Whats up gang. Wouldn't you know it, my muffler decides to rust out where I bashed down on it early this year right when my Home/Trucks/Boat Insurance premium, mortgage, and maternity ward bills are due. Don't you hate it when they all gang up on you sometimes?

Anyway, when I bashed the muffler, it didn't break through at the time, but now it's rusting through where the action took place. Sounds like assmonkeys wrestling in gravel because the rust is flaking off inside while the exhaust rushes out of the rust hole.

So I was thinking, in order to prolong the purchase of a catback system, do you think I could get by a while by just cutting out the muffler and replacing the void with a straight pipe? Or do you think it would be so damn loud it wouldn't be worth it even for a month... Would effect my backpressure, altering performance as well?

Thanks for any input. Never heard the 3.4L unmuffled before, so I don't know what to expect.

It would be loud as all hell. You think the assmonkeys are wrestling in gravel now, wait until they call some friends. I don't know the laws in your state about straight pipes, but her in cali you get slapped with a pretty hefty fine if running one.

Hell yeah blast away doood! I think it would damn near impossible to take it though becuse it will be loud. Never heard a 3.4L but I hear plenty of un mufflered autos way down here (yonder to you). It's a truely redneck think I'm not sure if you would understand. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

Maturnity insurance????? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/baby.gif" alt="" />

[edit after I went back and read it] Never mind, maturnity ward bills.......already had the peter poisioning did she?

Yeah, had a baby girl a while back. Still paying on it... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />

Whats confusing me the most about this is a d00d I know said his 92 Chebby 350 was straightpiped after the crossover and back, and his didn't sound that loud at all. Just sounded like your usual full sized dual exhaust. So that's why I was wondering if our 6'ers, a whole 2.3L smaller than his 5.7 wouldn't be as loud as his was... and like I said his was not to terribly loud.

One variable in our conversation, though, was the d00d doesn't know a whole lot about trucks, so he may have been confused when he told me he had straights. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

No laws here, south of Chicago. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

starightpiped may be referring to bullet mufflers, which are staright through rather than a couple of 180s like conventional mufflers. They are pretty cheap and easy to install, they are a lot throatier sounding but at least they are legal and you can drive with them and still hear yourself think

When I replaced my muffler, I was told by the muffler shop that I better stick with Dynomax because the Flowmaster 40 would be way too loud. After install, I was a bit disappointed as the sound is just a bit more than stock. Per the muffler guy, his experience has been mostly with domestic V8, and he too was somewhat surprise how mellow our 3.4 is, even if it's compared to other domestic V6.

Anyway, my vote is to go for it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> The '03 Dodge Neon SRT-4 (215 turbo charged hp) comes without muffler from the factory.

For create somewhat of a backpressure, you might want to use a pipe that's just a little bit smaller than stock. Good luck and please let us know the result. I've been thinking doing the same thing myself seeing how new cars are coming out from the factory w/o muffler and how quiet our 3.4 is to begin with.

My muffler install cost about $35. I bought a Holley Flowtech Raptor from Checker (Krager) for $19.95, a 24" extension, some clamps and 2 hangers.

I heard a T a few weeks ago that I'm sure had no muffler, it sounded like hell. The kid driving revved it up as he went by, it was extremely loud, but not in a good way...



Notice I had to use 2 clamps on 2.25" pipe, the stock pipe is in between standard 2.25" and 2.5". Not pretty but works well, a little louder than stock.

I ran mine for a couple hours without a muffler... Loud as all hell. At WOT you can set off car alarms a block away.