I’ve been reading some of the posts related to pipes, intakes and mufflers... Can someone tell me where I can get educated and get information regarding the exhaust system on a 2000 Monte Carlo SS.

I just installed a set of Magna Flow. I like the sound but it could be a bit louder. Someone told me to get rid of the Resonator and the U Bent. I don’t know what they are or where are they located. I can take it to a muffler shop and tell them to take the Resonator and the U Bent out and replaced it with a 2.5 straight pipe from the Cat. I know the guy at the muffler shop will be impressed with my talk, but I am not sure of what I just said!!!

What is the Resonator, where is it and what does it do? Same with the U Bent... what is that?

Sorry for the ignorance, but I rather ask and get educated than toremain stupid the rest of my life. [8D]

MC2K



[IMG]local://upfiles/2002/234605D3AFC346DEB6DBAF110388D9DB.jpg[/IMG]

 

the resonator is just like a little tiny muffler that usually goes right after the catylitic convertor and it just muffles a little more sound out on the car...quiet's in down...but not really that much..and you gain like 2 hp for getting rid of it...i know its not much..but every little bit helps...

and the u-bend is right before the catylitic convertor and its a piece of exhaust pipe right after the down pipe(thats 2.5") that does a little "u" like it says thats about 1.25" major restriction on the flow of the exhaust...there's also a o2 sensor there that they will put back in with a new o2 bung in the straight peice of pipe

hopefully i didn't just confuze you more ..lol

 

the u-bend is after the convertor not before.

 

wiz is the man he has helped me with the choice of my flowmaster selection process.

 

Thank you Mr. Josh. You have saved me from being a permanent resident of STUPID-VILLE.

I think I know what you are talking about. I took some pictures of the exhaust system when they installed the Magnaflow. I think this should be the Resonator:



And then the U-Bent should be that piece in front of the CAT where the O2 sensor connects. Is this right?

MC2K

 

yep in that pic you can see the flat area of the U bend between the resonator in the pic (top closest to the camera and the cat furthest from the camera.

resonators are specificly tuned to remove certain frequencies in an exhaust system. mufflers generally remove volume resonators remove either high's or lows at a very tight range

 

ok ok ok cool so now i know what the hell we looking at

 

yup, so get rid of all that stuff in the pic, puta highflow car in from magnaflow, and a piece of straight pipe for the u-bend and the cat resonator...you'll notice a huge difference

 

A buddy of mine said that the stock CAT from the 2000 (and up) on the Monte Carlo SS is just as good as the Hi-Flow CAT from MagnaFlow and that I did not need to change it. Also... I've been told that by changing all of my pipes to 2.5 and get rid of the U-Bent, I will loose back pressure and power. I was just going to replace all, but maybe I should just remove the Resonator and change the pipe from the CAT, back to the Mufflers.

I think it would be too risky to change all the pipes and the CAT. After all... this is my only ride and I must go to work and back home.

MC2K

 

Does your friend drive a ricer? You really only need to be concerned with backpressure when you're driving a 4-banger. High torque American 6 and 8 cylinder cars like to inhale and exhale hard to make power. The u-bend is a restriction in the exhaust flow. Freeing that up and increasing intake volume will allow the car to breathe better. An engine is basically an elaborate air pump.

Here's what stock versus aftermarket looks like:


This piece replaces the bent piece in the top-most photo. O2 sensor is positioned off to the side instead of on top.

Clickhere to read about it.