Flowmaster vs. Magnaflow, is there a true difference? (also air intake question)

I will.

I'm totally intrigued by this MagnaFlow/Flowmaster experiment. I'm already running a 22 inch MagnaFlow, and am interested in trying out the mild sounding 50 series because its "H" design uses the Helmholz resonating principle of reflecting sound waves colliding into themselves to cancel out certain frequencies.

Our 2.7's are among the largest four cylinder engines currently in production. If they were half of a V8 it would be a 5.4 liter or a 330 cubic inch engine. That's like a Ford F250 Pickup 300 horsepower Triton V8. And since many V8's use dual exhaust with two mufflers, just one small block V8 dual exhaust muffler would be properly sized for our 2.7.

Greg

 

Yeah, I think I'd like to try a more throaty sound. My large Magnaflow is really mellow and smooth...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2X9wPQE2Zw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvIBURPwtXw

...but I'm curious how a Flowmaster would sound, especially mated to my LCE long tube header.

Greg

 

With your headers, it'd prob sound better. All the 2.7 with flowmaster sound better than mangaflow

 

An crucial question... you have any cab drone with the Flowmaster? What do you hear at about 2,000 rpm and 60 mph on the freeway?

If you do have cab drone, that would be a deal breaker. I drive my truck day in day out for work, and don't want any drone.

Also, is rest of your exhaust pipe all stock, or did you cut it off at the rear axle? That's also an important consideration as cutting it off increases cab drone.

Yeah, I was really surprised at the sound, too! It's totally quiet in normal driving. I only got the Injen to go with the tooter spacer, since it has only one point of attachment and was super easy to relocate to fit the new position of the throttle body.

Best price I found is ebay $240 or best offer with free shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Injen-PF201...Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e89dbb660&vxp=mtr

What makes it resonate so deeply is that the one piece intake tube is a whopping 36 inches long. That's longer than any other intake tube I've seen, perhaps with the exception of the URD intake for the 4.0 that puts the filter out in front of the radiator.


Greg

 

I will have to take back 'part' of my last statement. I couldn't stand the sound no more and had to tow the race car to the track this evening, I got under the truck to put it back to factory specs. Couldn't believe what I found, the complete front of the 2 glasspacks were unwelded, the guy tacked everything up then welded the rears and built hangers, etc... and forgot to go back and weld the fronts up. I sowed them up and its now night and day different. I now have the MF tone back but it tons quitter with the 2 gp's in front. Driving empty its as quite a it was stock (in the cab anyways) and with my heavy trailer in tow it's very acceptable now. So in short, power deff. increased but millage did not, but it took 3 straight through design mufflers to get it as quite as I wanted it.......

 

Well, I just pulled the trigger for a Flowmaster off of ebay for $105 with free shipping no sales tax.

I avoided all of the 40 and 44 series because from listening to the YouTubes, they're way too loud. I also passed on the 60 series as it's more for small foreign import cars. There is also a Super 50 series for pickup trucks. It has a larger casing but less internal baffles so I didn't choose it. I went with the stainless steel 50 series made for passenger cars because it has the most Helmholz resonators and delta flow dividers and should be the quietest. Because it's 100% stainless steel, it won't rust and has a lifetime warranty on it.



I'll do a dyno run with the MagnaFlow first before installing the FlowMaster and dynoing it. I'll post up all of the data, as well as some sound videos and my driving impressions. With $105 for the muffler and $200 for the before and after dyno runs, the whole experiment should come in at under $400.

Flow design has always fascinated me and I'm eager to try this real world experiment that will yield useful information that might help others decide which muffler is best for them.


Greg

 

I'm glad you resolved your problem with a simple solution.
Exhaust leaks can make a lot of noise as well as ruining the scavenging effect because air gets sucked in from the outside cancelling the vacuum wave of each pulse that should be reflected back to the engine to pull out more exhaust.

Greg

 

I went straight to reply and haven't read through yet.

When I was building up one of my Vette's to race I went with the Magnaflo for the reason of the straight through design. I'm no expert but in my thinking if I was opening up the exhaust for more power I asked myself why would I want to put on any other muffler that is not straight through. I liked it, it sounded good but I was doing it for performance. The V8 will handle the sound part if the sound was important.

Your question is side by side comparison. I would do a google search and see what you would find.

 

My approach is exactly the opposite of a high performance car like yours. The Tacoma 2TR FE 2.7 is a very slow turning industrial engine with a redline of only 5,600rpm. It's designed for low end torque and not for top end horsepower. Mine hits its peak torque at only 2,900 rpm. And at that low rpm the exhaust system is underutilized and needs to provide enough backpressure to retain torque..

Since I already discovered by experiment that opening up the exhaust on this engine killed the low end torque, I don't need to go there again.

Right now I have a large 22 inch straight through MagnaFlow with a small 2.25" diameter exhaust pipe run out the rear bumper...



...so that will be the "before" dyno test.

Then I'll have the Flowmaster installed with no other changes, and do an "after" dyno test. Then I'll overlay the two tests to see what the actual difference is. I really don't have the slightest idea which muffler will produce more low end torque...

...so the fun will be in finding out.

As far as other "tests", all I've seen record the difference in sound like this one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4oXWvyKRaA

...and were not with actual dyno tests which will impartially record the performance difference between the two. I like the Flowmaster sound. This is actually a pretty good test because it's a 5.3 with two mufflers and dual exhaust, so half will almost perfectly match the sound of one muffler with a 2.7.

Greg

 

I can't wait to see the difference and hear the difference also!

The flowmaster doesn't drone at those speeds, I have the super 40 with a dump before the back and it's not bad. I posted a video of it at different speeds and surprised everyone how little it did drone haha

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YsQ_JVwEFd4

That as my truck, 40 with a dump pipe

 

Wow... that sounds great!
A 50 series with a pipe all the way out the back should be just fine then.

Greg

 

Exactly! Post a sound clip when you get it done

 

Sure will...
I'll post dyno charts, pics, and video to fully document the experiment. The first dyno test will be this Friday the 27th if I can make the free time from work, and the Flowmaster muffler will be here by about Thursday.



Found a neato Flowmaster pic explaining how the 50 series delta flow mufflers work.





Greg

 

I'm excited for this

 

So am I.
I've been reading MagnaFlow versus Flowmaster threads for hours, and did happen to find this one dyno comparison which gives the nod to Magnaflow. I don't know what truck engine it is because it was posted by a second party.

The consensus seems to be that Magnaflow's straight through design is what gives it the performance edge.



I'll make the dyno tests as equal as I can so the results will be reliable.


Greg

 

Whichever muffler ends up coming out on top.. You should send the results to the co. They might reimburse your dyno costs for marketing purposes.. Since flowmaster and magna are the two big competitors

 

You are right, my response was to Annolino122.

 

Nice!

My theory proved. One thing I can say is I did have some drone with the Magnaflo. Sounded great on a V8 but that low end drone would tire me sometimes. Maybe it's not as bad on a truck since the muffler sits under the bed and not the cab.

Bottom line either one should make you happy

 

While that's a nice suggestion... I'm doing this on my own dime just to satisfy my own personal curiosity. Once the results are posted, they're in the public domain anyways and no one owns them. I'm not certain the results could be extrapolated to other vehicles anyways as they're proprietary to the 2TR FE which is quite different from other engines in many ways.

Also, I'm only interested in which one is best for low end torque (idle to 3,000 rpm) because my engine is always within that range when I drive.

I don't have a dog in this fight. I already love the sound and performance of my Magnaflow. But these two mufflers are of two completely different designs...






...so It's going to be intriguing just to find out which one works best on the 2.7.


Greg

 

Yes, the old tried and true straight through has an obvious physical advantage, and my "muffler shootout" experiment will likely confirm that.

But the newer Flowmaster 50 series has two Helmholz resonators to cancel the unwanted sound frequencies instead of sound deadening packing. It also has three angled flow plates which create low pressure areas to scavenge the exhaust. It also has a cleverly designed internal "funnel" that the exhaust passes through. This funnel acts as a one way valve to prevent reversion of the exhaust pulses leaving the muffler which keeps the exhaust flowing in one direction.

I also had cab drone with the 18 inch Magnaflow on my Taco and the stock metric 2 3/8" diameter pipe. But there's absolutely no drone with the larger 22 inch muffler and a slightly smaller diameter 2 1/4" exhaust pipe. So it's just a matter of pairing the right muffler to the right size of exhaust pipe.

Greg