New Exhaust

I put an exhaust on my tib yesterday. I don't have loads of money, so I went the cheapest way possible. Which is, I bought a 3A racing muffler from advanced auto for $70. Yeah, I probably could have found one cheaper but I wanted to get it done yesterday and didn't want to order a muffler and have to wait for it to come in. Then I went to the local exhaust shop and told them I wanted a whole new cat-back exhaust with this muffler. They were perplexed as to why I would want to do this. The older guy their thought it was ridiculous that I thought putting 2.25" piping to replace the factory 1.75" would give me an increase in horsepower. He asssured me it wouldn't do shit but waste my money. So, instead he just installed the muffler using the exisitng exhaust tubing and he also cut off the resonator and put a piece of tubing in it's place. The installation only cost me $40. It sounds great though, not like a grasscutter either. It has a good, throaty exhaust note. There is a NOPI autoshow this weekend in Dinnwiddie, Virginia, so I think I will figure out where the hell that is and take my car up there and run the quarter for shits and giggles to see what it will do. They are advertising it on the local radio station, so it can't be too far from here. Maybe I will see some hooked up tibs, and find out where they got their bodykits from.

:uhoh: I hope this is a joke. I don't know who to slap first you or the "older guy" at the shop.

1. It's common knowledge that a muffler will give you no horsepower gains. It'll change the pitch of the exhaust note. That's it.

2. Changing the size of the exhaust tubing is what gives you more horsepower. You're allowing more flow so the engine can exhale quicker. Anyone working at a exhaust shop knows this. :disappoin

This all sounds fishy, if you knew anything about cars then you would have known that the whole point of changing the exhaust is to get larger exhaust tubing. You just spent $110 and you didn't touch your performance at all. Like I said this sounds fishy so I'm gonna bring up the flag :bs:. I'm sorry if I've got something wrong but this doesn't seem right. I can't see why the guys at the exhaust shop would be so baffled as to why you want a larger exhaust. Maybe I just misunderstood so let me know.

Yes, bigger muffler is just there for looks and sounds. if you want a horsepower gain from it though, you do need new tubing and exaust system.

Yes, bigger muffler is just there for looks and sounds. if you want a horsepower gain from it though, you do need new tubing and exaust system.
everyone of your posts is from something someone else said...

You say that putting larger diameter exhaust piping will increase horspower because it increases exhaust flow. I'll buy that, but your telling me a performance muffler doesn't allow the exhaust to flow more freely through it in comparison to a factory muffler. So, if you were to put on bigger exhaust tubing and keep the factory muffler you would still get a horspower increase. Here is the other thing that makes me think that expensive cat-back exhausts really don't increase horspower much. The fact being that they are from the catalytic converter back. So, from the engine to the catalytic converter you still have the factory tubing and therefore all the free flow from the cat back doesn't do shit because the exhaust is still flowing at a slower rate from the engine to the cat. What I am saying is I believe that you would need to replace the whole exhuast from headers all the way back in order to get any kind of real performance increase. I am not as knowledgeable about cars as I would like to be, but I do have common sense. I think that the amount of horsepower increase people claim that cat-back exhausts and CAI's give you are a little bit exaggerated. Also, unless you have done some kind of engine work to make your engine have an increase in exhaust gases then you probably don't need a bigger exhaust either. Besides I did it for the sound, I like to hear my exhaust when I am driving. Call me wierd, but I often leave the radio off and just like to hear my engine through the exhuast note. It seems to me that a lot of the "tuner crowd" think that it is a contest to see who can spend the most money on their cars.

Ok, have a seat and take some notes. Now replacing all the tubing isn't only to make it larger in diameter but also to have a more mandrel bent piping (mandrel bent means turns in the piping, and no 90 degree turns). This helps by letting the engine expel the gases quicker because it's closer to a straight line out. And yes ideally you do replace everything from the headers and back. The muffler WILL NOT give you more horsepower while the cat back exhaust (depending on the set up) will give you up to about 20+ hp sometimes a little less but usually around there. Just so you know if you want to get a better sound you're better off changing your headers too because this is how you typically get a deeper, throatier sound. Not only do headers make your car sound good they improve throttle reponse and do add horsepower. It's not weird to listen to the engine, I prefer the sound of an engine over the radio when I'm in the twisty's shifting and what not but as long as the exhaust doesn't sound like a fly. There's no excuse really not to be as knowledgeable in cars as youd liek to be because there's an endless supply on the internet of information just search for it. Go to Overboost.com (http://www.overboost.com) and read up in the tech section. I'm not trying to flame, and I'm not an elitist I'm just trying to set the info straight.

Milan

dude, a muffler can give you a little power. a glasspack muffler is way less restrictive than a typical chambered muffler.

in a perfor. exhaust, the bend structure is more important than the size of the tubing. it doesnt matter how wide your tubing is, you have high -angled bends, it will be crap.

nisco, that was funny as shit too. i was just bout to say something.

I went to howstuffworks.com and it explained the benefits of headers over a manifold. I couldn't find anything there on the rest of the exhaust. I have another question, I was also told that you can't remove the cat because it will damage your engine, is this true or bologna. I know you can't legally remove it, but I have heard of people knocking the insides of the cat out. Will this improve performance at all. Also, you said the benefit of the aftermarket exhaust is to have mandrel bent tubing and less radical bends. ( I do know what mandrel bent means, thank you) I will have to look again but I didn't see any 90 degree turns, I don't even think there was a 45 degree turn. The only real bend is where the exhaust goes over the axle. I don't see how you are going to avoid that bend. I really wish I had acess to a dyno because I would certainly enjoy testing out the different set-ups and seeing what actually improves and what doesn't. I am hard-headed and have to see things for myself before I believe it. I will go to overboost.com and see if I can find out more on this.

First off you say you did the exhaust on your car when in all actuallity all you did was put a new muffler on so that doesnt qualify as doing the exhaust. I can understand not having much money to do stuff to your car, but thats all the more reason to do it the right way when you do do it. I dont think removing the cat. converter will damage your engine, its there for emissions reasons so if you have emissions testing in your state then you probably wouldnt pass. as far as knocking the insides out, i dont think id go as far as doing that. id just get a high performance cat. then you will get an increase in performance and still pass emissions. as far as the benefits of a catback exhaust, comparing it to the stock exhaust on my 03, which has a lot of unnecessary bends that the catback doesnt have. I can easily see that it would be beneficial. personnally if that was me taking my car to that garage i woulda told em to do what i wanted or im takin it somewhere else. sounds like they really plugged you in your tailpipe!!!

I got what I wanted and I don't think you know as much as you think you do. As far as emissions go, I don't have emissions testing in my state. I was told by someone that the cat provides backpressure that your engine needs. I don't know if this is true or not, that is why I was asking. I am obviously not going to do it until I find out. Oh, and by the way race cats will not pass emissions testing it says so right on the box. You are obviously just going on what other people have told you. I still have my stock exhaust on and it does not have any unneccessary bends and is mandrel bent. So I still don't see the benefits of putting new tubing there. I also can tell that there is a definitetly a noticeable power increase, although I don't know exactly how much. Your car is the V6, so it obviously has a completely different exhaust. So, maybe you did benefit from replacing the tubing. I have talked to a few mechanics about this, considering my dad is one and so are his friends. They all assured me that replacing the exhaust tubing is uneccesary in my case. The performance muffler does what I want it to, gives me a nice exhaust note and provides higher exhaust flow. so stick that in your tailpipe.

if you really want performance from your exhaust... straighter the better... single exhaust...
ill try and pull up a pick of what it should look like

...I also can tell that there is a definitetly a noticeable power increase,...


LMAO, ah yes the pushed back into your seat feeling, what muffler doesn't provide it. :rofl: