Does not having a muffler burn more gas?

Question

I'm missing my muffler. does it affect gas mileage and/or does it reduce engine power?

thank u.

Answer 1

it makes your car alot louder, it could either reduce or raise engine power depending on how the muffler was designed. If you lose too much backpressure you might go slower, if it frees up a restriction, it'll go faster.

But yea your car will probably just be really loud with not too much difference in power.

In my opinion it won't affect gas mileage much because the amount of gas used is really determined by the air intake meter, which sends info on how much air comes in, and then the ecu will tell the fuel injectors how much gas to mix to get the correct air/fuel ratio. the muffler is behind the catalytic converter so it is completely emmisions legal but I don't know if it is sound level legal.

Answer 2

Hello,

mufflers and the entire exhaust system is a restictive element for the aspect of the engine. This restriction is known at design time of the engine. The constructors use the flow restriction of the exhaust system to improve bottom-end and loww RPM torque, thus providing a better driveablility in the every day traffic situations. This resistance also prevents the stock engine from achieving high power at higher RPM's. When the exhaust flow resistance is decreased (e.g missing muffler, leaky pipes etc.), the low end torque will be decreased du to increased cross-flow in the combustion chamber (rexhaust resistance helps to keep mixture in the cylinder during the cam overlap period) and the exhaust which was tuned to be resonant (the resistance varies with the RPM, which can be used to imporve exhaust gas scavenging, in a narrow RPM band), changes and the resonant RPM will increase and leaves a 'torque hole' in the low-end engine speed range. The engine, may (not necessarily) however, see some gain in the mid/upper range. Putting extra resistance (obstacles like mufflers or long, narrow pipes) will give good low-end torque but will restrict high RPM torque and therefore the peak power.

The effect is the the engine is weaker at lower RPM's and you will push it harder to cruise like before, this will increase fuel consumption.

Regards

Answer 3

If you are in the United States, unless your car is a race car you must have a muffler, and not only that, in order for the muffler to be legal it must be built to the same specs as the original muffler made for that particular model of car. There are a lot of people who are buying mufflers that are making their cars loud, and even though the mufflers themselves arent legal, using them is. It really doesnt make much sense to me. For the very little extra horsepower people get by replacing their muffler with a muffler used by the 'tuners', all you get is a louder car. Is getting noticed THAT important? So your Saturn is loud..so what? ;)

So in a nutshell--go get a muffler.

Answer 4

it increases brute horsepower, although it isn't applicable because at highway speeds the exhaust sucks through a muffled exhaust and creates a beneficial vacuum.
this cause the mileage to improve. but generally, the less catalytic converters and mufflers, etc you have on an exhaust system, the better, as far as performance is concerned.
but, it sounds terrible- dude, get your muffler fixed. you can't get an inspection sticker without a properly working exhaust system.

Answer 5

I don't know about engine power,but it does affect gas mileage.

Answer 6

a motor has to have a certain amount of back pressure to run right.it will probably be hard on gas,because your cooling the valves too much and burning raw gas.

Answer 7

Yes. You use more driving to court to tell the judge why you keep getting tickets. You also burn more making frequent trips to the hospital when your neighbors beat the crap out of you for being such an idiot.

Answer 8

Yes and if you don't get it fixed you might get a ticket for noise,