Catbacks for the 3rd gen tacoma

I was considering the AWE kit but honestly it's a bit out of my price range, can't afford to be regularly running 89 either. Might have to think about it though

*Actually really dig the sound of the true dual with the black tips

 

Would you say the Flowmaster or the AWE was louder overall?

 

I went with a Carven catback with the black tip. I have a sport 6 MT, they have videos on their website and social media platforms. It’s not crazy loud but gives a good sound when you hit it. It’s no straight piped coyote but it’s pretty good.

 

I would say that the FM is sometimes annoying, and has more tone and drone through a wider RPM range.

While the AWE is always tolerable and often sounds stock depending on RPMs, especially in the higher gears.

Budget was a concern for me also. Many times, I had my finger on the trigger of the FlowFX kit for this Tacoma. But I saved up for the AWE. Just get the FM FlowFX for 1/2 or 1/3 of the price of the AWE. You could change out just the muffler or add a resonator later if you decide you don’t like the tone.

The Carven kit was 3rd on my list.

 

VR6 enters the chat...

 

Yamaha's V6 in the first and second generation Taurus SHO, Honda's C30 in the NSX and Nissan's VQ30. Mazda also has a little 1.8L V6 that wasn't too shabby.

The midsized higher revving V6's tend to sound nicer. Once they get larger the mass produced V6's just sound better with more mufflers and catalytic converters.

 

I think most v6’s sound fine as long as you keep rasp and claps out. Even the vq engines, I think those sound good with a good muffler setup to keep the rasp down. Funnily enough, what makes the Tacomas and most Toyota trucks v6’s sound unique is the unequal length y pipe. If you’ve ever heard the urd spec u exhaust, which makes the y pipes equal length, it sounds like a vq, and the trd camry. The 2grfks isn’t a bad sounding engine, it’s just the way the pipes are set up that gives it a cringey note in the higher rpms

 

I can’t say I saw any noticeable difference in power and I have the dual exit. It may be more pronounced in an automatic but I doubt there would be.

 

TRD and Borla S type are the only 2 exhaust that got no drone when cruising. Everything else, especially MBRP will be raspy and drony.

 

Zero power gains with cat back exhaust on these Tacomas.

If you get URD catless y pipes then sure. I would love to get it but conversion rate, shipping/duties will kill me. I will get it sooner or later though.

 

I think that's the one I'm gonna go with, gonna look into the AWE true duals more first though. The price is making me gunshy

 

I know what you mean. Sound clips make it tough to decide. I went with the flowmaster based on the history I have had with them and I’m satisfied with what I have. Let us know where you land and your thoughts on it.

 

Buy mbrp and you get all the fixings no buying some extra pipe .

 

Can the URD Y-pipe paired with the TRD cat back improve the note that much? If so you've peaked my curiosity.

 

No - the urd y pipe and urd spec u are two different systems. Unfortunately I dont think urd sells the spec u for the 3rd gen Tacomas anymore. The y pipe deletes the cats but still unequal length, the spec u deletes the cats and makes it equal length. What you could probably do is go to a muffler shop and have them make a custom system with cat deletes and an equal length y pipe, I even considered this at one point

keep in mind once you start deleting cats the issue of droning and rasp start to come into play, in fact I think urd discontinued the spec u because of complaints with droning issues. You can also run into CEL’s. Deleting the cats can however give you an increase in power, as opposed to catbacks not changing anything power wise

 

OP- CAI/Exhausts for these trucks provide no actual improvement besides noise. As @SoonToBeOn35s said, No one wants to hear a V6 with exhaust. The only one that was reasonable was the TRD(I’ve owned URD,Borla,Flowmaster on this 3rd gen) and sold them all within a week of initial install(that annoying). Learn from our mistakes, CAI and Exhaust are a waste of $ on these engines.

 

Piqued*

 

Well not a waste of money if one enjoys the intake and exhaust noise.

 

I would get the Borla y pipe, but here's an interesting clip with the urd y, trd catback, intake flow accelerator and k&n drop in filter.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Z6RecMgVOto

 

I have Borla and love it! Very deep throaty sound. I just bought the racing muffler and kept my stock exhaust.