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CaysE's Custom 3" Exhaust by Focus_3XZ

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#141 ·
I still would have needed to weld on the bracket though, which would've required grinding off the ceramic coating, and then re-coating. I could've gotten one at retail and spent less, too, but this made more sense.
 
#143 ·
i want your exhaust, you valve cover, your jrsc, your cylinder head, your baby...jk about the baby
 
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#150 ·
A year later... new updates! [:D]

I had Dominic fab up a new cat pipe for me using a new Vibrant "race cat" which uses a stainless steel core that flows better than current ceramic core "high flow" converters. From the 3-bolt flange is a 2.5" to 3" concentric expander welded to the inlet of the converter. Two bungs are welded into the expander for the OEM O2 sensor and the wideband sensor for my AEM UEGO. The converter has a 4" body and 3" inlet/outlet, and from there is the usual S-bend to go over the subframe. Rather than use the typical 2-bolt flange to connect to the flex pipe, I opted for another v-band. Another bung is welded into the S-bend for the rear O2 monitor.

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Since the flexpipe needed to be modified for the v-band and I wanted to use a longer flex section, I opted to just have a whole new flexpipe built. Again, some new Vibrant tech was employed, using a "high flow" flex section that has a true 3" ID all the way through and a smoother lining for less turbulence.

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This weld shows some awesome work... the weld had to merge the outer collar, outer wire mesh, inner flex piece, and the pipe in one shot. As you can see, awesome job like always:

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Every single piece is stainless steel, inside and out. I'm thrilled with it though the race cat is a bit louder than the CFM, but that will all be solved with future modifications to the exhaust. [:D]

I also ordered some stainless nuts & bolts for the 3-bolt flange, and Dominic gave me some nice stainless studs and nuts to replace my now-rusting ones for the header's head flange. I'll have some more pics up soon. [:)]
 
#151 ·
i saw this and commented someplace else already, but i didnt notice "2002 Liquid Grey ZX3 ··· SVT replica ··· RIP '10" till now...
what happened to the LG svt rep?
 
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#153 ·
zx360 said:
i saw this and commented someplace else already, but i didnt notice "2002 Liquid Grey ZX3 ··· SVT replica ··· RIP '10" till now...
what happened to the LG svt rep?
Click to expand...
Some douchetray in a POS '90s import sedan lost control of his car on the highway, hitting me doing 65mph, shoving my car into a cement barrier in the median, and to top it all off he took off. The car had damage on all sides and the suspension was wrecked on the driver's side. Liability-only insurance coverage left me with nothing, so I cut my losses and got rid of it. It still pisses me off to this day, but if that hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have a clutch in the SVT now. It kinda forced me to get that done with the quickness.

scrammer said:
that is sweet man!!! i so want it!

i will soon be going 3" to accomodate my obrut. but ill be going with trubendz.

looks frickin sweet man! cant wait to hump it at carlisle![hump]
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LOL thanks... just be aware that a couple people here have learned that the Trubendz kits aren't always 3" ID all the way through, others had no problems. Carlisle is going to be bananas this year. [headbang]
 
#154 ·
Looks ridiculously nice, Casey. Thanks for the pics [:D]. You'll be glad to know I've been totally pleased with my metallic core HFC (2.5" unit from Thunderbolt). Its been installed since Jan 2009.

EDIT: I'm sure you have some videos of your car driving around recently (as in, since the JRSC)... post them.
 
#155 ·
CaysE said:
Some douchetray in a POS '90s import sedan lost control of his car on the highway, hitting me doing 65mph, shoving my car into a cement barrier in the median, and to top it all off he took off. The car had damage on all sides and the suspension was wrecked on the driver's side. Liability-only insurance coverage left me with nothing, so I cut my losses and got rid of it. It still pisses me off to this day, but if that hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have a clutch in the SVT now. It kinda forced me to get that done with the quickness.
Click to expand...

[:0] how did i miss anything about it on either site [:(] that hurts the heart because it was coming along nicely... i hate stupid people
sorry about your loss, glad the red beast is coming along though
 
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#158 ·
mellephants said:
Looks ridiculously nice, Casey. Thanks for the pics [:D]. You'll be glad to know I've been totally pleased with my metallic core HFC (2.5" unit from Thunderbolt). Its been installed since Jan 2009.

EDIT: I'm sure you have some videos of your car driving around recently (as in, since the JRSC)... post them.
Click to expand...
I've heard a lot of varying opinion on metallic core converters; the one that stood out to me was some people having a melted core on high boost applications. Vibrant states that their stainless core is actually more resilient to heat and vibration than ceramic cores, so who knows? I'm glad yours is working out great, hopefully mine will last too. [thumb] Unfortunately I don't have any vids of me driving around just yet! I'll work on that. [:D]

zx360 said:
[:0] how did i miss anything about it on either site [:(] that hurts the heart because it was coming along nicely... i hate stupid people
sorry about your loss, glad the red beast is coming along though
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I didn't really post about it anywhere... it was just a shitty situation all around, and it was right before we got slammed with three bad snow storms in a row. It basically stayed at the tow yard so long because I couldn't put it anywhere that it wasn't worth it to pay storage fees, so I said F it and wiped my hands of it. Sad I know, but it just had to happen.

dirtbrown said:
still digging the manifold bracket!
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Me too. [headbang]

HaveBlue83 said:
^^nice header bracket.

I need dom to make me up a 2.5" flex


I also didn't realize he's the SAME guy that made my HFC. no wonder it's soooo nice lookin!
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LOL, we were actually talking about your car while I was there; we're both impressed how far your car has come since that crazy fire. [thumb]
 
#159 ·
A couple more pics of the flexpipe. The original was just way too small and stiff, and you can see the collars were made of aluminized steel instead of stainless by the flecks of rust on them. The new flex is fully stainless, inside and out.

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