Quietest EL Header?
 

I currently have a TRD cat-back and am considering adding a header to the mix, but at the same time I'm at that age where I don't want to have a loud, raspy exhaust note. So I'm looking for the quietest EQUAL LENGTH header to pair with my TRD. Include sound clips too! Bonus points for sound clips with the TRD cat-back! Thanks guys...

All un-catted EL headers are relatively equal for loudness the only differences in sound would be due to thickness of the steel used. If you are looking for catted EL header that would be quieter but there is a trade off for less power. All the rest of the mitigation of loudness and rasp is going to be achieved by resonators, secondary cats and mufflers. As a general rule if your current exhaust set up is at the loudness level you find tolerable, going to a header will be significantly louder. You should be able to find sound clips of various EL headers out there but the biggest differences in noise will be from exhaust set ups without resonators or secondary cats and muffler size. Not so much from the header itself.

P&L coated and Catted
With an OFT Tune

Apoc, the loss is 2 hp, at 7000, 2 hp

JDL EL catted header maybe? I have that one with a nameless catted & resonated front/over pipe and the stock cat back and it is very acceptable as far as volume, even on cold starts. I have no problem driving around a residential neighborhood early/late at night.

Installed P&L catted/coated header and overpipe. Apart from a more bassy tone it is not louder than stock at all. However, to get the most out of it you would need a tune.

:burnrubber:NEVER! :burnrubber:

I am still on the fence about ordering this exact header. I was 1 click away from getting it on a black friday sale but i was too concerned about the change in noise level.

I hate loud exhausts and especially drone and ive been researching this header for months and all the sound clips that have the P&L Catted header also have various other aftermarket exhaust parts so its hard for me to tell how it will sound in my stock exhaust system. At what RPM does it become noticeably louder? Cold start idle? What Speed? Will it be annoying loud cruising at 70-85mph?

When you go WOT there's a bit more metallic noise at 3-4k. Same kind of noise (a bit more than stock) during cold start but goes away as soon as the sequence is finished. You will not notice any difference at all when cruising.

This setup with a cat isn't loud, different but not loud. My daughter is running a stock catback. Check my signature


It becomes louder at WOT
I lowered the cold start idle speed with OFT
It is quiet at cruise, until you give it the beans, then it sounds powerful, not loud or obnoxious


Merry Christmas

: ( Now I regret not jumping on things when they had the Black Friday sale.

Thank you both for your input and the soon to be hole in my wallet.

Any chance either of you could get some sound clips and/or decibel readings(using an app like "Decibel 10th")?

And what cat-backs do you guys have paired with this header?

(and by the way I am tuned)

Thanks!!

I've tried recording a clip with my Sony Actioncam but any difference I could hear in person is drowned out by road noise in the resulting clip even with the cam inside the car. The clip sounds exactly the same as a stock car. I still have stock catback, frontpipe and sound tube.

Not sure a dB reading would be of much help either as I don't have a reading prior to installing the header, and background noise will skew the results.

Well I have a dB reading of my car with just the TRD cat-back of 85dB at 1200rpm cold start...just wanted to see how much louder it will be

IMO @Apoch answer is the only one meaningful unless you can find a comparison chart on nose levels (highly doubt it). The rest of these is just peops' opinion on what they think is loud which may not be what you think is acceptable. Eg for me a tsudo catback was way too loud on startup and ok once warmed up whereas many folks were saying it's one of the quietest catbacks. MXP says they use thicker SS than most (might be just marketing) so I would call the vendors and compare the thickness of SS they use for headers. On the plus side MXP price is reasonable (i had a quote from Malen from @FTEIGHTSIX) and comes with overpipe.