Just threw a STI muffler on my 2002 WRX. Helix downpipe with stromung midpipe. No resonators and no cats anywhere. The sound is so bad and the muffler is so new. Sounds like a raspy popping sound, not so bad when cruising but horrible when starting out. To the point that people look at the car and expect to see the whole thing rusting out. Any clue why???? Maybe just not made to work with aftermarket stuff??? By the way this is also for sale. In the Northern VA area. Pick up only. $150

scoobywrbwrx is my IM
wrbwrx@hotmail.com is my email

Sounds about right. I have heard of a car with a similar setup on a WRX and it too sounded like crap.

~v6

Just threw a STI muffler on my 2002 WRX. Helix downpipe with stromung midpipe. No resonators and no cats anywhere. The sound is so bad and the muffler is so new. Sounds like a raspy popping sound, not so bad when cruising but horrible when starting out. To the point that people look at the car and expect to see the whole thing rusting out. Any clue why???? Maybe just not made to work with aftermarket stuff??? By the way this is also for sale. In the Northern VA area. Pick up only. $150

scoobywrbwrx is my IM
wrbwrx@hotmail.com is my email

I heard a clip of a genome on a EJ205 and it sounded terrible. Raspy is a good word to describe it. It almost sounds like something is loose at higher RPMs.

-st

I had an STI muffler on my catless WRX, it sounded like ass.
Wait till it starts rattleing, thats when it REALLY starts to suck

Yeah very raspy. The only thing I can compare it to is when i put my waverunner in the water and water gets in the muffler. Loud and metal sounding.

Anyone else have any experiences running this muffler?

As long as it performs, I wouldn’t care about the sound.

subarus always sound sexy

nothing like the boxer sound...

The STi muffler isn't harmonically set up for your WRX. What did you expect it to sound like?

Proper exhaust design is a science. On the audible front, it can also
be an art. I'm not sure what you expected, without a resonator in
there.

Most cars sound like crap when you dump the cats and just run a
muffler. The rasp is from higher frequency harmonics that a muffler
isn't normally designed to deaden optimally -- that is the resonator's
job. The factory cats normally do a fairly good job at breaking up
these frequencies.

It's even worse with normally aspirated cars, as they have no turbine
wheel in the exhaust path. Haven't you ever wondered why most of
those fart-can Civics sound so raspy and tinny ? I've always wondered
why the MOT doesn't train it's officers to "spot" offences like this....

-SB

Proper exhaust design is a science. On the audible front, it can also
be an art. I'm not sure what you expected, without a resonator in
there.

Most cars sound like crap when you dump the cats and just run a
muffler. The rasp is from higher frequency harmonics that a muffler
isn't normally designed to deaden optimally -- that is the resonator's
job. The factory cats normally do a fairly good job at breaking up
these frequencies.

It's even worse with normally aspirated cars, as they have no turbine
wheel in the exhaust path. Haven't you ever wondered why most of
those fart-can Civics sound so raspy and tinny ? I've always wondered
why the MOT doesn't train it's officers to "spot" offences like this....

-SB

I can't say I agree. Have you ever heard a EJ205 (as an example) with no exhaust at all? It sounds awesome. For that matter, have you heard a catless EJ205 with a RFL? Again, nothing like this sound. I have an exhaust on my car with no resonator now and there is no raspiness at all. This muffler just has something wrong with it IMO.

I know what you are getting at, but it doesn't apply to subby H-4 motors, they rumble at low RPMs and have a nice tone in the upper range.

-st

it COULD be that it's hitting the rear swaybar. check that. that'll make a nasty freaking racket.

even the afterfire pop that I get, sounds different. It is definatly the muffler. But I will double check any hitting just for the hell of it. Thanks

I can't say I agree. Have you ever heard a EJ205 (as an example) with no exhaust at all? It sounds awesome. For that matter, have you heard a catless EJ205 with a RFL? Again, nothing like this sound. I have an exhaust on my car with no resonator now and there is no raspiness at all. This muffler just has something wrong with it IMO.

I know what you are getting at, but it doesn't apply to subby H-4 motors, they rumble at low RPMs and have a nice tone in the upper range.

-st

Well, you aren't going to have your exhaust dump straight out of the ports
for street use or most race applications, so we need to compare apples to
apples -- and that means ataching some sort of 12 foot long pipe, with it's
own resonance affects, to it. I have heard some people say that the RFL
doesn't sound that great :confused:

I guess one solution to lessen the perception of a tinny sound and raspiness
is to make sure your exhaust deadens NO frequencies at all, so that
everything is LOUD.......

:)

-SB

Well, you aren't going to have your exhaust dump straight out of the ports
for street use or most race applications, so we need to compare apples to
apples -- and that means ataching some sort of 12 foot long pipe, with it's
own resonance affects, to it. I have heard some people say that the RFL
doesn't sound that great :confused:

I guess one solution to lessen the perception of a tinny sound and raspiness
is to make sure your exhaust deadens NO frequencies at all, so that
everything is LOUD.......

:)

-SB

True on the pipe. The RFL sounds awesome IMO, but it is really true to its name : ) So if you don't want your car to sound like it's on the WRC, you probably won't like it. At least if you are catless, or have a bigger dp. With some cats in there it might be quieter.

I wish I could find the clip for you with this guy revving the genome; if you hear it, you'll know what everyone is talking about. It almost sounds like something is loose in there - very odd.

-st

We have a Genome on our company STi....it's a very unique sound to say the least. I've got a vid of what it soulnds like...i just need to dig it up.

I tried putting my stock muffler back on after I got catless TXS tbe, to help with boost creep

(essentially it became a stealthback setup)

but anyway it kinda helped with the creep but as far as it sounded? yeah, poopy.

One thing to note...When i first went catless the car popped like mad, but that was because we were running a 100% atmospheric BOV. Once I swapped it for a recirc valve all popping = gone. Now I scare the neighbors :)

...but I like all the poppng and banging.

What else can you use to scare the neighbours ?

-SB

Greddy Type-S bov? lol

Well I put the stromung back on and its beautiful. The STI muffler or a stock muffler is just not made to run resonator-less, but i have heard sounds awesome on a wrx with the stock mid-pipe. Nothing was hitting or rattling - just sounded like crap.

Also I have no clue what the BOV would do with exhaust sound.


Both mufflers are still for sale.

Our experience is that no matter which pipes you have leading up to a STI muffler on a WRX is end up sounding very poor. Quite unbecoming of a regularly awesome sounding car. Stay away from using the STI muffler on a WRX.

A 100% atmospheric blow off valve will cause a rich state between gears...therefore fuel will be dumped into a hot downpipe causing a loud pop and flame to come out the back of the exhaust....that's what bov's have to do with the "popping" sound some talk about.

I ruined a stromung singletip with an atmo bov. The backfires made the muffler rattle even at idle.

Proper exhaust design is a science. On the audible front, it can also
be an art. I'm not sure what you expected, without a resonator in
there.

You can't just throw on any old exhuast system in any configuration and expect it to do it's job. You're taking a muffler designed for a 2.5 liter displacement with a resonator and cats and just putting it on a 2.0?

Imagine if you were playing a guitar any somebody decided they didn't like how it sounds and started turning all the tuning knobs without a clue as to what they do.

There's a whole lot more to exhaust design that just less and bigger.