I'm very pleased with the exhaust overall and personally love the sound it makes (get complimented on it all the time) BUT I have a 2 year old and a newborn and their rooms are right over the garage. If I start it they are awake and to be considerate of my wife I've taken to pushing it out every morning she's still sleeping. I also spend several days on the road in it for work. Usually it's pretty quiet, but in the mountains where it's under loads for a long time it can drone. I guess I can sacrifice a couple horsepower to have things a little quiter, but hate to spend money to do it!

Anyway, if anyone would like to trade I would be interested in a Borla Street or Milltek since those are supposed to be pretty quiet. I don't want to go stock, (don't know about the JCW system) but would sell it if I can't work a trade. It's in good shape with low miles and rattle free so I would want $500 for it, but feel free to offer less, you never know.

I'm in Colorado so it would be great to sell/trade to someone here.

 

Chuck, we have 2 MCS's my wifes has a stock exhaust and mine has a milltek. Although the Milltek is quieter than your Maganflow, it isn't really that much. Especially at idle. They both have that low rumble. And, even my wifes car, with the stock boxes, isn't that much better at idle. When she leaves or comes home, I know it. And we have a very well built and insulated house.

Bottom line is, I'm not sure the other exhaust would help that much on the home front. Before you go give up your sweet Magnaflow, consider barrowing another Mini with a quieter exhaust and test it out. It may not be enough of an improvement to go thru the hassle of swapping exhausts and parting with the extra ponies

just my $.02

ripley.

 

If you don't like the drone and it is a little too loud, Magnaflow recomends adding another small resonator just before the split in the back.

Bill

 

How is the Milltek on the hwy?


Good idea on the 2nd resonator! I'll check with a muffler shop on Monday!

 

Chuck, the Milltek is nice on the highway. You definately hear it under load, but it doesn't have the Magnaflow drone. The resonator as suggested by CooperSS sounds like an interesting idea. Keep us posted on what do.

ripley

 

I wanted to report what I had done. I actually happened accross a Mini owner yesterday on accident that had a Borla Street and was intereted in trading -after- I tried the extra resonator if I didn't like it. The Borla was really nice and quiet, and I was happy to have a fall back. However I'm pretty happy with the result and will stay with the Magnaflow.

I stopped by a local shop and looked at what they had. I needed to keep the resonator pretty small so that it would fit up in the area the exhaust is run. That left me with the 4" body resonator which meant that the biggest I could go was 12" long and a 2" in/out. They flared it to 2-1/4" and it fit inside the exhisting pipe. It's a free flow design so I wasn't sure it would be enough, but it quieted down nicely without loosing a good sound when wrapped up. It took out much of the highs and it seems a little deeper. I've lost most the drone on the highway and the idle is nice and quiet.

As a note, a 2-1/2" in/out would be better and you could fit a 18" long body in there pretty easy. All the ones at the shop like that had a 6" dia. body though which I don't think would have fit up in there and would have hung pretty low.

I'll post this on the exhaust thread under driveline performance and try and get some video clips I took up there.

 

Congrats! Sounds like you ended up with the best of both worlds!!

Perhaps I'll get a chance to check out the handy work. I'm in New Mexico. I'll likely go on the Border run this fall so if you go, we can meet.

ripley.

 

Magnaflow has a aluminized steel muffler. 4 inch round - 2.5 inch in and out
both 18 inches and 22 inches long. They have the same in 2.25" in/out

The smaller 2 inch in/out diameter probably reduced sound level;
more restriction and more room for absorption material.