MagnaFlow’s Street Series Cat-Back Exhaust Improves Wrangler 392 Sound Quality While Reducing Drone and Increasing Trail Clearance

It will happen to every Wrangler 392 that hits a difficult trail. It, being the dreaded exhaust tip reshaping. This has almost become a rite of passage for Wrangler 392 owners and a way to prove their rigs aren’t just pavement queens. That doesn’t mean that the first smash hurts any less, though.

Fortunately, Jeep took this into account when developing the exhaust, which uses the muffler off of a European Alfa Guila. Owners of the Wrangler 392 can eliminate potential trail-induced tip damage, as all four tips are removable.

Unfortunately, few owners take advantage of this feature, including us. And when you do damage the exhaust, you will quickly discover that replacing just the tips through your local dealer is an exercise in spending several hundred dollars, so consider that a lesson learned.

Of course, the aftermarket has also responded with products, such as muffler skid plates, which can add weight and impact the aesthetics of the 392.

Tips aside, the Wrangler 392 almost always sounds amazing, save for the factory exhaust’s propensity to drone. And drone. And drone. At least at certain speeds, certain rpm ranges, and certain loads, and especially when going in and out of four-cylinder mode.

The Wrangler and the way it is built means that you will probably never fully eliminate the exhaust drone, but you can certainly improve upon it.

Enter the exhaust gurus at MagnaFlow Performance, who have a couple of different high-quality stainless steel exhaust options for the 392. The first is the company’s Rock Crawler Series cat-back exhaust, which eschews the rear muffler and exhaust valves for a high-tuck system that has an aggressive exterior sound with moderate interior levels.

MagnaFlow includes what they call their MagnaFlow NDT (No Drone Technology) to help with that pesky unwanted noise.

Because of the sensitivities of our neighbors and our penchant for long, cross-country drives, we really didn’t want to lose the functionality of the exhaust valves. So we decided on MagnaFlow’s other option, the Street Series cat-back exhaust.

This system features 3-inch construction with four massive black chromed 4-inch tips to really make a statement.

The smaller MagnaFlow muffler resides in the same space as the bulky stock muffler for more clearance and the tips are positioned closer to the center and angle-cut for additional clearance.

This system also utilizes the exhaust valves for quieter cruising, nice for your late-night return to the neighborhood after a trip, or for those endless highway jaunts on your way to your favorite wheeling spot.

MagnaFlow rates this system as having a moderate exterior sound and mild interior sound. We say it’s about 10-percent louder than the stock exhaust with the valves closed, and 15-20-percent more volume with the valves open. MagnaFlow also designed this exhaust to work with select aftermarket muffler skids.

With the MagnaFlow exhaust in place, there are certain rpm sweeps that are absolutely sublime, filled with the sweet melody of the Hemi singing. Part throttle, accelerating through 3,000 rpm, is one of these moments, as is passing at wide open throttle.

A Jeep shouldn’t sound like this, but ours does. Despite the NDT and resonators, the drone isn’t completely eliminated, but it is significantly better and doesn’t drive us insane the way the stock exhaust did, so we can chalk that up to an improvement for driving fatigue on long trips, and a win.

If there are any drawbacks to this system, we wish the girthy 4-inch tips were removeable or replaceable. With them welded on, any trail damage must be worn with pride.

However, we have wheeled with this exhaust for thousands of miles and have scraped the bottom of the outside tips many times, and have found them to be very durable.

Thanks to strong dual-wall stainless construction, they have laughed off most hits and are multiple times tougher than the thin factory tips.

For our install, we headed down to MagnaFlow headquarters in Oceanside, California and were in and out in just a couple of hours with a new, better sounding exhaust that has a 1-year finish warranty and a lifetime construction warranty.

Source: MagnaFlow

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This article originally appeared in OVR Issue 11. For more informative articles like this, consider subscribing to OVR Magazine in print or digital versions here. You can also find the print edition of OVR at your local newsstand by using our Magazine Finder.