loner
New member
I have had the stainless Gibson cat-back system for a few years and generally liked it. However, I recently decided i wanted something louder so I replaced the Gibson muffler with a Borla (model 40659, 2.5" to match the rest of the Gibson piping, $140). The Gibson muffler was 24 inches long, and the Borla only 14 inches, so I bought some stainless pipe and cut it to length to fill in the extra space. Here's how they compare:
Gibson - No drone whatsoever. Distinctly louder than stock, but you'd have a hard time hearing it with the windows up. Oddly, my MPGs dropped one full point. The sound has a definite "hissing character", which is not good.
Borla - MPG increased a point after replacing the Gibson with the Borla, so perhaps back to "normal" MPG. Sound is MUCH deeper, no hiss, but a definite drone. The drone seems to be livable so far. I went on a trip and had a bunch of suitcases in the hatch, and it sure seemed like the drone was magnified a lot. I'm no expert on acoustics, so maybe I'm crazy.
Bottom line, if you can put up with the slight drone, the Borla is far better than the Gibson in sound quality and MPG.
On a side note, I used a different type of clamp. Instead of the usual saddle clamps, I bought stainless Walker band clamps. LINK These things are super easy to use and seem sturdy. My exhaust piping appears to be more rigid now, with the Borla, extra pipe, and band clamps, than it did with just the Gibson muffler and the saddle clamps. They even make a clamp for butting two pieces of pipe together, without needing one piece of pipe to slip over the other. Pretty cool.:thumb3:
Gibson - No drone whatsoever. Distinctly louder than stock, but you'd have a hard time hearing it with the windows up. Oddly, my MPGs dropped one full point. The sound has a definite "hissing character", which is not good.
Borla - MPG increased a point after replacing the Gibson with the Borla, so perhaps back to "normal" MPG. Sound is MUCH deeper, no hiss, but a definite drone. The drone seems to be livable so far. I went on a trip and had a bunch of suitcases in the hatch, and it sure seemed like the drone was magnified a lot. I'm no expert on acoustics, so maybe I'm crazy.
Bottom line, if you can put up with the slight drone, the Borla is far better than the Gibson in sound quality and MPG.
On a side note, I used a different type of clamp. Instead of the usual saddle clamps, I bought stainless Walker band clamps. LINK These things are super easy to use and seem sturdy. My exhaust piping appears to be more rigid now, with the Borla, extra pipe, and band clamps, than it did with just the Gibson muffler and the saddle clamps. They even make a clamp for butting two pieces of pipe together, without needing one piece of pipe to slip over the other. Pretty cool.:thumb3:
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