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Gtijake's Drone Free Turboback Thread

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
There's been a lot of talk around here lately about drone issues for those running an aftermarket downpipe (catted or catless). I'm building a full 3" 304/304L stainless steel catback to fully eliminate this issue and bring the exhaust note down to a more civilized level than my current set up (Cts catted DP+stock cat back with 3" muffler delete). Since there's been a lot of interest in this topic I figured I'd do kind of a build thread with all of the info on my cat back. I titled the tread turbo back since this cat back is built specifically to match a 3" downpipe and it's added volume. Ideally with a stock downpipe I'd still 100% suggest a muffler delete, unless you plan to upgrade the down pipe later.

I'll start with my parts list, hopefully everything willl arrive early next week inline with my "weekend" which is Wednesday-Thursday. I spent a lot of time choosing a resonator and muffler to meet my three requirements: 304SS construction, straight through design, and proper lengths for fitment and drone elimination. I believe most of the drone left after Vibrant 1141 are because of its short case length 14", so I went with a much longer 18"x5" round Vibrant 17950. The muffler is Borla link here > https://m.summitracing.com/parts/bo...MIwePF-62i1QIVxUwNCh2eWg3kEAQYASABEgJH2_D_BwE

Time will tell but it should sound comparable to the AWE Touring exhaust, and I'll have under $450 invested. If anyone's interested I might build more to sell, which with my labor and consumables factored in would be in the $650-700 range. All of these figures are single exit style. As of now I don't plan to build dual exit, mostly because I don't care for dual exhaust on a four cylinder car, but also because it would be close to the same price as AWE so probably not worth my time or the larger investment in material.

sound clips below
https://youtu.be/at4wLClyifA

 
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GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Going to pick up some 308L mig wire and have my bottle filled with appropriate gas. I'm leaning towards Tri Mix, if anyone here has more stainless welding experience feel free to chime in. I want to make sure I set myself up for a good finished product given the investment in materials and the potential production runs to follow if there's enough interest here on the forum.

Tracking numbers all show my materials in route, hopefully Thursday or Friday will be the day
 

iNeedMorePSI

Ready to race!
Doesn't exist. /thread
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
I'm confident it'll be drone free and quite enough to make the wife happy. If not I'll cut it up and try different things until it is.
 
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Mars1

Ready to race!
Location
South FL
I'd be happy if I could figure out how to quiet the growl when it is stomped on. I have a catless downpipe with the complete stock catback with 4" weld on tips, and it is to loud. Maybe a catted DP makes a difference, I mean you can hear it from a quarter mile away easily when you step on it. It doesn't drone though, my truck drones like hell. If all I could hear was the turbo I would be happy.
Sounds like you know what you want and how to make it, have fun! :)
 

SugarMouth

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Nevada
I'd be happy if I could figure out how to quiet the growl when it is stomped on. I have a catless downpipe with the complete stock catback with 4" weld on tips, and it is to loud. Maybe a catted DP makes a difference, I mean you can hear it from a quarter mile away easily when you step on it. It doesn't drone though, my truck drones like hell. If all I could hear was the turbo I would be happy.
Sounds like you know what you want and how to make it, have fun! :)

Weld this in, you will be good.

http://www.bbexhaust.com/shop/universal-timbre-cylinder-2-5-inletoutlet-6-round-x-11-long/

Thread here:

http://www.golfmk7.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27305

I put mine here:

http://www.golfmk7.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13488&stc=1&d=1484934560
 
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GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
I've followed your progress and decided against that for three reasons. One, I wanted to keep the resonator in its original spot to leave where yours is open for a muffler. Two the case length, in that design as well as the vibrant ultra quite is much shorter end to end than stock (22") so I bought the longest 304ss res I could find (18"). My third concern was ground clearance. While I'm currently only mildly dropped on VWR springs I do plan to go lower sometime in the future. The 6" round case hangs down just a tad too much for my liking with that in mind.

Hopefully my concerns are well founded, and if not I may try that or a similar res for round two of this quest for drone free ha
 
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GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
I'd be happy if I could figure out how to quiet the growl when it is stomped on. I have a catless downpipe with the complete stock catback with 4" weld on tips, and it is to loud. Maybe a catted DP makes a difference, I mean you can hear it from a quarter mile away easily when you step on it. It doesn't drone though, my truck drones like hell. If all I could hear was the turbo I would be happy.
Sounds like you know what you want and how to make it, have fun! :)

A big part of getting the drone down on my current muffler delete/catted dp combo was removing the tin heat shield above where your stock muffler is located. Since I had removed mine I didn't need the extra heat protection and that solved the in cabin buzz adding the dp created

My goal here is to replicate what I did on my current set up while turning down the volume about 35%
 

iNeedMorePSI

Ready to race!
I would of done Vibrant ultra quiet oval in place of midpipe resonator versus that Vibrant gas pack which is loud. Billy Boat in the mid muffler area because it's literally the only quality universal helmholtz can on the market. Small 8-9" round race bullet on each Y midway before the tips
 

picwick

New member
Location
jacksonville, FL
Going to pick up some 308L mig wire and have my bottle filled with appropriate gas. I'm leaning towards Tri Mix, if anyone here has more stainless welding experience feel free to chime in. I want to make sure I set myself up for a good finished product given the investment in materials and the potential production runs to follow if there's enough interest here on the forum.

Tracking numbers all show my materials in route, hopefully Thursday or Friday will be the day

tri mix with 2% helium
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
I would of done Vibrant ultra quiet oval in place of midpipe resonator versus that Vibrant gas pack which is loud. Billy Boat in the mid muffler area because it's literally the only quality universal helmholtz can on the market. Small 8-9" round race bullet on each Y midway before the tips

It's not a glass pack, it's a viberant resonator longer than the ultra quite, which has been shown to be ineffective on our cars. The Borla is a straight through design with packing, but it also has a perforated stainless center core.

Also, this is single exit. I'm not a fan of duals
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC


Finally got a chance to finish, and it's perfect! No drone once so ever even at above highway speeds. I'll post more pics and sound clips later
 
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