Custom exhaust - sneak peak

[BaconZombie]

Well, after looking around at some of the cat-back exhausts available for our cars, I decided that it seemed like a fairly simple endeavor. I work at an automotive shop which does exhaust work, so my techs and I decided to see what we could do. At first I started with a simple "lunch box" delete, and replacing the front muffler with a 6" diameter, 18" long Magnaflow. I left all the other tubing the same, and added a Magnaflow tip. I liked the sound, but it was only marginally louder than stock. So I ordered a 10' stick of non-polished stainless steel tubing in 2.5", and we did a full cat-back with resonator delete a la FSWerks. Here are some pics of the work in progress. I'll post a video as soon as it stops raining here and I can get one.

The muffler I chose...


Techs cutting the tubing...


The first set of bends after the muffler...


The bends heading up over the rear suspension...


And coming down into the tip...


The sound is incredible. There is some in-cabin drone at low to mid RPMs, but nothing unbearable. At higher RPMs or when just cruising, it's nice and low, with a deep, throaty sound.

[Sponsor]

[asting]

Loudness was your primary criteria for a quality exhaust?

[BaconZombie]

No, that's not quite what I said. It's just that what we did at first wasn't quite the sound I was looking for. There is nothing close to poor quality in what we built. It's mandrel bent, full stainless steel tubing with a stainless steel Magnaflow muffler and tip, with a lifetime warranty on both. We took a lot of time getting the bends and lines just right so there's no contact between the exhaust and anything else. The only difference being is that this is hand-welded instead of machine welded, but my techs can weld pretty well.

[asting]

Originally Posted by BaconZombie

No, that's not quite what I said. It's just that what we did at first wasn't quite the sound I was looking for. There is nothing close to poor quality in what we built. It's mandrel bent, full stainless steel tubing with a stainless steel Magnaflow muffler and tip, with a lifetime warranty on both. We took a lot of time getting the bends and lines just right so there's no contact between the exhaust and anything else. The only difference being is that this is hand-welded instead of machine welded, but my techs can weld pretty well.

I know I'm just giving you crap
I prefer a quieter exhaust on anything with less than 8 cylinders or 250 hp.

[Power Surge]

Originally Posted by BaconZombie

No, that's not quite what I said. It's just that what we did at first wasn't quite the sound I was looking for. There is nothing close to poor quality in what we built. It's mandrel bent, full stainless steel tubing with a stainless steel Magnaflow muffler and tip, with a lifetime warranty on both. We took a lot of time getting the bends and lines just right so there's no contact between the exhaust and anything else. The only difference being is that this is hand-welded instead of machine welded, but my techs can weld pretty well.

Looks nice. That's not mandrel bent though.

[BaconZombie]

I understand where you're coming from asting, but I'm actually very surprised by how the exhaust sounds coming out of the this little 2.0.

And Power Surge, it actually is mandrel bent, it's just a fairly old machine, and it actually had to put forth quite a bit of effort to bend the tubing I got. It was fairly thick tubing, much better than the crap I had put on my '11 Sonata, but we won't even get into how bad that thing sounded.

[Power Surge]

Originally Posted by BaconZombie

I understand where you're coming from asting, but I'm actually very surprised by how the exhaust sounds coming out of the this little 2.0.

And Power Surge, it actually is mandrel bent, it's just a fairly old machine, and it actually had to put forth quite a bit of effort to bend the tubing I got. It was fairly thick tubing, much better than the crap I had put on my '11 Sonata, but we won't even get into how bad that thing sounded.

A mandrel machine is over 20ft long and it draws, well, a mandrel through the inside of the pipe as it bends it so you have the full ID of the pipe throughout the bend. Your pipe was bent on a typical crimp style exhaust shop bender. Still works fine, but it's not mandrel bent.

[BaconZombie]

I can admit when I'm wrong, and I stand corrected Power Surge. At least it's not crush bent.

[Power Surge]

Originally Posted by BaconZombie

I can admit when I'm wrong, and I stand corrected Power Surge. At least it's not crush bent.

It's cool. I did mandrel ducting for custom intercooler piping and exhaust systems for many years.

[TiStick]

I was always under the impression that the the term "die" and "mandrel" were interchangeable when it came to tubing benders, but after seeing Power Surges reply and a little research, I can see now that they are two separate components.

Now for the OT part...
Power Surge, is it true that if the tubing to be bent were filled with sand and then welded closed prior to bending that the ID would be maintained even when drawn over the die? I've always heard that, but never tried it myself.

/OT

BaconZombie, I like what you've done there. Any rough costs as compared to FSWerks?