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Fresh Air Exhaust VS Silent Tip Exhaust Malibu RLXI 383 Hammerhead


Ssh78

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Hi all trying to reduce exhaust noise in my 05 RLXI 383 Hammerhead. Currently i have rubber flappers and mufflers but looking for a more comfortable note when people are in the back seat.

Ive narrowed it down to either a fresh air exhaust or silent turned down tips. 

Anyone have a Fresh Air Exhaust fitted to an 03 to 06 RLXI with wedge (floating or manual)

Or no wedge.

Interested to know how much it silenced the in boat exhaust noise especially from the rear seat.

And does the FAE effect the ski/slalom and barefoot wakes.

Has anyone fitted the Fresh Air stainless mufflers too and did they dampen the exhaust noise without a FAE outlet

Thanks

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I just went from rubber flappers to SS turndown tips and it helped a tiny bit on the noise, but not much.  However, i was not looking to reduce noise but more of just getting rid of the ugly flappers and upgrade to the nice SS tips.

i could be wrong but i thought the FAE will introduce a rooster tail

E7DC2D93-D9E6-4454-B7EF-073724A4DF1B.jpeg

35F27CD4-F544-47A1-9EDA-8FF2C55E813C.jpeg

Edited by hawaiianstyln
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I switched from flappers to turn down tips and noticed that the higher frequency popping is gone.  The exhaust note is now lower and much more mellow.  I still have the stock mufflers.

The noise in the boat reduced greatly when I changed my exhaust manifolds to Marine Torq Stainless manifolds (possibly still available in the group buy).  I wasn't expecting that, but it was a very pleasant surprise.  The consensus is that the greater water volume inside the manifolds does a better job of dampening the exhaust sound than the cast iron manifolds do.  Your 2005 model probably has ETX aluminum manifolds, so I don't know what the difference would be for you.

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Much different year (and intent), but I changed from the tips in the photo above to FAE this season. 
 

I personally don’t notice much difference in noise, and mine does create a rooster tail at speeds above 25. 

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9 hours ago, Woodski said:

@Ssh78 - For a DD ski boat aiming to keep the wake unchanged and quiet down the exhaust, my preference would be to install a Silent Rider exhaust muffler.  Every ski boat using them runs extremely quiet.

Thanks Woodski 

not sure what mufflers I have but will have a sus, probably the stock Malibu fibreglass mufflers.

Still super loud and droney in the back with the flappers.

 

 

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14 hours ago, cowwboy said:

FAE will drastically reduce the exhaust sound. You will loose a little bit of top end but I haven't noticed a rooster tail. 

Thanks 

12 hours ago, justgary said:

I switched from flappers to turn down tips and noticed that the higher frequency popping is gone.  The exhaust note is now lower and much more mellow.  I still have the stock mufflers.

The noise in the boat reduced greatly when I changed my exhaust manifolds to Marine Torq Stainless manifolds (possibly still available in the group buy).  I wasn't expecting that, but it was a very pleasant surprise.  The consensus is that the greater water volume inside the manifolds does a better job of dampening the exhaust sound than the cast iron manifolds do.  Your 2005 model probably has ETX aluminum manifolds, so I don't know what the difference would be for you.

Good advice 

Yeah mine has etx manifold pre cats and stock glass exhausts.

It’s definitely more of a back of end high db noise.

I reckon silent tips or FAE will resolve my issues, prefer the look and simplicity of the silent tips but not sure if they will cut the mustard. 

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12 hours ago, Ssh78 said:

Thanks 

Good advice 

Yeah mine has etx manifold pre cats and stock glass exhausts.

It’s definitely more of a back of end high db noise.

I reckon silent tips or FAE will resolve my issues, prefer the look and simplicity of the silent tips but not sure if they will cut the mustard. 

Perhaps you can find someone near you with them and ask to ride in the back for a few minutes.

Like I said, my experience is that the flappers are producing the higher frequency popping noise.  The turndown tips have fixed baffles but no flappers, and they also direct the sound down toward the water.  FAE will almost certainly leave some sort of residual wake.

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FAE in my 03 VLX was hands down the best investment I have ever made in the boat. We don’t ski at all so can’t speak to that but I haven’t noticed any change in my wakeboard or surf wake. Definitely does kick up a bit of spray but the wedge catches most of it when it’s up.

At 20mph you can have a comfortable conversation in the back seat without having to yell at each other. You hear more noise from the water coming off the hull than engine or exhaust noise.

B8A57E6C-EB50-4CA9-A67C-EDE1B40DBFA9.jpeg

4B45CB42-D1E6-4AEB-A0B7-9F45A36C0F10.jpeg

  • Thanks 2
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Yeah, I agree... FAE and Perfect pass are the two best things I've put on our boat. It didn't change our surf wave, made it much more enjoyable to be back there. Only negative I see is it does make a decent amount of spray at higher speeds.... but it doesn't bother me.

E0DAE2AE-D548-4A8B-AD23-9B74C81CDFE1

 

Edited by BlindSquirrel
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That's my thread on BoS about the mod I made to my Response.  It definitely made it quieter behind the boat.  Change to sound level in the boat is somewhat negligible as most of the sound is coming from the engine box.  You do get less of that popping noise sitting in the back of the boat with my mod.  If the silent tips are the versions that include a baffle, those might remove more of the intensity though.  My mod just takes the noise and blasts it downward towards the water rather than out the back.

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5 hours ago, UWSkier said:

That's my thread on BoS about the mod I made to my Response.  It definitely made it quieter behind the boat.  Change to sound level in the boat is somewhat negligible as most of the sound is coming from the engine box.  You do get less of that popping noise sitting in the back of the boat with my mod.  If the silent tips are the versions that include a baffle, those might remove more of the intensity though.  My mod just takes the noise and blasts it downward towards the water rather than out the back.

So the main noise difference is to the skier and other lake users? I like the noise of mine (standard mufflers, Monsoon 340) however some people have commented it's one of the noisier ski boats on lake. Definitely is noisier compared to the DiasterCrafts and Nautanks. Less than most of the V8 jetboats though.

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47 minutes ago, uk_exile said:

So the main noise difference is to the skier and other lake users? I like the noise of mine (standard mufflers, Monsoon 340) however some people have commented it's one of the noisier ski boats on lake. Definitely is noisier compared to the DiasterCrafts and Nautanks. Less than most of the V8 jetboats though.

Yes.  Here's an after/before video.  Same line length and camera setup.  First time I took a holeshot behind the boat after I made the change, I thought my boat became electric somehow.  I didn't realize how loud my boat was until I couldn't hear it.

 

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I have a similar engine, custom built 388, precat ETX manifolds, STE's, and I have the Silent Rider muffler with the inner elbows removed so it's basically just a barrel between the manifolds and the exhaust lines.  It sounds perfect, very quiet on the inside (much quieter than the stock cast iron manifolds) and a nice rumble from the outside.  No drone at all.

527715520_Exhaustcomplete.thumb.JPG.85febbb0b0ad556e2a414337faa32de2.JPG1310203711_STEinstalled002.thumb.JPG.366a9d6dd2440b8cb3f750b80efc259c.JPG

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I went from flappers to STE to FAE.

STE was an improvement but not nearly as much as the FAE.  I was even able to remove my muffler with the FAE, which really opened up room in the engine bay.  FAE had some downsides:
- Lost a few MPH, but bypassing the muffler helped gain some of it back
- Washed out my surf wake.  Buddy and I designed a surf flap which I ran for a few years until FAE came out with their deflector plate, which solved the issue and the surf flap went away

I'd do FAR over STE every time.  No impact on slalom wake.

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On 6/24/2022 at 9:33 AM, UWSkier said:

Yes.  Here's an after/before video.  Same line length and camera setup.  First time I took a holeshot behind the boat after I made the change, I thought my boat became electric somehow.  I didn't realize how loud my boat was until I couldn't hear it.

 

Wow, that's a super impressive difference for a <30 minute DIY project. 

My boat is in storage at moment so it'll be a little project for me in 3 months time.  Found this supplier with 10 different colours of elbows https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002883183984.html?spm=a2g0s.8937460.0.0.6c672e0eOxBKMA 

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  • 2 months later...

I still have not installed my stainless tips, havent had time to mess with it. Also have a bit of reservation ditching the flappers, as there appears to be some disagreement to the level of risk added by potential for water to backflow into the exhaust valves. Seems like an unlikely event, anyone hear of, or experience an issue with this after going to no flappers? I would assume that none of the Bu's that come stock with the turndown tips have any sort of one-way valve further up stream.

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4 hours ago, Jhucke said:

I still have not installed my stainless tips, havent had time to mess with it. Also have a bit of reservation ditching the flappers, as there appears to be some disagreement to the level of risk added by potential for water to backflow into the exhaust valves. Seems like an unlikely event, anyone hear of, or experience an issue with this after going to no flappers? I would assume that none of the Bu's that come stock with the turndown tips have any sort of one-way valve further up stream.

I've been running the STE's and the guts punched out of my Silent Rider muffler for a couple hundred hours, no issues.  There isn't a direct path to shove water into the STE with a quick stop, since the water travels toward the edge of the tip that is facing down.  No issues, and the boat has been driven by me, wife, both my early 20's knuckle head boys that like to hot rod it around, my 14 year old daughter, etc.

  • Like 1
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I have two sets of silent tips been sitting in the garage for a while.  Was going to throw them out but I could send to someone as long as they pay the shipping ;) 1 set came off an 06 23 LSV had them on for about 500 hrs before I installed a fresh air exhaust, 2nd set came off a 2015 23 LSV with approx 200 hrs before I put on a fresh air exhaust. Never had any issues with water getting back in the engine.  Frankly the fresh air exhaust works so well I don’t think I could ever own a boat without it again.

BxchPi3l.jpg

  • Like 3
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2 hours ago, Sharpag01 said:

Maybe I missed it but why remove the guts from the silent rider muffler?  I am currently using the original setup from factory with STE.

It began with me changing the in and out openings to 3.5", but once I was cutting into it I decided to remove the baffles as well for increased flow.  It was part of an engine overhaul project and I installed ETX manifolds, removed the exhaust baffles, replaced all of the exhaust tubing and finished with replacing worn flappers with the STE's.527715520_Exhaustcomplete.thumb.JPG.85febbb0b0ad556e2a414337faa32de2.JPG

  • Like 2
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