It wasn't finished in the pic

 

Click Link In My Sig.

 

All I did was remove the panhard bar brace. I haven't noticed a difference in handling (but then again I have my front swaybar removed and don't corner hard anyway). It just unbolts, you don't have to cut anything up. Also, BMR sells a relocation kit that will drop the upper brace a few inches lower so duals will fit through there. HTH

 

fred, why did you angle the turndowns toward the center of the car? Doesn't that make it a lot louder inside?

edit- oops, nevermind, didn't notice there was more pages.

 

You can get dual 2.5" pipes over the brace in the stock location. I still don't have any pictures of my setup installed on the car but this is them sitting on the floor. http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64324709pEpblc

Clearance is extremely tight on this exhaust but I haven't hit anything yet on my lowered car so it was worth the effort. Even with the cats it's very loud though. Of course, if you can handle dumps underneath the car this system is whisper quiet

 

My system just sort of "evolved". Originally, it was a custom 3" Mufflex Y-pipe, with dual 3" Carsound cats. The Y-pipe fed a Mufflex 4" catback. I had the Borla XR1's to run at the track, in place of the cats..... that's why the XR1's are located where they are.

When the car was lowered, everything dragged on the ground. With the car back to stock ride height, there are no clearance problems.

When The Gear Vendor went in, the Y-pipe became useless, so - since its really only a "track" car - I pulled the 4" catback off, and just ran with the Borlas as "collector" mufflers... damn was that loud inside the car. Evrything rattled and shook, including my chest.

Then E'town added a rule that the exuast system had to include a pipe to at least past the rear edge of the door, so I had Mufflex add the 3" straight pipes you see in the picture. It's still pretty loud in the car, and its marginal as far as passing noise at E'town. I did dyno pulls with and without the striaght pipes, and they have no affect on rwHP.

But this year, E'town added yet another rule that the muffler has to have at least 3 (or maybe 2???) baffles. I'm not about to dump even more money into it to run at E'town, so I guess I'll just run at Atco or Island.

I just post the picture because its "different".

 

That BMR relocation kit is $199.95. Wow, that's a little more than I wanted to spend.

Does anybody else run without the top panhard bar brace?

Can this cause any other problems (safety)?

Anybody give me your opinions, please.

Thanks for your advice,

Mark

 

I didn't want to remove the brace. Do you really think you need 3" pipes? My dual, mandrel bent, 2.5" pipes seem to be flowing more than the old Borla. I haven't gotten new track times or dyno figures yet but I've been busy tuning. With just that change it's requiring more fuel both at low and high RPM so I can only assume it's doing its job. I was thinking I'd gain more noise than power with the 3" pipes, and this thing's loud enough! Not to mention the ground clearance is at a premium on my car.

Fitting the 2.5" pipes isn't easy, but they do clear!

 

Thanks, I wonder if I could keep 3" on the passenger side & 2.5 on the driver's side? Would that make a difference or sound funny?

Mark

 

I wouldn't want a mismatched exhaust like that. If it was really a concern you could run 3" up to the axle and step it down to 2.5" from there. The exhaust gasses are relatively cool by then so it won't pose as much of a restriction. You want your mufflers as far away from the engine for the same reason though, and depending on the style of muffler it's not a bad idea to use a larger size for them. Going from a small pipe to a larger one can introduce some turbulence if not done correctly however.

If you're running the exhaust over the axle on either side, you are going to have to shield the gas and brake lines. At that point though you could run oval pipe over the axle without any loss at all.

It really comes down to how much it is worth to you. It can be done, but how much money and time for what gain? For me, I finished my system for a few hundred dollars including pipe, bends, mufflers, tips, x-pipe, and clamps. It's probably fairly equivalent in flow to a 3.5" single system but with better scavenging. I figured the extra cost, noise, and time spent probably wasn't worth any meager power I might have made with dual 3" for my little heads/cam car.

 

Injuneer,

How much was your car lowered or what springs were you using?

I have the Eibach prokit and I was planning on using a set up like yours
for my new engine.

Did you have problems with your torque arm hitting too when the car was lowered?

 

Here are pictures of mine. They show you what kind of clearance you would have. I used 2.5 inch pipe if you are wondering.
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/245983/4

 

I used the Pro-Kit springs, with the QA1/HAL adjustable shocks. Even though I was extremely careful with the lower spring seat position on the HAL's, the front of the car dropped 1.8", and the rear of the car only dropped about 1". And at that level, EVERYTHING under the car dragged on the ground. I had to turn the bolts in the exhaust clamps so they pointed up, instead of down. In NJ the roads are terrible, and a lot of the highways have "ruts" from the 18-wheelers. If I got both sides of the car in the ruts, the bolts would drag on the center peak of the road. Going over a speed bump was impossible. The TA mount as you can see from the picture is the dropped one for the "4" Mufflex", and that dragged on everything too. I really hated the car when it was lowered, and was glad to put it back where it belonged.

 

With the QA1's couldnt you just adjust the ride height with them as well?

Brandon

 

http://www.scfyb.com/album/displayim...=10089&pos=-82

Hooker LTs, H-pipe, Hooker Aero Chambers dumped at rear axle. At idle it is loud, but not as loud as the bullets that used to be on there. At idle it just has a lot of bass tone to it, I remember this sound when I was in stereo systems....but off idle it is pretty quiet.