The big question....exhausts.

[simpletantra]

Hi all, just wanted to post a question regarding exhausts (cat back) ...are they worth it? Let's look at the figures.... $500-$1000 and up = 3-5 horsepower/ 3-5 ftlbs torque. Do the figures match up? Maybe this is rather a question of style and personalizing your car? Just looking for some opinions.

[simpletantra]

The invidia is very tempting, especially for around $500. Check it out here http://www.modvision.com/steve/Invid...0soundclip.mpg

[Halo]

Yes. All of the above.

The invidia is pretty loud, not as loud as a single, but loud. None of them make significant gains, but if you want a slightly throatier sound, or just personalize your car, it's the way to go.

Throttle response, hehe, that's the catchword for all mods that make no gains since it is completely unmeasurable. When I hit the throttle, it responds... instantly!

[passmans2kNY]

apexi gt spec looks and sounds sick for 500$, its a single

[simpletantra]

So how loud is your single passman? Let's say on a scale of 1 to 10. With 2 being the stock exhaust, because the factory set up does seem have a little purr to it.

[passmans2kNY]

id say like a 5 and more like an 7 or 8 during v tec, it sounds perfect, during regular driving its not too loud or anything but when u get on it the purr is very nice

[passmans2kNY]

i also hollowed out my cat, if u have an 04 or 05 DONT DO THIS, i didnt know they switched to metal honey comb cat in 04, this made hollowing out my cat the 3 hour bore from hell, just buy the test pipe, and if ur gonna do this to an 04 u better have the most ruthlessly wide drill bit, lol we welded a castle nut and a few random metal peices to a bit that fit the air gun to make it work, yea go with the test pipe

[simpletantra]

Thanks for the input on your pipe man, but now you've sparked a new interest.... hollowing out the cat. Have you heard of, or seen the kind of gains we can expect by hollowing it out? I understand the concept of the cat, and know that usually they restrict the hell out of an engine. But considering honda's quite extensive engineering into this little car, do you think punching it still produced significant improvement? I don't mean to pester, but I'm really starting to think that honda has pretty much taken every avenue to intelligently produce maximum horsepower in this thing.

[passmans2kNY]

i cant put into numbers what gains you get from hollowing out the cat or using a test pipe, and yes this mod would do more in most cars than the s2000 but u know every little bit helps, and i do not have back presure issues, the apexi gt spec has a resonator, oh and is ur car breathing was well as its exhaling, u got an intake?, my big plans are the lovefab turbo kit but that after the winter

[simpletantra]

Originally Posted by passmans2kNY

i cant put into numbers what gains you get from hollowing out the cat or using a test pipe, and yes this mod would do more in most cars than the s2000 but u know every little bit helps, and i do not have back presure issues, the apexi gt spec has a resonator, oh and is ur car breathing was well as its exhaling, u got an intake?, my big plans are the lovefab turbo kit but that after the winter

Lovefab huh? I'm gonna check that out right now...as for the intake... I'm sorta conservative here. It's all about the bang for the buck. I wouldn't consider myself wealthy by any means, so I've learned that a $200 intake for 5 horsepower really doesn't make a whole lotta sense. (atleast for me) When I was rebuilding my BMW 2002, I used to watch my friends with their civic and CRX si's blow thousands on countless aftermarket products. Then, in the end, they'd say, "man, if I could go back, I'd put in a "drop in" K&N and be done. Or, if I really wanted speed, go forced induction and be done." Now that, makes sense. So I say go all the way, or save the money and be proud to sport a totally stock little hot-rod. But, eh...that's just me.

[passmans2kNY]

yea i understand your money situation, i have the same one, all i do is save up and blow it on my car, like my old car, a 93 rx-7, i spent so much money making it faster that it really wasnt streetable by the end, it had like 400 to 500 hp depending on boost and sounded like a weed wacker with 5000 hp that could be heard for miles, yea i strayed off there. yea i just wanna save for the lovefab turbo kit and be done, i already did suspension, so lovefab, mabye some rims, and a cf hardtop, and the intake isnt a bad investment, aem for 250 or something

[simpletantra]

Wow, only $7,000 bucks huh? Looks very nice at 312 whp though. I'm sure it's easy to put a bigger turbo on that manifold too.

I'm being facetious by the way. That's almost half of what I paid for the car. But, I'm no stranger to spending too much money on passions. Music gets pretty damn expensive too. Guitars, etc.

[passmans2kNY]

you can get much more than 312 hp out of that set up, thats a very consrvative boost, like 6 or 7 psi, that kit can puch way more, just make sure ur engine wont blow up first

[slimjim8201]

There are a couple of things to point out about Cody's 312 hp dyno run.

1. It's on a mustang dyno which is typically very low compared to the dynojet number most people quote. His 312 mustang dyno hp is more like 335+ dynojet. So you are looking at well over 380 crank hp.

2. His engine was ailing when he did that run. Something about valves being messed up due to a nasty over-rev. Can't say how much hp that was sapping, but needless to say, the numbers could only go up with a healthy engine.

3. This run was with his original manifold design. He has since switched to his GT1 design, which gives something like 22-23 whp per psi. That is rediculous. Assuming the same setup but with the GT1 manifold, the numbers most likely have increased 15-20 hp.

With the new GT1 setup (and a shitty turbo, nonetheless) one user managed to achieve over 23 whp per psi. Moderately boosting at 7 psi would give you about 350-360 whp. CRAZY

[Java Junky]

Cat-back? Nah. There's too many places to spend money that'll actually make a difference.