Another exhaust thread??? Pre 2015 R/T's

I know this subject has been beat to death but for guys like me (and ladies too, since the original owner of my car was a female. Her name was Alissa and I have named the car after her. Dont tell my wife lol) finding threads on exhaust are getting harder to find on the pre 2015 cars.

I bought my 2011 R/T 6M in July 2021. It was bone stock and apparently well cared for. Aside from some issues not unusual to a 10 year old car it was really just too quiet. I began reading everything I could and watching any video or sound clip about exhaust systems that I could find. For the older cars some exhaust systems are discontinued or just getting harder to find. I did not want excessively loud and most importantly did not want drone. I also did not want to spend $1800 for an exhaust system. I mean really. Its some bent tubing and a few mufflers and resonators and clamps. So i finally decided on Solo exhaust. Fit and finish was beautiful. It had a great sound, although a little louder than I had hoped for, but reasonably quiet enough during normal driving. The problem was it had terrible drone from 1700-2200 rpm. It was advertised as no drone and most reviews reported no drone. I had ordered the manual trans version, since that is what I have. Looking back I could have ordered the auto trans version, and maybe should have, but I ordered the one spec'd for my car. The manual trans version does not come with the J pipes to prevent drone. After fighting with American Muscle they finally took it back as defective and refunded my money. (After that fiasco and their BS I will NOT buy anything from American Muscle or their sister company Extreme Terrain. I have a Jeep Wrangler too) So I began searching again and came across Legato exhaust. Reviews were positive, with most reporting no drone, and there are a couple well done videos on their website. I questioned the volume of the exhaust, as one of the videos sounded a bit loud for my taste and a couple reviews from older guys like me stated the same. I went ahead and ordered their exhaust for $485. I figured if it was louder than I wanted I could just find quieter mufflers. I got an email and a phone call indicating they would not have any for 2-3 months. I was tempted to just wait, but I am impatient at times, and was still a bit unsure about the volume and potential for drone. They refunded my money quickly. Having come across some threads and videos about removing the mid mufflers altogether or replacing them with smaller resonators I liked the sound and the slightly increased volume without the drone. I was not crazy about the tone from the mid muffler delete but did like the tone from the smaller resonators in place of the mid mufflers. Initially I was against hacking into the stock exhaust, as I wanted to keep it in case I decided to sell the car at some point. I ordered a pair of Aero TR resonators, 2 1/2" ID and 13 1/2" long. They made a slightly shorter and a slightly longer one as well. I chose the middle one. I had them installed in place of the mid mufflers today. The exhaust is still quiet inside the car at idle and normal driving, with a slightly deeper tone, but when you hammer down it comes alive and sounds great. Still not too loud but definitely has some bark and a good tone. Outside the car the idle is deeper, and ever so slightly louder and it is somewhat louder when revving the engine. No drone at all in any gear or any rpm. The 2 Aero resonators cost me $110 and the exhaust shop charged me $230 for the install but they did a nice job. I may have been happier with the 10 1/2" Aero resonators which I think were 7 dB louder but erred on the side of caution. Overall I am happy with the result. It is still probably quieter than a 2015 and up R/T, definitely quieter than Scat Packs and Hellcats.

I know this was quite long winded. If you want loud this mod is not for you. But if you want your pre 2015 R/T or SRT to sound a little better this may be something to consider.

No I dont have a sound clip or video and dont plan to make one. The poor sound quality from a cell phone video and the fact that I dont have a "before" to compare the "after" to would not be worth the effort.


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This exhaust mod has been on the car for about 6 months now. I dont drive it a lot, especially now with gas as expensive as it is. My daily commute is 77 miles each way... But I have put a thousand or so miles on it with the aero resonators and it is now a good bit deeper in tone and slightly louder than when they were new. Still quiet inside the car but you can hear it pretty much all the time when driving. At least when I drive now I know there's a Hemi under the hood!

 

Loose the Resonators.

I went with Blastin-Bob's kit on my 2010 SRT. Easy to install.
Thought they were to quiet, until I left work with the Windows Down

https://www.blastinbob.com/08_14_Dodge_Challenger_SRT8_resonated_kit_p/gp300ce.htm

 

I used a company called MBRP out of Canada'A. Its a 3" mandrel-bent sys, cat-back w/resonators, they claim it's the street version. The tips are really nice, carbon-fiber wrapped, in fact the whole kit fit nicely too. Everything is included, but the clamps they sent were not all that and after breaking a couple I had the whole thing welded up. Also I did not like the look, all those clamps.
It may have changed the hp or gm who knows. I bought my car used and even though it was like new and had 60k and the guy had built his own exhaust sys with glass packs and an home made H pipe. Sounded bad and rattled. It's gone to exhaust heaven now.
The kit was less than a grand, hell if you buy separately the tips are 180 each, so I think I did ok. Problem, it's too loud, Im in NO-CAL and my hood is full of porsches and such, they're not super fond of the noisy muscle car.
Im looking for bigger mufflers or another set o resonators to quite the whole thing but yes, it looks Bitching.... Funny, the other nite Im driving not far from the house when this older cat in a newer Vett pulls along side and tells me my car sounds great, Its a manual and yeah it sounds pretty good.. But, the cops are gonna come knocking sooner r later so......... Here's the pics pre weld, sorry bout the size

 

IT sure looks nice and neat though.

 

For my own use, I am breaking up the run-on paragraph.

I know this subject has been beat to death but for guys like me (and ladies too, since the original owner of my car was a female. Her name was Alissa and I have named the car after her. Dont tell my wife lol) finding threads on exhaust are getting harder to find on the pre 2015 cars.

I bought my 2011 R/T 6M in July 2021. It was bone stock and apparently well cared for. Aside from some issues not unusual to a 10 year old car it was really just too quiet. I began reading everything I could and watching any video or sound clip about exhaust systems that I could find.

For the older cars some exhaust systems are discontinued or just getting harder to find. I did not want excessively loud and most importantly did not want drone. I also did not want to spend $1800 for an exhaust system.

I mean really. Its some bent tubing and a few mufflers and resonators and clamps. So i finally decided on Solo exhaust. Fit and finish was beautiful. It had a great sound, although a little louder than I had hoped for, but reasonably quiet enough during normal driving. The problem was it had terrible drone from 1700-2200 rpm. It was advertised as no drone and most reviews reported no drone. I had ordered the manual trans version, since that is what I have.

Looking back I could have ordered the auto trans version, and maybe should have, but I ordered the one spec'd for my car. The manual trans version does not come with the J pipes to prevent drone.

After fighting with American Muscle they finally took it back as defective and refunded my money. (After that fiasco and their BS I will NOT buy anything from American Muscle or their sister company Extreme Terrain.

I have a Jeep Wrangler too) So I began searching again and came across Legato exhaust. Reviews were positive, with most reporting no drone, and there are a couple well done videos on their website.

I questioned the volume of the exhaust, as one of the videos sounded a bit loud for my taste and a couple reviews from older guys like me stated the same. I went ahead and ordered their exhaust for $485. I figured if it was louder than I wanted I could just find quieter mufflers.

I got an email and a phone call indicating they would not have any for 2-3 months. I was tempted to just wait, but I am impatient at times, and was still a bit unsure about the volume and potential for drone.

They refunded my money quickly. Having come across some threads and videos about removing the mid mufflers altogether or replacing them with smaller resonators I liked the sound and the slightly increased volume without the drone. I was not crazy about the tone from the mid muffler delete but did like the tone from the smaller resonators in place of the mid mufflers.

Initially I was against hacking into the stock exhaust, as I wanted to keep it in case I decided to sell the car at some point. I ordered a pair of Aero TR resonators, 2 1/2" ID and 13 1/2" long.

They made a slightly shorter and a slightly longer one as well. I chose the middle one. I had them installed in place of the mid mufflers today. The exhaust is still quiet inside the car at idle and normal driving, with a slightly deeper tone, but when you hammer down it comes alive and sounds great.

Still not too loud but definitely has some bark and a good tone. Outside the car the idle is deeper, and ever so slightly louder and it is somewhat louder when revving the engine. No drone at all in any gear or any rpm.

The 2 Aero resonators cost me $110 and the exhaust shop charged me $230 for the install but they did a nice job. I may have been happier with the 10 1/2" Aero resonators which I think were 7 dB louder but erred on the side of caution. Overall I am happy with the result. It is still probably quieter than a 2015 and up R/T, definitely quieter than Scat Packs and Hellcats.

I know this was quite long winded. If you want loud this mod is not for you. But if you want your pre 2015 R/T or SRT to sound a little better this may be something to consider.

No I don't have a sound clip or video and don't plan to make one. The poor sound quality from a cell phone video and the fact that I don't have a "before" to compare the "after" to would not be worth the effort.

 

I would think that the first order of business for better sound is long-tube headers. What could give you more bass than those, while increasing your ability to ruin your own mileage, er, uh give the potential for increased fuel mileage, while adding some power potential.

 

In lovely Cal, they probably would not pass SMOG, every other year we pay some smog shop to smog our cars. Or no registration stickers and it becomes a Police problem. This state makes bank off their drivers and HP cars are like #1 on the list. The long tubes moves the cats back too far and from what I understand they do not get hot enough to cause the proper readings on the smog machine. My guy, yes, sad but true, I have a smog guy, who's really cool but is a stickler for getting it right. Im sure he lives in the ritzy area with the business he gets, always a wait..
So I decided if and when I change exhaust manifolds it'll be to 392 stock manifolds, I do have a 3" cat back but stock from there up. Some day but I have mucho plans for this car.
Oh not to long ago the I received THE CALL from the local Po-po to inform me the cars too loud at start up. Dudes I leave for work at 5AM, of course its loud, everything's louder at 5, but the folks on the street think they own the street and one guy claims I wake him every morn, I dont drive the car everyday, I have a truck as well, but he complains any way. He has 2 electric cars and a bad back. Funny over the weekend the other folks on the street drive their cars, a really loud old Bronco and a Harley with straight pipes, no mention of them!!

 

Remember that header convo? I found this on google "Legally" there are NO long tube headers that are smog legal in CA. The reason is, the cats have to be in the stock location, and obviously that isn't possible with a long tube header. You can have legal shorty headers because the headers stop before the cat, and the cat remains in the stock location.
Finally say on long tube headers in Cali