how it should look at the end. I've had an exhaust done on another car and it was done wrong, but i didn't know any better. Needless to say, at the end of the day I was hearing leaks everywhere, so I had to have it done again. I just don't want to go through the same issue this time around.

 

That is it exactly. After you cut out the res, the pipe at the flange is a little smaller(?) than the pipe after the res. Not a whole lot, but enough so that a 2.25" ID pipe didn't fit snug. That's what is nice about having a guy with a pipe machine, he can expand the replacement to fit perfect.

Sorry, no pics.

 

Ok, I'll see what the guys at the shop can come up with. I hope it's something good.

 

If you're going to a shop that has a pipe machine, they should know exactly what to do to get it to fit right.

 

Yeah I as just thinking about that. So I should be good

 

Hi,
The shop I used cut just behind the resonator and removed it with it's flange.

He then made a replacement pipe with new flange, expanded the pipe for a slip fit and clamped it.

This works our well if you ever plan on adding a header as now the replacement pipe has fore and aft adjustment to bolt up to the header.

 

That's not a bad idea either. I was thinking more along the lines of a replacement pipe with a flange. Although, I wouldn't get it clamped, as I have had bad experiences with clamps.

 

So I went Saturday and met with Dan and Rohr Autowerks. Great place, great guy, great job! He was nice enough to have a straight exhaust piece from another MCS exhaust on hand and ready for me. With a quick measurement and some unbolting, the resonator was removed and the old pipe replaced with no welding necessary. The only cutting that needed to be done was for the shortening of the far end of the "new" pipe so it would fit.

The work was excellent as well as the quality.

Now to the exhaust...

A noticeable difference in sound at idle. A little bit of a low tone that could be heard, which is nice . On rev and in gear it has a deep, throaty sound as I have always imagined the JCW exhaust to sound like . On release of the Go Pedal, a lot more burbbling and popping, a little snapping sometimes on a hard release, but it sounds so much better IMO .

All in all I'm very happy with the work done and the result! I give everything 3 thumbs up!

 

just had mine done. all i can say is that is sounds great! it's gotten a deeper in tone and those pops are just outrageous! so much better sounding now! brmmmm brrrrmmmmm haha all JCW owners should get an resonatorectomy!

 

Here Here!

 

at every red light i sat at today after i got it off, i revved the engine. i'm sure everyone around is probably thinking i'm crazy but yeah we are, we are MINI owners after all!

 

I did the same thing!

 

hehe MINI owners are silly. going through my neighborhood, i rode in 2nd and just got on it, let off just to hear the pops. i'm sure some neighbors will hate me now. oh well.