I recently stopped by my local muffler shop for a smog check and i was asked by one of the mechanics there if was interested in getting a custom piping done for my Z. Me always wanting to make my Z to sound like a beast asked how much. he said 500 dollars for the whole thing with installation and he promised the same performance gains as other aftermarket companies. Im thinking of doing it but i would rather get some feed back from the Z community before i do something i regret later or is this a good deal?

 

Depends. If he's willing you hook you up with good welds, proper hardware, stainless piping, and mandrel bends, I say go for it. If he can make a good X-pipe, then you have the potential to have a great sounding exhaust with some added power.

I've never liked the exhaust 'name drop' game anyways. Respect for builders, not check writers.

 

^ Like said above, if he can do quality work with quality materials, why not?

 

I agree. If it's stainless and built well... do it. Hell, if it comes out good, tell me and I'll go have it done. Seriously

 

sounds like he's interested in doing something for pride in his own work which hopefully means he'll put together a good product. as long it has what everyone above suggested, do it!

 

What mufflers would you guys go with that do a setup like this?? I can get pipe bent and welded for cheap from my buddy but I dont usually ever see just mufflers for our size exhausts for sale.

 

I built my own exhaust and it def. sounds like a beast. We used all mandrel bent piping with magnaflow mufflers though and it took forever to build and make fit correctly. We just used aluminized steel piping and I painted it with barbeque paint. Been almost a year and it still looks good with no rust. Im not sure if you guys have tried to purchase stainless pipe but it is expensive.. And it gets really expensive if you want mandrel bends. Im pretty sure you would be hard pressed to find a deal on materials that was cheap enough to get it done for $500 without doing labor for free

 

You could put a exhaust together with no design engineering and no testing. Sure.

 

He could imitate a design that has proven power results. Not that hard.

 

I would probably not build my own exhaust if I was still naturally aspirated mainly because the stock exhaust works fairly well. Not only that but I would rather put that $1k towards going F/I because thats the only way I would be able to reach the power levels I seek.

As to my knowledge, In a turbocharged car the exhaust doesnt have to be tuned to scavenge like in an NA car. Im sure my dual 3 inch flows just as well as any other 3 inch exhaust on the market.

but then again im not a "check writer" I like to fab

 

HKS has some nice mufflers but it would put this build over $1000!

 

How bad are non-mandrel bend pipes?

I can't find any shops here(South Carolina) that do mandrel bend piping. I want a custom built exhaust because working with a local shop gives you a chance to get the sound you want by actually interacting with the mechanics. BUT around here there's no mandrel bend shops.

 

Mandrel allows for it to retain the diameter even through turns whereas normal bending will will crimp the corner making it much narrower.

 

Most shops dont have machines to do mandrel bending. Those are super expensive. I bought a bunch of 90 degree bends and just started building. you end up with more welds but if you are good, it does not matter.

 

Dont you think 45 degree fittings would have been better for flow??

 

with a bunch of 90s, you just cut whatever section or bend you want out of it. Could get a few 180s with long legs to do the same thing as well

 

o0o ok gotcha thanks!!

 

Mandrel benders are extremely expensive. The tooling alone is 4x compression bending. (Due to the added tools for the mandrel ***** and dies that are specific to pipe diameters and material thicknesses.)

There are other methods but they get expensive.

1) Using prebent mandrel bend elbows. This adds more cuts and welding. The fit may not be exact since the pipes are prebent. If you're doing a dual system, the area around the differential is very Phreakin' tight. There's no room for error or the pipe will be slapping the diff, a sway bar or the crossmember.

2) Pie cut bends. Very JDM but very labor intensive. You need someone who is a master of TIG welding to do this right. If you can get someone to do this, then you can do things impossible to do in a bender. Such 3/4 diameter radius bends. Only use stainless steel (preferrably 304) and stainless wire.

3) Sand bend. This is a lost art but some JDM shops still do it. I was in a shop in Okazaki, Japan where a guy was hand bending a system for a Diablo. This guy was a master.

Basically you take a pipe, weld a plug on one end then fill it with fine river sand. Finer the better. Tamp the sand in and top the pipe off. Weld a cap over the end of the straight pipe. Using a home made pipe bender much like the ones used by contractors to bend conduite - except heavier; he lock in one end of the pipe, heats the pipe with a torch till the bend and tangent areas are red hot, then he uses the lever to bend the pipe around a radius die. Very complicated and time consuming. But the investment is very low and the pipe is mandrel bent. You see the sand acted as a solid support to the pipe walls not allowing the pipe to crush on the inside radius of the bend.

Now you can see why it's a lost art. LOL.

Personally, I'd save up a few more bones and pick up a used system from another member. I got a Greddy EVO II system used and just spent a couple hours cleaning it up till it was like new. With these manufacturers using high quality SUS304 stainless steel and TIG welds, I don't see this system failing anytime soon.

I was an aftermarket exhaust engineer for 8 years and an OE exhaust emgineer for another 8 years. There can be radical differences in the construction of mufflers and tuning of the system. Sure you can get something to fit, but is it worth the chance rattles, cracked muffler necks, poor fit or droaning noises at interstate speeds? Add in the legal passby requirement of 95dB at 50 feet. You could go through all that and end up with a fix-it ticket. It's up to you.

 

I made my own exhaust a couple of time on the z. The best sounding was a vibrant muffler with no cat. It sounded insane. Best way to do it would be from the y pipe back. Cheap mandrel bends. http://www.mandrel-bends.com/catalog...1/index-2.html omg they r so much. And the research lols. Get a ebay y pipe. Buy a builder kit from that link and a muffler. You could do a y pipe back exhaust for like uh 350$. Also do not have to be a master of tig welding to weld exhaust pipe. A mig with argon co2 mix gas works fine. Which is what most muffler shops use. Hell flux core is fine. Unless you live in a rainy climate use mild steel pipe.

 

this sounds AWESOME