i have searched, feel free to flame me, i can take it.

i am installing a competition sound quality sound system, so stereo sound is paramount, i have gone to great lengths to reduce road and engine noise, but i dont want my max to sound wimpy (read: stock)

i want to make the guy next to me know that i am not driving a normal family pusher

i NEED the engine to be fairly quite, but some throaty engine noise is ok

a low rumble at idle, and nice sounding revs is all i am asking for

i dont know if i am looking for an intake, an exhaust or something else

no 5" coffee can exhausts that sound like lawn mowers (read: no rice)

just looking for guidance

thanks in advance!

 

I have a stillen exhaust which sounds pretty good at low rpm and the sound totaly disappears as soon as the RPS go past 2500. After that, you can hear the engine grunt beacause of the pop-charger intake from stillen. I recommend both of these mods because the exhaust really helps the cars performance and the looks...the stock exhaust looks like a shriveled up lil ***** whereas the stillen exhaust isnt that ricy.. :-/

 

You dont want DRONE...at 2000k RPMS you dont want that annoying sound in your ears where you cant even hear the radio...I would recommend going to a meet and listening to a few with y-pipe's and without...y-pipe is a must for performance but makes whatever you have behind it...louder...I would recommend APEX-I World Sport, even though I dont have it, Ive heard great things about it and it is the quietest cat-back

Oh yea get a Place racing CAI...you wont regret it...

-matt

 

whoa whoa whoa!

lol

ok, though i have big plans for performance mods, those are not a priority in this decision. but i dont want to get something i will replace for performance later on.

now, i know about cone filters, CAIs, catbacks and mufflers. i dont want to do all of them.

a CAI is a semi-big project and may be too loud

any other ideas, or is CAI or even just a cone filter the way to go?

 

get an intake. If you drive it normally, it will sound EXACTLY the same as stock. One you push the pedal to the floor, you'll get a very nice V-8 growl coming from your engine. This thrilled me because I too didn't want my car to sound modded all the time... (at least at first). An exhaust may be too loud for your tastes. I have the apex'i catback and it drones slightly if you're accelerating.. I don't think any of the maxima aftermarket exhausts are really "quiet" but the apex is the quietest of the bunch.
Well, I think an intake would satisfy you best. Cold air intakes sound louder from outside of the car and quieter inside.
POP charger or frankencar intakes will sound louder from inside the car because the filter is located in the engine bay.... oh and also you should use the search to find info.

 

you want the car to soudn kinda like a mustang cobra?

 

Just get a JWT intake...its exactly what youre looking for. I know cause I was looking for the same effect as you and I'm very happy with the results I got from my jwt
shaz

 

any other ideas?

 

My suggestion would be a cone filter (in engine bay/non-cai), y-pipe with stock exhaust. Since the Y-pipe will eliminate the pre-cats, it will make the exhaust a bit more agressive than stock, but I assume that it will still be alot quieter than any aftermarket cat-back setup. Definately dont get a y-pipe AND a cat-back, it'll be too loud for what you want.
You'll get a decent power gain with both of those combined too...

 

i am not too concerned with power for this mod, but i dont want to replace anything down the road for more power either.

i think a ypipe will be too loud from what i have read

it seems that a CAI will be good since it is pretty far away from the passenger compartment, it has great HP gains, sounds good outside and not too loud inside... do you guys agree?

 

sounds good to me.. that was my first performance mod.. the only time you hear it is when u put the pedal to the floor.

 

The Y-pipe will only be loud if you get a cat-back along with it, but if you dont want any power, then dont bother.

 

from the outside, will it sound any better than stock if i rev the engine?

 

what intake is this from jwt. I was just at their website, and didn't find an intake for the max. Lots of other cool stuff...

-Seth

 

http://www.jimwolftechnology.com/poprest.htm

 

any thoughts on what those suckers cost? easy to install?

 

Yea, just go and buy it already... Once I put it on I got comments on how MEAN the car sounded when I reved it up. I too didn't want to add too much noise to the car but I ended up getting hooked... later came the UR pulley, y-pipe, then catback and I'll be graduating up to boost soon.

 

they are very easy to install. Look up a how-to on it. You lose a little low end power but gain alot in the high end. I'd recommend a frankencar intake (top portion of a CAI attached to the filter-gives you low end and high end power).. check out cattman.com and custommaxima.com for intakes.. those are just as easy to install... the cold air intake is a bit harder since you have to drill a hole, but if I can do it anyone can.

 

i have got to say that i am still leaning towards place racing CAI over JWT intake...

 

I was looking really hard for exactly the same thing you are - a slightly more aggressive sound from my stock setup. I finally settled on just replacing the upper tube (with the resonator) with a warpspeed performance upper tube. i figure it would be quieter than cai or pop charger but still louder than stock. i doubt it will give much power but maybe greater airflow due to removing one of the resonators? i haven't bought it yet because its $75 and i have other mods that have greater priority. might be what you're looking for

 

well, after reading A LOT of posts, i think i like the idea of the frankencar intake better, but i want to hear your opinions of the sound. will it be too loud at idle or under normal driving? if it gets loud, say, above 4000rpm thats fine, hell thats great, just as long is it idles fairly quietly...

 

When I bought my max last fall it came with a K&N pop charger and a slightly rusted out stock muffler--everything else was stock. I got a great throaty growl from the engine and a bit of a rumble from the muffler. It was actually pretty cool except I didn't like the big 3" chrome tip the guy had on the exhaust. Anyway, it was great for the first five or six months until the muffler started to go and the drone on the highway started to drive me crazy. I just replaced the stock muffler with another stock muffler to save on cost and because I also didn't want anything really too loud. I have been pleasantly suprised at how much quieter my car is but that I have retained the great acceleration growl when I floor it. I haven't really noticed a performance change but then this system isn't that great anyway. So to sum up I'd say the cheapest and easiest way to accomplish what you want is to splap on a pop charger.

 

yeah, pop charger sounds nice, but if i am going to do an intake, i want to do it such that i will not change it once i really start on the other performance mods (unless i get a blower ), so the frankencar sounds to have the pop charger, the mid pipe of a CAI and the K&N filter (or should i get the monster flow, i like the look of the K&N better), so the best of all worlds, AND i dont have to cut my car (CAI).

i just want to make sure that it is not TOO loud (from the inside) and that it will not sound ricey from the outside

 

bump

 

ok, guys, i am basically set on the frankencar intake, unless anyone wants to convince me otherwise

but, with the same issue of not TOO much sound at idle, would a budget y-pipe (in addition to frankencar) add much sound?

i am not sure what adds sound, so maybe you guys can tell me what would be too much...

how about random tech cat (in addition to above two)?

is there any reason to upgrade muffler if i dont want added sound and the stock look is fine with me?

what about b-pipe?

remember, i want performance, but no rice and fairly quiet idling.

thanks!

 

i get home from work at 3 today...i have a video of the K+N, w/upper intake...you can see for yourself, how "un-ricey" it is

 

screw the b pipe and muffler....that was some money i wish i could get back. y pipe and frankencar should be great sounding and give you great gains.

edit- also, forget about the RT cat, its a waste of money unless your cat is already messed up.

 

what about random tech cat?