Ok, here's the deal:

I recently ordered the Helix test pipes for my G35 coupe and now I'm going to get one of the guys that does work for me at a local speed shop to fabricate a custom exhaust for me (there's a lot of exhausts on the market that I like, but I know I can save $200-300 doing it myself, and the shipping is ridiculous!) - so here are my list of questions:

1) Which setup should I pursue - Dual canister-type exhaust (ala Injen, RS*R, Pro-1) or single muffler exhaust (Stock, Borla, Nismo, Fujitsubo, etc)???

2) Which mufflers should I use for the type of exhaust you think works best?

3) Where is the best place to purchase these off-the-shelf mufflers?

Keep in mind that performance is the number one concern, followed by sound (want something that is noticably louder than stock, but not super-obnoxious)...

I really appreciate any other advice/insight anyone has on this subject - this may be useful to other users in the future pondering this as well...

 

I heard the HKS Titanium and carbon fiber canister is nice and quite.

 

the extra cost is because its tuned. you may get lucky with it, or you may get a dead spot in the sound, or whatever else, all the companys went in and did exactly what your about to do, then they said, how can we make this better.

well... some of the companies did that.

with that said, canisters tend to have a straighter pipe, more sound, free-er flow. that is its good and bad, free-er flow isnt always a good thing, straight pipes would lose HP probably. and you may not want all that sound.

a few bends tames it a bit.

mufflers, thats the perks to tuned, they see which muffler sounds good, you basicly go for a crap shoot, Ive heard good things about the HKS canisters and the flowmaster mufflers. I had flowmasters on my truck and was pleased, how each will sound with a custom piping on the G, thats impossible to say.

whoevers going to assemble them should have the muffler, the HKS you can get from them I think, or one of their retail distributors.

I brought my truck into meineke when I had a custom exhaust done, they designed everything including the muffler choice.

 

I have heard some good things about Magnaflow mufflers, so I was thinking about maybe just copying the design of the Borla exhaust using a Magnaflow muffler instead (polished, of course) - how do you think that will work out? does anyone have any experience with these mufflers?

 

i like my custom exhaust

 

the borla seems to maybe be too free flowing. maybe a magnaflow muffler just because it is designed kinda like stock. i would mimic the stock pipe, or add a y pipe, but not full dual like borla. but whatever you do... just make certain you don't use pipe that is thicker than stock. all ss will last longer... aluminized will be cheaper.

 

Be careful on that custom exaust. I cant remember the thread but one of the magazines had one of the first us 350z's for 4 days to take measurements and do some testing and alot of the vendors were present to take measurements as well for future aft mkt mods. I believe stillen or borla (i cant remember) were there and managed to fabricate a custom exaust system over the 4 days that the care was there and managed to net a loss of 4 hp i believe it was after the dyno.

Point is the exaust manufacturer expressed that designing an exaust for a specific car takes tons of r&d and lots of redesigns so i would be careful with the "cheaper exaust" how much would you pay to have a custom exaust installed on your car that hurts your cars performance?

 

i've decided to not do a full exhaust for that reason. i will do high flow cats, and maybe a bit more, but who knows.

the best anyone can say is $1800 will get you a nismo catback that doesn't lose any torque, and nets you a whopping 3.5 hp at WOT. ...are those numbers worth it?

as far as the other systems, i can't understand why someone would want to do a mod that in reality makes you move forward slower.

my understanding is that if you can show a 15 + or so hp gain at WOT in the z, you are suffering in the low end. I'll paypal someone an asskissing if you can (actually) prove otherwise.

the simple fact is that when it comes to the 350z, to get the numbers that a system like borla offers, you will lose torque at low RPMs. sound at the expense of moving forward fast is something that does not make any sense to me. there is currently absolutely no good reason to modify the z exhaust, but possibly a FI setup can benifit from it.

yes, i am opinionated as hell newb scum. prove me wrong. ignorance of my inquiries will be taken as me being totally correct. thank you, drive through. <----- required little winkie faces that make my bad attitude okay and non threatening. see?

 

Ive been there and done that, all the systems you can buy designed for your car are mandrel bent, I went to a shop to have a custom made one stillen style , 200 extra just for mandrel bent style wich is actually a bunch of U-bend welded together,,,,,,Im gonna say it right now..........BORLA True Dual is the best you can get for your money. and as far as I know it has the best warranty, as long as you dont have any welding done on it..... if you want to see one installed on a Z go to www.zchickz.com this is the system Im getting trust me when you do have a custom one done it is a crap shoot , they can tell you it gonna make x amount of HP. but how many time have you seen a dyno at a muffler shop. The only way I would ever have a custom one made is if I had it turbocharged, wich then you could stuff 2.5-3.0 inch bend under that puppy.......nuff said

 

SCC tried a custom exhaust too. they lost hp as well.

 

I would love to get a full exhaust system, but I don't see myself spending a grand for a mod that might add 10hp max. Wouldn't a Y pipe, and a muffler (hks) welded to it be pretty good? Throw in some HFC's as well. Personally I don't see the exhaust system being too much of a restriction on this car.

 

its not. but always nice not to lose hp in what is essentially a mod for sound and maybe weight.

 

I'm installing Helix SS Test Pipes next week and then I'm going to take it from there.... I would really like to have the Borla TD Exhaust, but bolted straight up to the Test Pipes, would this cause a too free-flowing exhaust? I think I might just see how I like the test pipes and go ahead and do the Kinetix plenum next... then I'll see about dropping $600-700 in an exhaust...