Missed this one here Hog...
I had a few discussions yesterday with techs at FlowMaster, and DynoMax, about my drone, and other exhaust topics.
Ronnie @ FM said you'll DEFINTELY run cooler with headers over OEM hardware. I told him my cooling fans had not come on once, with Marc's 205'-coded chip, since my own swap. I haven't done any daytime stop n go driving yet however. A/C does trip fans - I had to check that to make sure.
He said he COULD see that an X-section would mimic a sound like an exhaust leak. He said that an H-pipe section would NOT likely do this. Hmmm...
He said he has hardware that I can put in which will reduce drone, although he was tentative about that, since the rear hatch geometry likely has more to do with that.
He doesn't like header wrap, except for near the END of the exhaust lines. Said only place for header wrap is dirt track mills, and that it could lead to cracked header tubes, not from moisture / rust formation, but from heat cycling and heat retention in the pipes. He prefers JetHot's Coatings. He said JH would keep the heat as well as wrap would. THAT I could not see...
He said I COULD probably put back in the OEM resonator,
probably without re-introducing flow restriction. He said I could put in his
Flowmaster® Part #: 15147S, definitley without putting flow restriction back into the pipes, and probably the SAME model hardware with 2.5" inlets / outlets, without putting flow restriction back in.
Today, we're up on ramps. More wrap is going onto the cross-over / X-section, and behind, to see what effect that might have in drone reduction. I'll measure sound level, and post results, before buying more hardware to put in in front of the pipes' split-off near the diff...
I'm considering also sound barrier of some sort, in addition to the cork sheeting that I put in yesterday, under the rear cargo carpet. That did marginally reduce again interior drone, in addition to the extra foam board on the backside of the roof headliner pad. I used a media player with a 5 band EQ to confirm that.