I have an 05 Dakota 4.7L V8. I was looking at the exhaust system and noticed it has 2 additional chambers that look like mufflers. One about 2/3 the size of the muffler before the muffler, and a smaller one after the tail pipe. They are not listed in the service manual so I assume the previous owner put them on. WTF are they and can they be removed? My serpentine belt makes more noise than my engine and that needs to change.

 

They are both resonators, they are stock equipment. I pulled them both along with the huge muffler and dropped in a Magna flow muffler.

 

^^ What he said. All they are there for is to deaden sound. Cut them both out, install a quality performance muffler. Huge improvement!!

 

Thanks. I plan to get a flowmaster and I'll probably fut the first one out at the same time.

 

I cut the first one out too. Then after a very short drive, the other one came out. Even with one resonator, its awfully quiet.

 

I originally had a 40 series flow master on mine with both resonators removed. I do not recommend this if drone bothers you. So loud inside at cruising speed you practically had to yell at the passengers to be heard. The magnaflow I replaced it with sounded just as good outside but the drone was pretty much gone inside the cab.

 

That being the case, I have a little drone. It doesn't bother me when I'm cruising at all, but you are correct that when trying to talk using a speaker phone it's a bit annoying.

That being said, I am planning on coating the under body, in addition to adding some dynamat (or something of the like) to the interior...any of you seen an improvement using either or both of these techniques for sound issues?