Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Duratec Performance Borla Modification

Has anyone replaced the mid-muffler on the Borla system with a straight pipe? I'm curious about what it would sound like.

The mid muffler you speak of is the resonator and replacing it with a straight pipe will likely have the same effects as doing it in the regular contour exhaust which can result is drone and rasp, plus I don't think it would give much gain.

Just my .02
Rick

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Buckshot77@AOL.Com
2000 Contour SVT
Silver/ Midnight #1611
Born on 1/14/00
Borla, KKM, Upgraded Fogs w/ Parking Lights, heavily leaded right foot
Des Moines, IA
New Motor @ 20,959 miles
Born Again 2/21/01 (definitely not a Christian car though)

Borla doesn't have the low noise and emissions problems to worry about when they design an exhaust like Ford does, so my guess is that the design is pretty much as optimized as it can get.

Another way to think about it is that putting a resonator in there cost them more money that it would have to just leave it as a straight pipe, so it wouldn't be there if it didn't need to be. They could sell a better exhaust cheaper if removing it made for any improvement.

I had a Borla rear muffler and straight pipe (ie no resonator) on my SE Duratec. It rasped like a chain saw until I installed a glasspack where the resonator was originally.

Now, the SVT system may sound a little different than my po-boy SE V6 with single exhaust, but I would bet that taking the resonator out of the full Borla system would seriously degrade sound quality. And remember, we as CEG folk are best off leaving poor sound quality to the import crowd.

-Kurt

well, actually, the "mid-muffler" that is in the OEM resonator location is actually a muffler, and the two smaller "mufflers" at the rear are just resonators of sorts. sort of like the bassani system - one main muffler w/ two (removable, in their case) resonators at the tips. so, removing the center muffler of the borla would probably sound like crap.

i do know of someone who has cut out the rear resonators and replaced them with straight pipes, and he loves the sound. haven't heard it myself yet, though.

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blake
98.5 E1 SVT #4910, silver frost (b. 02.28.98)
- KKM/SHOshop pulleys/borla exhaust
- 35% tint/momo shift knob/A6 sidemarkers/some audio

I did the straight pipe conversion last summer. Sound-wise, it will be quite a bit louder, and yes, the quality does degrade. For me, it's a love/hate thing. It's throaty at low revs and during trailing throttle at high revs. Anywhere else tho, it's higher pitched and raspy.

Performance-wise, I felt a dip in mid-range power, but the top end improved, feels like the hp is higher at redline than at 6250rpm. This is for a standard 2.5l.

If you plan on headers, I DO NOT recommend the straight pipe. Got my MSDS on yesterday, it's SUPER LOUD, and sounds like butt. Yeah, it sounds mean, but not appealing to the senses at all (except at idle, "blurp blurp blurp", but that's it).

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'99 Cougar V6 5spd

woah , another Blake..