Uhhh.. you've GOT to be kidding me right? The aftermarket muflers we're talking about in this thread is a 2.5" inlet straight thru design split into 2x2" tips. What back pressure?

>>my point exactly, i read an article in European car recently about reducing too much back pressure. in many cases without doing intake work, it could actually hinder performance slightly. i was never addressing the fact that these aftermarket mufflers are restrictive in anyway. right now the stock MB mufflers have some level of back pressure.<<


We're not takling about a 4-cyl motor running 2 bars of boost off a T66 turbo here, don't think a 3" straight thru exhaust is necessary. Have you actually gotten under a 300CE and LOOKED at the BIG ASS muffler used to keep the cars "Mercedes quite"?

>>no, i never got under a 300CE, i have gotten under a E320 coupe which is pretty much the same thing. And i do understand we are talking about MBs. this is an MB forum

I've checked my old man's CLK430. Still quiet a lot of muffler action going on. In reality, replacing the stock muffler w/ no removal of resonator and/or hi-flow cat will probably produce no noticeable HP gains as the current V8 motors are well tuned... Personally, I'm not willing to drop $75 to run a dyno to see maybe a 2hp gain & I believe Alon has already stated he's not doing the muffler mod for the hp gains either.

>>i agree, from what i read and the dyno test charts i have seen, unless you do the entire exhaust, cats, resonators, etc. and increase flow from the intake, HP and Torque is not going to be significant. my point is that Alon wants to change the muffler for astetic reasons. it would be a shame if he happended to lost some HP/Torque as a result even if it is 1 or 2 hp and 1 or 2 ft lbs or torque. i have seen dyno tests that showed displayed this.


PS - going with a 3" Apex'i N1 muffler can for my Saab 9-3 as soon as I get back into the States...

>> best of luck. how much performance gain are you hoping to get from this?