various mods.

Hey all. Ok, i am looking at getting a turbo back exhaust system. i have done enough research to know i am looking for a 3" full exhaust, probably with a straight pipe instead of the cat. either way, i was curious what exhaust company makes a good sounding exhaust. i dont want it to sound like one of those honda/acura fart cans. so an exhaust preferably without a resonator. also, anyone upgraded to higher lift cams or venom intake manifold? if so, what kind of gains did you have. oh yeah! also, the AEM EMS, is it worth the 1600$, i heard it can prevent air/fuel rich/lean as well as fine tune another 50 or so hp from your ride. any input would help and thankyou all those who reply.

ive heard many people dont use the AEM becaue few people use it and its hard to find info on tuning.


i think thats right....someone correct me if im wrong.

your right

yay, ive learned something reading posts on this site for over a year. Better watch out kevin, lol.

The main reason those hondas sound like crap as well as some eclipses is because they stick that fart can on the end of their stock exhaust which amplifies the constipatedness of the stock system. I don't think I have heard one but I bet if you saw a honda with a full 3" exhaust it would probably be pretty deep.
A resonator will not give you that sound, In fact a resonator should deepen and soften the note.
I made my 3" tbo back from scratch and if you can't weld I recomend going to a skilled muffler shop and have them make you one cheaper than any of the big name systems.

All I see in your profile is an '89 Chevy Celebrity, so I'll just assume we're talking about a 1G turbo 'cause that's what I have :D.

A 3" turbo back with an O2 eliminator (no flex section), high flow cat and an offset style muffler will give you good flow, relatively low noise and keep you legal. You'll still get plenty of that low frequency "moan" while cruising.

If you choose to forgo the cat and use a can instead of an actual muffler, I'd stick a resonator in there somewhere to control the high pitched sounds a bit. If you want an idea of what that would sound like, remove the pipe between your cat and your muffler and go for a drive. The canister setup will be quieter than this, but not by much.

HKS (http://www.hksusa.com/) offers some very nice camshafts. The 264/272 (good idle, decent power potential) and 272/272 (crappy hot rod idle, good power potential) combos are quite popular. However, the Forced Performance (http://www.forcedperformance.net/) FP2's are said to offer slightly (few HP) better top end power than the 272/272's.

As far as intake manifolds, I'd take the same money you'd spend on the Venom piece and go buy a Magnus or BJ's SMIM. I think Venom spent more money putting their name on that piece than they did on research and development. Of course, I would first make the decision as to which throttle body you intend to use before you buy a manifold.

Finally, the AEM EMS is a cool little toy, but tuning with one is not exactly easy. As more people buy them and post their experiences on AEM's forums, some of that knowledge will spill out to other forums and there will be ultimately more support. Also, there are a few dyno equipped shops out there who are now "AEM Trained" to tune your EMS. Although the most popular DSM ECU tuning tool is DSMLink (http://www.DSMLink.com). It's easier to use, more people in the DSM world will be able to help you with it and they just released it for 1G's (EPROMS only). It doesn't have everything that the EMS has, though it's not missing much and most will tell you that the trade off is certainly worth it. Oh, and it's cheaper too.

I'm curious, what are the current mods to your DSM? Exhaust is often a first mod but it seems you don't have that yet. So if you're just getting started (http://www.dsmtuners.com/tech.php), I'd worry about getting enough fuel to your turbo before things like SMIM's and cams. The OE intake manifold flows pretty well to begin with and there are other things in the intake tract you may want to take care of first. As for camshafts, hell even turbo upgrades are usually done before those are replaced.

Personally I would highly reccomend a flex section. It's there for a reason.

a full 3" exhaust with a good flowing muffler will give you a decent deeper tone just because of the setup. the reason those hondas get that "fart can" sound is because they just slap an aftermarket exhaust on stock piping. higher lift cams will give you more power with timing advance. the aem ems is a great too, however, if you don't know how to tune it, you will be spending quite a bit of time right away getting everything right.

i am getting a 1998 gsx/gst, have a dealer looking for one for me now (friend of the family). i have about 15k to spend on mods, and i wanna goo 12seconds or less. since i know what i am getting, i can start buying alot of parts now. you asked what i have now, not installed yet obviously, but so far in this order. poly bushings, hi-po motor mounts, bbk throttle body, strut tower support, kyb struts/shocks, eibach springs 1 inch lower, 17inch chrome rims, short throw shifter b&m, a-pillar triple guage pod with a/f guage, pyrometer, and manual boost guage, Turbo XS compressor valve, and a bunch of other goodies. i avoided getting any major hp items as of yet. the last thing i am going to do to it is a turbo up grade and FMIC. I would like it to have ample power without upgrading the turbo. also, i heard if you upgrade your motor mounts on 2g dsm's you can remove the flex section since it restricts about 5% of your exhaust output... anyone else heard about this?

correction, before car 15k, after car about 6k lol

you can easily get into the 12 or even maybe the 11's with 6k to spend, just make sure you know what you're doing and buying before you do it.

Check out dsmtuners.com tuning guide. Their recomended upgrade paths will give you a lot better idea of how to get where you want to go.

I could put a car in the 11s for 6k for sure, but its more a question of how long would it remain an 11 second car ;) Shit is going to break, and when a 1800 dollar tranny repair bill comes in, you need to have some money left to pay for it :) Most poeple break things before they get to 11s, making the cost much higher. As I've said before, I got to mid 12s for ~1800 bucks. Many thousands more though before I hit 11s. Mostly replacing things I broke in the process. Then it was another ~4-6k I guess to get to low 11s, again building more motors and shit. I don't even want to think about the money... I would spend that 6k on a 12 second car, but with all the mods that strengthen the drivetrain so you can actually ENJOY the car. Better to have a nice strong, fun 12 second car, than to have a low 11 second car on jackstands for 9 months out of a year :D