What to replace my stock exhaust with, only have prodrive oval muffler?

[patriotfan11]

Let me start off with I am brand new to the subaru world. I just bought an 04 wrx with the only mods on it were an intake and prodrive oval muffler. The guy I bought the car from (a subaru dealer for 5 years and is now a professional wrx rally car builder) was like kinda horny for this muffler because its not sold anymore blah blah blah. Well its REALLY quiet with the stock exhaust. He told me a new downpipe would make it a lot louder with this muffler on it.

My question is, is he right? Whats my cheapest route for getting the wrx rumble? My 97 civic sounds better and louder than this.

[Mikie13]

I fail to believe any Civic sounds better than any boxer.

You'll want to replace the Prodrive with a new axleback, or more likely, a new catback exhaust.

A downpipe would be great for sound and performance. It will add some power, but you MUST get proper engine management to go Stage 2 to run it. But it still won't be all that loud.

Check out Youtube to get an idea of what's out there. It will give you an idea on tone, and relative sound, but obviously won't be near as good as hearing it in person. See if there are any locals or meets near you.

[patriotfan11]

alright then ill just toss this prodrive all together and stick with the 2.5" borla single tip. Thanks.

[Mikie13]

why a 2.5" Borla single tip?

And sell that Prodrive...someone will buy it off you.

[Heide264]

As mikie said, your muffler/catback will make the largest determination of your vehicle sound. Both volume and tone will be changed quite dynamically.

A catless down pipe would open the sound up a decent amount, but not enough judging off of your opinion of the current exhaust. The down pipe is a significant power bump if you handle the tune appropriately.

I'd look for a subaru meet locally. Go ask around what people have. I still feel YouTube videos are a terrible way to judge exhaust sound personally.

[MainFrame]

alright then ill just toss this prodrive all together and stick with the 2.5" borla single tip. Thanks.

?? Borla is known to be one of, if not the quietest mufflers for our cars.

[EJ257]

?? Borla is known to be one of, if not the quietest mufflers for our cars.

Not the single tip. It's about as loud as my XR-1, which can set off car alarms with RPMs under 3K.

[Ruh Roh]

i like the prodrive exhaust...get a catless downpipe and it will give it a little deeper sound

[MainFrame]

Ahh.. I didn't know the single tip was that much different from the twin tip. Of course my OEM STi muffler sets off car alarms occasionally too, so there's something to be said about performance oriented catless exhaust systems too.

[zax]

If you think a 1997 Civic sounds better, it really sounds to me like you just want an obnoxiously loud exhaust. Prodrive parts will fetch a pretty penny, so sell the prodrive, and buy an Invidia N1 Race. You can find one of those dirt cheap since they're obnoxiously loud and no one wants them...

[patriotfan11]

Is there a dp that I dont have to retune and/or get new engine management?

[SKI.WRX]

the stock one

[zax]

the stock one

[MainFrame]

Is there a dp that I dont have to retune and/or get new engine management?

In all seriousness, you can run pretty much any downpipe without having to tune the car since you're on the older 16-bit ECU. You will get a lot more gains with a tune though.

[zax]

In all seriousness, you can run pretty much any downpipe without having to tune the car since you're on the older 16-bit ECU. You will get a lot more gains with a tune though.

Actually, let me clarify... this is true ONLY for the 2002 and 2003 WRXs. In 2004, Subaru changed the CL to OL transition delay, so running a downpipe without a tune can potentially be harmful to the vehicle.