Thermal R&D Exhaust reveiw

[DvC]

I previously had an MBRP exhaust (aluminized, 3") that i could not get to stop droning. I put a huge chambered muffler on it and when that was unsuccessful i put another resonator on it. I went so far and to sound proof the entire rear of my car including under the seats. It droned at anywhere near highway RPMs. 3k-4k RPMs were painful. Maybe i am just getting old and that's not for me but i couldn't deal anymore. I purchased a Thermal exhaust through [MENTION=5976]ron@whoosh[/MENTION] and as usual shipping was super fast and i had the exhaust in ~2 days. Thanks Ron!

Pros
Exhaust is beautiful. Too bad its under the car...
Much reduced drone. Thermal actually uses microphones to see what frequencies the drone occurs at and uses a Helmholtz resonator built specifically to mitigate those freqs. For the fiesta the Helmholtz is built into the muffler.
Sound. The car sounds like a sports bike at high RPMs. The video below does not do it justice.

Cons
Why oh why say its a full 3inch exhaust BUT HAVE IT NECK DOWN at the connection to the downpipe?! 2 1/4 to 3 inch? i dont get.


[video=youtube;wnfKNmHdvc0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnfKNmHdvc0[/video]

 

[nickstewartroc]

I do really enjoy the Thermal on mine, and I know exactly what you mean about the neck down. I plan on a new DP soon and would really like it to be 3" all the way, maybe we could get Ron to see if they would do a batch of transitions as just straight up 3"?

 

[UtahST]

What blow off valve is that? It sounds amazing


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[DvC]

What blow off valve is that? It sounds amazing


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Tial q

 

[re-rx7]

2 1/4? No thank you!

 

[FLORIDAST]

I'm old and I don't think the MBRP drones that bad at 3-4k RPM. I drive those speeds every day and it's pretty quiet. I have the T409 MBRP though but I doubt that makes much difference.

The Thermal sounds good. I wonder if you can just get the muffler from them and tone down the MBRP?

 

[Im_Zee11]

Nice! This is the exhaust I wanted but it just wasn't in my budget. I just replaced the stock muffler with a thermal one and kept the resonator with all stock piping.

Mine sounds like a stock version of the one in the video (if that makes sense) inside sounds like a slightly milder version of the sound symposer (i deleted it). I think it would be too quiet for most people but I fly under the radar until I punch it. Not loud but it has does have good tone. It be too easy to do a resonator delete or swap it with a flow through resonator to get a more aggressive tone. Oops I'm going off topic now

Anyways thermal makes awesome stuff and they do have just the muffflers for sale but they don't really label their mufflers by volume like other companies just size. Matter of fact, I think they're all the same on the inside. None of the forum vendors stock thermal mufflers. I had to check the thermal site to track a vendor down and double check the muffler specs. JEGS had the best price at the time I ordered with free shipping. I think the smallest thermal muffler would be perfect for adding it to MBRP (don't want to tone it down too much)

If you do end up adding a thermal muffler to your MBRP post up a before and after video. Very curious to see how that sounds.

 

[FLORIDAST]

Nice! This is the exhaust I wanted but it just wasn't in my budget. I just replaced the stock muffler with a thermal one and kept the resonator with all stock piping.

Mine sounds like a stock version of the one in the video (if that makes sense) inside sounds like a slightly milder version of the sound symposer (i deleted it). I think it would be too quiet for most people but I fly under the radar until I punch it. Not loud but it has does have good tone. It be too easy to do a resonator delete or swap it with a flow through resonator to get a more aggressive tone. Oops I'm going off topic now

Anyways thermal makes awesome stuff and they do have just the muffflers for sale but they don't really label their mufflers by volume like other companies just size. Matter of fact, I think they're all the same on the inside. None of the forum vendors stock thermal mufflers. I had to check the thermal site to track a vendor down and double check the muffler specs. JEGS had the best price at the time I ordered with free shipping. I think the smallest thermal muffler would be perfect for adding it to MBRP (don't want to tone it down too much)

If you do end up adding a thermal muffler to your MBRP post up a before and after video. Very curious to see how that sounds.

I'll look into it. If I do try it, I'll let you know.

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^Do the stand alone Thermal mufflers all have the Helmholtz device/configuration inside, like the complete systems for our cars do?

 

[Im_Zee11]

^^^Do the stand alone Thermal mufflers all have the Helmholtz device/configuration inside, like the complete systems for our cars do?

The thermal website doesn't specify but one of the vendors sites says they do. I'm sure they all do but I'd shoot thermal an email to confirm. Here's the vendor site

http://www.jegs.com/p/Thermal-R-D/Thermal-R-D-Universal-Stainless-Steel-Mufflers/3649672/10002/-1