How to choose A Good Performance Honda Acura Muffler
- By:Stefan Kolev
One of the key parts in your exhaust system is the muffler. The muffler job is to mainly reduce the noise coming from the engine. A typical stock muffler has a labyrinth like internal flow path with baffles that makes the exhaust to reverse direction and lower the noise. A stock muffler is a horsepower killer because it makes a lot of restriction for the exhaust gases. It also increases the back pressure making the engine to work harder to pump the exhaust out of the cylinders. Some stock mufflers can make up to 20 psi backpressure. A well designed performance exhaust system typically has about 3-6 psi. A straight pipe has about 1-3 psi. Never run a straight pipe (no muffler at all) unless you want to get in big trouble with the law.
To get the least amount of pressure performance Honda Acura mufflers have a straight through design. These mufflers have an inner core that it is straight through with no buffing at all. You can see through them. These mufflers quiet the exhaust by absorbing the noise. The inside of the muffler contains a stainless steel mesh and heat resistant fibers. The noise from the exhaust is absorbed by the fiber padding. The outside core is usually made of stainless steal. The longer the muffler the quieter it is. The length has no effect on the backpressure just the noise reduction.
When buying a performance straight through muffler look for one with a perforated core if you want to make horsepower. A good straight through muffler is going to add only 1-3 lbs of backpressure to the exhaust system. Mufflers like Walker Ultra Flow, Apexi, Borla, Magna Flow, Greaddy are a good low backpressure mufflers.
A disadvantage of a straight through muffler is that is louder. Usually performance muffler needs a sub muffler or a resonator to keep the exhaust noise in a reasonable level. The resonator is placed somewhere in between the catalytic converter and the muffler. The longer the resonator is the better the noise reduction is going to be. If you are designing your own exhaust system it is important to keep it pretty quiet. You may think that the loud racy sound is cool, but the local police will not.
Many enthusiasts like to add a big exhaust tip to the stock muffler. The tip does look good but does not increase the horsepower. It also can send the signal that you are an amateur and not a real player. If you are on a tight budget and you are serious about performance Honda Acura cars don’t get an exhaust tip it is a waste of money. Some big tips feature resonated cores which quiet the exhaust noise a bit. They usually have perforated or meshed inner pipes. These big tips are actually functional and you will not look like an amateur on the race track or the street with one of them.
Performance muffler will benefit Prelude, Civic, rsx, Integra or any other model Honda Acura car
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