Exhaust, what should I do?

[piscorpio]

Ok, many of you may know, my future plans include a turbo for my d16. However, I also plan an auto to manual conversion. The turbo does not happen until the transmission does, so I want to work around that until the time comes for me to change the tranny. Finally, I will get to the point here. How bad will an exhaust, meant for a turbo application, hurt my cars performance? Is it only a matter of being slower, or can it actually cause damage in some way.

[RedRocketGSR]

So you mean you want to put a turbo exhaust (meaning 3") on your car w/o running turbo for the time being right? I think i understand. It will decrease the performance but i dont believe it can hurt anything. I've also seen people run turbo on 2.25" or 2.5" piping and it doesnt hurt the turbo or anything else for that fact and still runs clean. If i were you i wouldnt waste the money on a turbo exhaust and just buy a regular one or what not and i think it should work fine. Get a few more opinions before you do that tho cuz everyones opinion is different.

[piscorpio]

I think the smartest thing I can do, is ignore the itch for a while, and just wait until I have enough to buy a turbo.

I guess I can do some other things first. What does everyone think of Skunk2 cam gear for my d16?

[delsolguy]

I have a 2.5" exhaust on my car. I know I know, it's only a B16. Should be fine on 2.25" right? Well, my future plans include a hefty set of cams. With those, the need for a 2.5" exhaust arises. I knew I wanted to get I/H/E done first, but I knew I didn't want to end up buying two exhausts (one right now, and one after the cams). So in the end I just decided to go with 2.5", even though it might've been too big.

I'm perfectly happy with my setup.

I have pretty much no noticeable gains in power below 4500 rpm, and no significant gains below 5500. But that's okay, because I didn't care about performance when I'm lugging around town. Plus, my motor has to have the snot revved out of it to get it to go anywhere. But that's sort of beside the point.

What I'm trying to get at is this: go with a turbo exhaust. If I were you, I'd do something like 2.5" or close to that. That should be fine with stock boost on a D16. And your low-end will be more liveable for the time that you are pre-boost.

As a side note, just adding a cam gear to a SOHC will not do much. You'd really need to have a performance cam in there, as "tuning" the stock one won't do much good. I say get the exhaust, or save a little more and get a set of wheels, man!

[piscorpio]

Originally posted by delsolguy

I say get the exhaust, or save a little more and get a set of wheels, man!

Already did man, got some cheapy rotas!

Maybe Ill get that WS exhaust Ive been eyeing...

[delsolguy]

Rotas are good. Nice and light. What kind/color?