Monday, May 07, 2012 - 07:19 pm, by: Rory Braatvedt(Fallward)
Hey guys,
My exhaust budget is quite low so whole system is not an option, the exhaust shop i went to today said they would do a new exhaust from the diff back, that is: From the rear of the central muffler.
2.25" press bent from there, into 2.25 straight-thru Coby brand mufflers at rears (cut out the ones in-between), stock tips welded back on.
Do you think this will sound good and have any performance benefit?
Quoted my $600 all up.
Dan McColl Goo Roo Victoria (The Nazi State) Pretty Red Thing and The Black Rattler
Monday, May 07, 2012 - 07:47 pm, by: Rory Braatvedt(Fallward)
I'm in New Zealand, perhaps prices are a bit higher here. After doing a bit of research apparently it's that central resonator that makes the difference, could i replace that with a hot-dog?
We don't require cats in NZ
Jay Asghari TryHard Victoria '94 UZZ31 GTL, '94 TT, '96 UZZ32
Monday, May 07, 2012 - 07:59 pm, by: Jay Asghari(8pack)
Pretty much what Dan said, I got quoted for $660 around 2 years ago for a stainless, mandrel bent exhaust from the extractors back. Call it a great quote but I wouldn't go too much higher than that.
Shop around mate, you could get a cat back stainless system around the 600/700 $ mark. You will need two 'hot dogs' as you'd go twin system and two decent mufflers after that.
Let us know how you go.
Dan McColl Goo Roo Victoria (The Nazi State) Pretty Red Thing and The Black Rattler
Monday, May 07, 2012 - 09:50 pm, by: James Buchan(Jrbuch)
Paid $550 for a catback two years ago, 2.25inch, into x pipe, 2x hotdogs and straight through mufflers. At this price, it would have been mild steel and not mandrel bent
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 - 05:10 am, by: James Johnson(Jimbo)
Rory, I am up in Auckland. I had a full custom exhaust made up using 2.5 inch and mandrel bends that I sourced myself with flanges and mufflers, paid about $2-300 for that and got my mate to weld it up through his work and cost me just over $500 in labour and that was at the standard price so it was not even mates rates. This exhaust was from extractors back and used the stock tips. Hint: if you need to buy flanges go to pit stop and buy from them, I have found they are the cheapest.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 - 06:57 am, by: Rory Braatvedt(Fallward)
Thanks for the replies guys, that's a good price James; i think Hamilton may be a bit behind in prices because i have shopped around and it's really the only exhaust shop i trust.
According to PlanetSoarer, the rear and central mufflers restrict the most flow, so with everyone's suggestions i'm getting quite confused haha...
I'm looking for a really throaty sound with a slight performance bump
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 - 11:19 am, by: Steven Anderson(Cusscuss)
If the rest of the exhaust is stock just ditch the rear mufflers all together, it gives about the right amount of noise for a sports exhaust and is either free if you leave the mufflers off or very cheap if you get some pipe welded up.
Get under the car, take em off and see what you think, wont hurt to try.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 - 02:06 pm, by: Rory Braatvedt(Fallward)
That actually sounds pretty good but i'm hoping to gain some performance too, i notice the exhaust piping goes to 1.5' just under the diff - so restrictive! That's why im wanting to replace that pipe, get rid of middle mufflers, and replace rears with straight-throughs. $600 is a little rough though.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012 - 06:25 pm, by: Mike Beck(Gold_40gt)
If you want to do the exhaust on a budget, at a bare minimum get rid of the whole stock cat back system.
The worst thing to do is keep the stock Y pipe resonator to Y pipe piece, it ruins the exhaust note completely regardless of what you do after it!
My recommendation
A cat back 2.25", no balancer, H pipe or and X pipe, depending on what style you like... a couple of small resonators or round mufflers in the middle and out the back to a pair of double offset mufflers... magnaflow have some good stainless ones, or Lukey, another good choice... otherwise to save $400-500 there you could use the stock rear mufflers but they will spoil the sound a bit due to the internal restrictions.
Heres how some of my cat back exhausts sounded on the few Soarers I've owned....
This was 2.25 Cat back, no balancers or resonators to a pair of lukey stainless mufflers. All three are the same car.
This was another setup I did, Cat back 2.25, no balancers or resonators (although could have done with some) out to twin Audi RS4 rear mufflers on the back, sounded much deeper and sweeter in person!
And yes the cars went quicker with the exhaust, but you should do headers if you want real gains, but thats another $1200+ on top.
Thursday, May 10, 2012 - 09:31 am, by: Mike Beck(Gold_40gt)
Rory Braatvedt wrote on Wednesday, May 09, 2012 - 08:35 pm:
A bit too raspy but nice and aggressive,
Yeah, the lack of resonators did that to it, a good example of how you need each exhaust component to help the other one do its function or else it can't handle the vibrations and produces that 'clacky' rasp.
I was going to put some resonators in that system but I removed the exhaust and sold the car in the end, although I'm doing nearly the same system on my E36 next month so it should sound pretty good!
Thursday, May 10, 2012 - 01:25 pm, by: Rory Braatvedt(Fallward)
Update #1:
I got the car back today with the 2.25' system from the central resonator back, axed the 2 mid mufflers and replaced rear mufflers with straight-through
Reaction: Very quiet. Too quiet. Lazy and subtle sound, opens up a bit on full throttle but disappointed, especially for $600. Took it back to exhaust shop and told him to get rid of the central resonator and replace with straight pipe, will update again this evening when i get it back
Thursday, May 10, 2012 - 02:20 pm, by: Rory Braatvedt(Fallward)
Update #2:
Got car back again with central resonator removed, hardly any louder! Maybe a couple of db, slightly more droney.
Reaction: WTF? i was expecting this to cackle now! In terms of performance, car feels about the same to be honest. Barely any performance difference. I'm thinking it's the cats and the Y joints making this Soarer sound average.