LCSteve

So I was lucky enough to score a good condition lightly used SLP Loudmouth I off a good forum member here. It was shipped to me rather quickly and after having to wait an agonizing 5 day I installed last night after pulling the factory NPP from my 2013 3LT base. I must of read no less than 20 threads soup to nuts and some articles off the site on how to remove and install this thing. Over and over and over the same thing kept coming up, the passenger muffler is a ***** fugga to get out and it seems like a 50/50 shot of having to cut it out. Well I wanted to throw my feedback in the ring for those considering the swap. First I needed to find a jack that would work on my car and Harbor Freight to the rescue. I ended up getting the 60678 which is apparently identical to the 68050 that so many people on here have used. It worked great. I put the front on some old Rhino Ramps my brother gave me and the back was raised on some nice new HF 6 ton 24" jacks. I didn't go that high mind you but they were quite sturdy. 'd venture I was 9" off the ground in the front and 17-18 in the back.

So for the install I followed the many how-to's on here and the disassemble portion went very smooth up to the muffler removal. I started with the driver muffler and wiggled and twisted and viola 90 seconds later it came out. My son was helping me in this whole project and I said to him OK this one (the passenger) is the bear and could take some time. So I grabbed the muffler side of it and started pulling and twisting and holy crap it just pulled out easy peasey in less than 10 seconds it was out on the ground. We were both shocked and confused.

We started reassembly and the driver side gave us a little grief getting it in but the passenger side went in right away. Then we attached everything and tightened all the nuts and bolts back up. Assembly took like 20 minutes and aligning the muffler tips took like 30 minutes cause they need to be spot on you know. All in the removal took less than an hour and assembly took less than an hour so it was a pretty quick job.

Now there was some nasty storm clouds rolling in so we rushed out for a quick test drive. I was immediately surprised to see on firing it up that it was about the same volume level as the NPP's with the fuse pulled. So we went for a quick drive and to my complete surprise they were not that loud at all. There was some noticeable drone between 1500-1800 rpm while accelerating but it was not present while cruising in those ranges only while pressing the gas. The tone was deeper and more aggressive sounding but not really much if at all louder than the NPP's. Cruising below 1400 rpm the SLP's actually seem quieter than the NPP's. My wife who rolls her eyes at these little projects of mine on this and other cars said she couldn't tell a difference in the sound level from our bedroom which is located above our garage. Bonus.

So the short and to the point of my post is that if your considering doing this don't sweat the 115k posts that say the passenger muffler might never come out without using a plasma cutter powered by puppies and kittens. This clearly isn't the case all the time, so just go for it. Next would be the dreaded drone. Everyone has a different perception of drone and this is why some people want to put stock back on their car and some refuse to ever remove the stock on their car. What makes one man want to jam a screwdriver in his ears to make the drone go away may not bother you one bit. I was VERY worried that the bullet style mufflers would make all my neighbors form an intervention or an angry mob in my name but I'll argue most won't even notice I swapped them. So stop flip-flopping and get off the pot and give it a shot.

Steve

djbrun

Dropping the 2-1/2" exhaust is no problem, it is the 3" with the diff cooler on the passenger side that can be a pain.

Glad you like your exhaust!

DJ

Kent1999

My stock muffler extraction experience mirrored the ease of yours.

Most problems with getting the stock mufflers out are caused by not having the rear of the car high enough off the ground -- just having the car hoisted on a pair of standard ramps won't do.

dmk0210

So I'm curious. What's the advantage of the swap from NPP?