Mufflers...again

[VehiGAZ]

My two cents...

Flowmasters are really loud - you may be shocked at first. I certainly was when I put my Flowmaster 50 Delta in with 2.5" piping. It softened up as it filled with carbon, though, but it is still very loud from 1/3 throttle on up (I feel Joe's pain!). The idle burble is awesome-sounding, though!

I think Kenny is dead-on in his assessment - it gets loud in back. Some sound deadening in the back of the VX should go with an exhaust upgrade (one of my summer projects).

But if you upsize your piping and go with an "unpacked" muffler like the Flowmaster, you will notice a difference in power. It's not hp you're gaining (those come at higher rpm), it's lb-ft of torque off idle that you gain with the less-restrictive exhaust, and I noticed it immediately as I pulled out of the muffler shop when it was all done. I went from chirping the rears inside tire to chirping both the front and rear inside tires.

Good luck!

[Kenny]

I have two layers of RAAMmat and two layers of ensolite in the back- so much so that my panels don't fit all that right anymore back there. It made little difference in exhaust noise but knocked down the road noise and improved the sound system.

[Joe Isuzu]

already dynomat'd the floor, it made a very slight difference to me, but hey, something is better than nothing
Also, I just checked and the muffler is a magnaflow, I have to believe that's still a flowmaster product, perhaps the least restrictive product they offer? either way, I am resolving to either replace the muffler or stick some noise diffuser into the tailpipe (see LDub's's prior post in this thread)

[VehiGAZ]

I see - well, I'll just scratch that off the project list then!

[grantCO]

I have the Hooker AeroChamber muffler on my 99 with 2.5" pipe done at a local muffler shop with a magnaflow dualwall tip. The note is perfect I can hear my intake over the exhaust note at 3/4 or higher throttle. Nice low growl very close to stock. Muffler can be found cheap on EBAY and is a nice thick shell muffler (helps cut down on interior noise)