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Just installed a FlowTech "Red Hot" muffler, and it sounds great!.

Runnin'OnEmpty

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Southeast USA
This is the third muffler I've had on the XJ in as many months. The Moroso and Imco were much too loud, so in disgust I installed a "Red Hot" made by FlowTech. It's a glass pack style, but with a difference. It has a louvered core, that's designed with a spiral pattern to give a twist to the exhaust gas flow. It has a unique deep sound; more like a chambered muffler than a glass pack, but without the droning at highway speeds.

It's definetely increased the low end torque, and should increase the mpg a little too. Very good muffler for the price......
 
Sorry about the time lag to answer; been out of town.

BlackSport, the RedHot was only $17.95 from Summit Racing. I see them even cheaper on eBay. It seems strange, but the muffler has "mellowed out" over the last couple weeks. It has a deeper, smoother tone than when I first installed it. Don't know why, maybe it's my ears??? LOL. For a glasspack, it's an excellent muffler.

RedXJ, the Moroso is called a "spiral flow". It has a spiral baffle around an open core that you can see through. They are supposed to accellerate the exhaust gases through the muffler. The XJ had good performance with it on, but man, was it LOUD. Couldn't stand it, so I replaced it with the RedHot.

The IMCO is a copy of the Flowmaster single chamber, and it was loud also. I had considered installing them both together, just to see how it sounded. Both together would probably have gotten the noise down to a bearable level. It would have taken a lot of pipe modification however, so I just went with the RedHot.......
 
Scooby, yes it has a lot more pep with the RedHot. It was about the same performance gain as I got with the Moroso and IMCO, but with a quieter tone.

I have a small dip in front of the garage where I park. With the stock type muffler, I had to give it some gas to start it into the garage. With the RedHot on, I don't have to touch the accellerator at all to get it to move into the garage. This tells me it has more torque even at idle, than it did with the stock type muffler. (My stock muffler was long gone, but it still had a "stock type" on when I changed it. Those mufflers must be really restrictive........)
 
I went with the 3 chamber flowmaster, a high flow cat and had all new 2 1/2" pipe run all the way back, it cost me a little bit but not real bad considering the cost of "bolt on" kits.. sounds great and after 40K on it ti still sounds a s good as when I put it on.. dunno about power though, I am sure it made a diference but I made a lot of other changes at the same time so it is hard to single it out..


BUBBA
 
Sounds like a good deal, I've been thinking about Flowmaster for a while because of the sound. But I may go for this one cuz of the price...:)
 
depends how strict MD is...if its 50 state certified then it'll pass, that's you have to look for if your state is strict (like CA)
 
Runnin'OnEmpty said:
This is the third muffler I've had on the XJ in as many months. The Moroso and Imco were much too loud, so in disgust I installed a "Red Hot" made by FlowTech.

So do you still have the "Red Hot" on your rig and do you still like it? or did you remove it and why and what set-up do you have now if you did change it?
 
So do you still have the "Red Hot" on your rig and do you still like it? or did you remove it and why and what set-up do you have now if you did change it?
Mr Bill, I no longer have that XJ, much less the muffler. :) Alas, I let the wife drive it one day, and it was too loud for her. I switched the RedHot for a Thrush Turbo. The Turbo was quieter, it still gave good performance, and the cost was only about $20.

I still have the RedHot in the garage, and am considering using it on my 'new' 96 XJ, maybe in series with a resonator of some kind to quieten it down.

Its probably not your ears, mufflers will often "mellow out" with use as carbon builds up in there.
Yeah Baja, you're probably right about the carbon. I've noticed that on several mufflers; the tone seems to change after a few weeks. Actually they seem to sound better, with a smoother tone than when first installed......
 
I took your word for it. my friend and I installed mufflers last night - he got a thrush glasspack, and I got the Red Hots - and I am so incredibly happy.

we just cut the muffler off behind the cat converter, once we got the muffler and old cat back out (after raising the frame with a floorjack) we just went and hung the new mufflers right there.

but since we ordered the wrong size (2 inch, the piping after the cat is 2 inch - so be sure to buy the two inch slip fits, which they offer, cause we didn't) we had to go to autozone and get some piping to fit the mufflers up. we also got a turndown to push the gases at the ground. we welded the front adapter piece on both of them, and clamped the turndown on his thrush muffler - I took the time and welded both the seams on my muffler. then we clamped them to the stub left over behind the Cat.

and they are great. his has more of a truck sound, the "woaht" sound, and the redhots deliver more of a race car sound "wooht", while producing a low rumble at an idle.

one of our friends has a summit glasspack installed the same way (but he didn't weld the hangar back on - hehehe) and its funny how our three rigs - set up the same way, sound so different, the summit muffler gets a little ricey at high rpms, the thrush muffler gets a nice "truck" sound all the way through the powerband, and mine sounds more like a nascar race car.

and it was fun to see what the 4.0's sounded like without any muffler and just the Cat.
(sorry, 16 and 17 year olds just want to tickle the brain in that way.)

either way - I am incredibly happy with my muffler, my friend is happy with his thrush, and the other guy is planning on switching to a chambered muffler simply because he didn't do a good job installing his muffler (<--- lol)

have fun - because I will
 
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