I did it before I sold mine and it looked great. I just used a polishing pad on my drill and it looked like most aftermarket exhausts. I looked for pics but can't find them anywhere.

 

Also, for a good comparison of aftermarket exhausts, check out the Official NISMOs with aftermarkt exhausts thread.

 

There's some good deals to be had for a Nismo S-Tune in the Marketplace, if you're willing to monitor and wait a bit. I just picked one up for $600. Tips are a bit smaller, but the piping is larger (3") and the sound is amazing. My suggestion is to save up and check out the aftermarket exhausts. Unless you can find a vid on the resonator removal on the mid-pipe, it's hard to say what you're getting yourself into for $100 to $150. You might as well put that to something more worthwhile. Just my 2 cents.

 

Ya ill have to research a bit before pulling the trigger on that.

So the piping on our Nismo exhaust is less than 3"? I'll probably try the midpipe thing first, then move onto other options if it doesn't work out well.

Of course I will post vids as well

 

What is this washer method? I couldnt find anything....I read something about a golf tee method but couldnt find it...can someone briefly describe either method?

 

I made the mistake of posting the washer mod on this Forum and got flamed by a bunch of "adults". Anyhow, the washer mod is done by taking 12(6x2) I believe 3/4 diameter washers from home depot. Looseing out the muffler canister and placing the washers between the flanges on the bolts that hold em together.

Kinda like this...

___________________l-------l0________
Exhaust -> --------------------------->Muffler
___________________l-------l0________

you place the 6 washers ^ here

Hope it helps

 

No!

 

Here is a banana *hands banana*.. relax.

I discovered this mod from people in drift circles in miami that would do this on their Zenki's/Kouki's.
Technically, The Zs stock exhaust doesnt benefit much from this since it has alot of turns in the muffler( unline the 240s, which are straight).

Most of the "adults" here would call this blasphemy ( mostly since they probably want to defend their 1000+ dollar puchace that must yield 0-0 whp on the stock DE) BUT what do I know.

This mod does not throw a code since its nowhere near any of the 02 sensors. People have also said that its less "ricy" to just remove the muffler and run a curve dump pipe at the end. again

I personally tried this mod, it worked great, NO did not die or become lightheaded due to the fumes( funny people with no cats told me this was going to happen to me) And it sounded nice.

In the end, to each his/ her own.
And enough with the damn judgement blasting.

 

I believe the stock exhaust piping is 2.5" from the y-pipe out end, through the mid and the exhaust. The Nismo exhaust replaces the y-pipe, mid, and muffler.

 

^Trufax

 

So in theory placing a larger midpipe would have no impact on the flow, but the removal of the catalytic converter would most likely result in a change in sound. Isn't the O2 sensor in the midpipe? I would assume that a CEL would result from that.

 

No way in hell am I doing the washer mod, thats about as ricer as it gets.

 

Upstream O2's are in the manifold, downstream O2's are right after the actual catalytic converter(the bulge) but are still a part of the catalytic converter assembly(before the flange that mounts to the midpipe). I have taken out the resonator on my midpipe and absolutely loved the result. It made the exhaust note a bit louder, without being crazy or raspy. I recommend it.

Bottom line, you can watch videos and try to get an understanding on how it might sound, but with any exhaust work,there is nothing like hearing it in person.

But take this for what it's worth: Every thread you can find on midpipe removal, I have only seen people ecstatic that they took the risk and did it. There might be negative opinions on it, but I have never seen them. Good luck with your decision and continue enjoying your Z. I know I did even more without the midpipe

 

You have two easy options.

The cheapest option is what KingBaby suggested, which is to have an exhaust shop make you a bolt-on mid-pipe with no resonator.

Next would be to replace the factory cats with high-flow cats or straight pipes. Straight pipes will be cheaper (probably around the same price as a custom mid-pipe), but may yield some unwanted rasp. I chose to install Berk HFCs, which loudened the exhaust by about 10-15% and there is no rasp, unless the car is cold (only a little bit, hardly noticable).

You could then get a little more wild and get a cutstom mid-pipe with no resonator and some ART pipes, which are straight pipes that reduce rasp. That would probably be your loudest option (that is also clean sounding), outside of an aftermarket muffler.

 

I took mine to an exhaust shop. The cut the muffler off behind the downgrade in case I wanted to put it back to stock at some point. The made pipes that replace the muffler and stock tips. Sounds badass with no rasp. It's fairly loud but not to bad since I left the resonator in the mid pipe.

 

If you replaced the midpipe, you'd still be restricted by the outlet on the stock Y-pipe, since that's still 2.5", unless you change that out. The piping in the muffler would also be stock size. So, the flow wouldn't change with just a larger mid. tp's or hfc's would still increase the flow on the stock setup, just add rasp.

Some people get the CEL on the tp's and hfc's, some don't. Some fix it with the brillo pad, some it doesn't seem to work. The only sure way to get rid of the CEL light if it comes on is to block it with a tune...or don't put tp's or hfc's on.

 

Yes if you do a mid-pipe make sure it's still 2.5"!

*eats banana*

In for vids

RyebreadZ post one up! I have one somewhere...

 

Lol, I dont know what I was thinking with a different diameter midpipe. I'll call around and see about getting a 2.5" straight through midpipe made.

 

Just because people were intentionally causing on exhaust leak on there 03 to 06 (Zenki) or 07 to 08 (Kouki) 350Z doesn't make it correct. Drifters do a lot of dumb things, can't really see any benifit of this for drifting a 350Z

 

do you mean like drifting?

Ya they run insane offset wheels, stupid amounts of camber, and pulled fenders. I refuse to follow that trend of destroying perfectly good cars.