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Super Sprint had a sale in April, so I decided to take advantage of the 20% discount. I ordered a full cat-back system with front pipes, x-pipe to replace the front muffler, center and rear pipes with silencers. After a few weeks of build time and shipping from Italy, it arrived yesterday afternoon. The packaging was so good that it took me an hour to get the pieces out of the boxes and unwrapped.
Very impressive build, like a work of art. The boxes Laid out behind the car Very Pretty
Started working on it late this morning and got the old stuff out; pretty easy with a few sockets, wrenches and a Sawzall. I don't have a lift, so the car is on stands. I almost got the rear end high enough to get the center pipes in, but a thunderstorm rolled in so I couldn't get my chop saw out to cut a few more pieces of wood to put under the jack. By the time the rain stopped, it was close to wifey's mandatory "quit working on the car" time, so I buttoned up the garage. I only need a few more inches of height to get the pipe over the prop shaft, I think anyway, so hopefully I'll have it done tomorrow.
I made a video of the "before" exhaust prior to removing it. I'll make another video of the new exhaust when I'm done and post them together, along with pictures of the install. The "before" exhaust was Nameless Performance downpipes with 200-cell cats, then OEM for the front and center pipes/mufflers, and Mina Gallery rear silencers. The Minas have been on the car for about 15 years and are still in good shape.
Well, today was pretty frustrating until the last half hour. First I had to go to my storage room to get my BMF jack stands. The only ones I had at the house were the little ones from Auto Zone and the car was going to be too high for those when I got done jacking. Then I put some more wood under the jack and raised it as high as I could; the BMFs extended right up to the rear jack points. But, I still couldn't get the center pipe (right side) to go in. It kept getting hung up on the half-shaft and the hangar mount was stuck against the body at the heat shield. I came in from the garage and searched the forum for any threads on putting these things in and I'll I saw was that it's a giant PITA. I thought about taking down the half-shaft but also considered taking the car someplace that had a lift, so I looked for exhaust shops and hot rod shops around here that might let me use their lift or put the center pipes in. I also thought about how I was going to get the car anywhere with just the downpipes on and right under the floor.
After I got done doing all that, I went back out to the garage and looked at it. The situation that is. I really didn't want to drop the half-shaft but that was the only thing left that could possibly get the pipe in its place. So, since I still had some time, I decided to do it. And, it worked. Now I know what to do on the left side so I should be able to get it all done tomorrow.
A much better day today, but not quite done, yet. Got the left center pipe in; it was a little harder than the right, mostly because I had to figure out which way to turn it to weave through the hole and it was opposite what I had been doing on the right side. And I do have a slight bit of dyslexia. But, it's in. Then I put in the front pipes and x-pipe. I put those in from back to front; put the x-pipe on the center pipes, then put the front pipes on and when I went to put them on the down pipes, I was an inch or so short, which made it easy to bolt them onto the downpipes. It's all slip fit and the fronts slid out of the x-pipe easily. But the x didn't slide out of the centers, so I'm a little short on the back of those and they're hitting the output flange on the differential. So, a little adjustment is needed there and then I can put up the rear silencers. Then another thunderstorm rolled in, so I closed down the garage and came inside.
I was going to attach some pics, but I just looked at them and they aren't that good. I'm going to try another lens and better lighting tomorrow.
I got a little busy last week and over the weekend doing other stuff besides the exhaust, but I did get it all setup.
This aftermarket kit is the best one that I've worked with over my years of upgrading (hot-rodding) my cars. The quality and craftmanship is excellent as well as the fit. I didn't need any of the extra pipe lengths that were included in the shipment, so those will be wall art. That little issue with the left center pipe that I described in my last post was easily resolved by rotating the x-pipe a little downwards to raise the the other end of the pipe upwards. The exhaust note is what I was looking for; you know it's there, but not overwhelming. Until you hit the pedal hard. Then it really sounds awesome. I made another video of the 'after' but that was with my camera on a tripod behind the car and it really doesn't capture the sound to well. So, I ordered a GoPro this morning. It will be here in a couple of days and as soon as I can mount it somewhere I'll take the car out for a little drive around the block, then I'll put up the videos on YouTube. In the 'before' video there's more engine noise than exhaust.
The butt-dyno says at least +20 on hp and torque. Here are a few pics:
That system is bound to have tremendous resonance, The entire exhaust system looks to be
extremely well mounted and solid. You should get many miles of enjoyment from your labor.