Phat quads on a 3.0R auto - observations & thoughts

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Figured I'd post this up to provide some info on how these perform on a 3.0R auto. Others have made further comments on 3.0 exhaust modification thoughts in this thread.

First of all, the Phat quads are sex. Shiny stainless, great welds and smoothly bent pipes. I bought these for aesthetics, sound and the placebo effect of a performance increase.

One of the bolts on the original mufflers was an absolute BITCH to get off, but with much coercion it was removed. The left muffler now sits slightly against the inner bumper area despite my best efforts to apply outward pressure on both the flange and muffler body while tightening the bolts, as per Phat's installation instructions. The right muffler is close but doesn't touch. I'll eventually loosen both and try again but I'm not sure it'll make much difference.

The sound is definitely meatier than it used to be. On idle, there's a bassier note which is not too loud. On low revs there's a little more sound than usual and when pushed hard it's most certainly louder and... ballsier than the stock exhaust, while still being restrained. While cruising it's virtually silent.

At 2600-2900RPM there is quite a bit of resonance however and it's reasonably loud - which is slightly irritating as it's a common rev band to be moving through while changing from second to third to fourth. If I apply a level of throttle resulting in this rev level being held, it'd probably piss off anyone trying to sleep!

No decent photos of them on the car (I took some before I installed 'em) but I do have two rushed videos comparing the before & after. This makes it a little hard to appreciate the sound as a result - apologies. I was in a hurry both times for different reasons!

The 'crack' in the second video is probably my springs settling as I sat in the car for the first time after lowering it back to the floor.

Stock muffs:


Phat muffs: