Exhaust Resonator

[piratepress]

I've been thinking of replacing the resonator in my Sport with a straight pipe as I've been unhappy with how suppressed the exhaust sounds, even with a Magnaflow cat-back system on it.

 

As such, I've noticed that the resonator for the 2011-2012 3.5 Lincoln MKZ looks much smaller than the one on the Fusion.

 

Granted, these aren't great pictures but the Ford looks more like an actual muffler while the Lincoln's seems notably smaller and more like an actual resonator.

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

[WKelley]

I would worry that a raspy tone could develop without it.  I just changed the resonator on my 2010 2.5L and it is basically a straight through design, there's no baffling to go through, it just absorbs some of the sound.  

 

Resonators don't have baffling like a muffler does.  

Edited November 2, 2022 by WKelley

[piratepress]

Yes, I was concerned about that too, as I've listened to some sound clips on YT of people who have done that. I thought about buying the resonator assembly, cutting the resonator out and welding in a straight pipe. If I didn't like it, I could just bolt the original assembly back up.

 

Of course, all this would be unnecessary if someone would just design a nice pair of "off-road" headers that would really let the V6 exhale. I've found that the factory mufflers are usually just right when combined with a good set of longtube headers.