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<< As far as the car itself is concerned it's actually better. The exhaust is less restricted which means that your engine will perform more efficiently. That's why race cars run straight pipes (no mufflers). >>
I thought that this didn't hold true for little 4-bangers, which is why the import crowds favor those cat-back systems. I could be wrong.
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jzero...
you are completely correct.
and as for boonerebel...
you're mistaken to think that no muffler is better for your car.
as i stated earlier ... with lots of others....
back pressure is something that's needed... and will do damage over a period of time... as well as reduce the performance.
think of it in this way,
let's say you're blowing up a balloon.
you know that it'll take more effort to blow air into a balloon than just exhaling into an open air.
so before you put your mouth to the opening of the balloon, you take a big inhale.
and you naturally blow harder into the balloon.
let's say i made a large hole in that balloon on the other end.
you unknowing this, you blow hard as if the balloon had no hole.
what do you think will happen to you afterwards?
how bout the duration of your blow? do you think you can blow hard into this balloon as long as you would have if there was no hole?
as i said earlier, your car is tuned to having that back pressure.
and it'll perform as if the back pressure is there.
while you may be able to let the air out faster,
it won't be good for your car. >>
That's quite a rant about balloons, blowing, etc. You might be working harder to blow up a balloon as opposed to breathing with no restriction, but do you think you're actually moving more air? No, your're just working harder to move a similar volume. At the end of the day, who do you think is going to be in better shape? Someone breathing normally or someone that has had to exhale into a balloon?
However, I stand by my statement that the engine will run more efficiently. Your engine is basically a big air pump. Anything you can do to increase the flow of air through it will give you more power. Whether that's putting on a K&N air filter, new intake, exhaust, header system, etc., you're improving the flow of air through the system. Past the slight scavenging effect that the exhaust pipes provide, a muffler itself hurts performance. It's a shame your little import job can't handle it.