- Location
- los angeles
no longer looking for headers...
Headers
- Thread starter CycoDK
- Start date
- Location
- Toronto, On
Nice write-up turbo.
regarding the testpipes, did you purchase non-resonated or resonated test pipes? i have FI resonated test pipes and i have MINIMAL rasp. only on a cold start until the pipes are warm or when gunning it and changing gears hard at night when its cooler. this also factors into the stock exhaust, i have been told with an aftermarket exhaust such as the nismo or the FI there is almost no rasp.
regarding the testpipes, did you purchase non-resonated or resonated test pipes? i have FI resonated test pipes and i have MINIMAL rasp. only on a cold start until the pipes are warm or when gunning it and changing gears hard at night when its cooler. this also factors into the stock exhaust, i have been told with an aftermarket exhaust such as the nismo or the FI there is almost no rasp.
About the headers... I feel ya. I bought headers literally last minute and brought them to the shop as the motor was about to be installed so that I luckily had no labor costs :6wink:
I had stock headers in the back, so I thought what the hell, I might as well throw a set of headers on instead of stock.
Now on to the test pipes... I just swapped out for stock cats a couple weeks ago. I'm no longer a fan of test pipes. Mine were resonated and sounded good for a little while, but eventually I got a rattle like you experienced. Megan Racing makes pretty damn good products... as long as it doesn't involve any resonator material and/or catalytic converter materials. The welds are solid and the looks of them are on par with any other exhaust component. The down side is the internals... if I would've gotten non-resonated I might not have been happy with the sound from the get-go, but with the resonated test pipes, I ended up with what sounds like some loose change stuck inside the resonated portion.
I had stock headers in the back, so I thought what the hell, I might as well throw a set of headers on instead of stock.
Now on to the test pipes... I just swapped out for stock cats a couple weeks ago. I'm no longer a fan of test pipes. Mine were resonated and sounded good for a little while, but eventually I got a rattle like you experienced. Megan Racing makes pretty damn good products... as long as it doesn't involve any resonator material and/or catalytic converter materials. The welds are solid and the looks of them are on par with any other exhaust component. The down side is the internals... if I would've gotten non-resonated I might not have been happy with the sound from the get-go, but with the resonated test pipes, I ended up with what sounds like some loose change stuck inside the resonated portion.
- Location
- brooklyn, ny
stillen didn't have resonated... I got straight pipes...
it sounds so bad... wtf is all that raspyness?... it sounds like the insides of the exhaust is tin fluttering or something... now I know when I see those little cars with 6" exhaust tips making tons of noise & not going anywhere... they deleted the cats:4tongue:
I took the test pipes back out & put the oe cats back in to see what just the headers alone would do... what a difference a cat makes... I was so happy that it sounded back to normal that I was singing that in my head "what a difference, a CAT makes.... da da da dahhh..."
I def wouldn't drive it around the way it was, so bad...
so with just the headers swapped & the stock cats retained, it's not a heck of a lot louder than it was before the headers... before the headers at idle it was pretty quiet, now at idle it has a hint of a rumble... also through the low band the stillen was a bit quieter where now you do hear it a bit more... it is louder floored too, but not rediculously much.. ok well maybe a little close to rediculous but it do sound gooood!... overall the headers just turned the volume up a notch or 2, but it sounds similar to what it sounded like before the headers, just a bit louder...
it also now has a slight more raspy hint than before the headers at times, not bad, but a hint of it at close to 3k rpms to a bit over that... it sounds to me like a part of the ehaust is resonating kinda... what makes the raspyness?
now, after hearing it with & without the cat, I'm wondering how much louder a race type tiny cat is gonna be louder than the stock cat.... it's a bit loud now with the stock cat, I don't think I could take much louder... are the aftermarket tiny cats louder than the oe cat? I'm considering instead of using one of the tiny cats in the stock location to step the cat back a bit, mount it after the bend & straight back... I can fit a nice 14" long random technologies cat at that point, something that flows great but is going to be as quiet as the stock cats.... this'll also give a slightly cooler location for the wideband sensors... with the stock cat location technicly the front of the cat is really too hot of a location anyway... sensors don't last as long... with the stock cat location you have no choice, but FI you gotta watch that even more with the cats, too much heat starts ruining things... cats moved back 8 inches or so is an advantage really so I think I might do that...
it sounds so bad... wtf is all that raspyness?... it sounds like the insides of the exhaust is tin fluttering or something... now I know when I see those little cars with 6" exhaust tips making tons of noise & not going anywhere... they deleted the cats:4tongue:
I took the test pipes back out & put the oe cats back in to see what just the headers alone would do... what a difference a cat makes... I was so happy that it sounded back to normal that I was singing that in my head
"what a difference, a CAT makes.... da da da dahhh..."I def wouldn't drive it around the way it was, so bad...
so with just the headers swapped & the stock cats retained, it's not a heck of a lot louder than it was before the headers... before the headers at idle it was pretty quiet, now at idle it has a hint of a rumble... also through the low band the stillen was a bit quieter where now you do hear it a bit more... it is louder floored too, but not rediculously much.. ok well maybe a little close to rediculous but it do sound gooood!
... overall the headers just turned the volume up a notch or 2, but it sounds similar to what it sounded like before the headers, just a bit louder...it also now has a slight more raspy hint than before the headers at times, not bad, but a hint of it at close to 3k rpms to a bit over that... it sounds to me like a part of the ehaust is resonating kinda... what makes the raspyness?
now, after hearing it with & without the cat, I'm wondering how much louder a race type tiny cat is gonna be louder than the stock cat.... it's a bit loud now with the stock cat, I don't think I could take much louder... are the aftermarket tiny cats louder than the oe cat? I'm considering instead of using one of the tiny cats in the stock location to step the cat back a bit, mount it after the bend & straight back... I can fit a nice 14" long random technologies cat at that point, something that flows great but is going to be as quiet as the stock cats.... this'll also give a slightly cooler location for the wideband sensors... with the stock cat location technicly the front of the cat is really too hot of a location anyway... sensors don't last as long... with the stock cat location you have no choice, but FI you gotta watch that even more with the cats, too much heat starts ruining things... cats moved back 8 inches or so is an advantage really so I think I might do that...
Moving cats back will make them less effective though... you might take them out of the ideal operating temperatures.
I did have a wideband bung put into my test pipes so I know how you feel.
FYI, in case you didn't know, the driver's side cylinders tend to run slightly more lean than passenger side, so it's usually recommended to monitor the worst case, being the more lean side... unless you want to monitor both, by all means go ahead.
I did have a wideband bung put into my test pipes so I know how you feel.
FYI, in case you didn't know, the driver's side cylinders tend to run slightly more lean than passenger side, so it's usually recommended to monitor the worst case, being the more lean side... unless you want to monitor both, by all means go ahead.
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
- Car
- 05 FX35 RWD
Side note. This kind of long winded talk can only happen at
Something special is happening here
Something special is happening here
- Location
- brooklyn, ny
ahh, dave, I can be really long winded sometimes... I used to write huge friggin novels sometimes at mp3car, now I've switched more to talking about the car that the pc's in, rather than the carpc itself though
moving the cats back will slow them down till reaching operating temps but it will still be effective enough to keep the obdII monitors happy I think... in the end that's the goal, quiet as practical with high flow, efficent enough to satify the obdII & increasing the heat reduction at the widebands & cat mouth, especially with the sc, where when I really push it that little extra safety is nice to have
the only way I could see it being a problem is if the cat doesn't get hot enough to convert enough to satify the obdII monitor for efficency... I think it will be effective enough, I'd hate to have to pump air into it like the old days
the obdII is looking for a slowdown of the cycling of the O2 sensor... the front O2 sensor will have a much higher cross count & ocillate much faster than the one behind the cat should... when the obdII see's the rear reading too close to the front reading then it sets an efficency code & can't pass inspection... if the cat does a decent job then the rear readings should be far enough from the fronts for it to be happy, then inspections are no problem...
in ny the vehicle has to be scanned & communicate with the state computer, as long as the obdII sees no faults the car passes, the visual is not an issue for me, I can pretty much inspect it myself, but I need it to communicate all's well with the obdII... there is no sniff test on obdII cars in ny, they trust the obdII system to report any fault...
funny thing is, I drove for like 60 miles without cats & no check engine light kicked on... I expected to see it pop up on the way home, but no...
moving the cats back will slow them down till reaching operating temps but it will still be effective enough to keep the obdII monitors happy I think... in the end that's the goal, quiet as practical with high flow, efficent enough to satify the obdII & increasing the heat reduction at the widebands & cat mouth, especially with the sc, where when I really push it that little extra safety is nice to have
the only way I could see it being a problem is if the cat doesn't get hot enough to convert enough to satify the obdII monitor for efficency... I think it will be effective enough, I'd hate to have to pump air into it like the old days
the obdII is looking for a slowdown of the cycling of the O2 sensor... the front O2 sensor will have a much higher cross count & ocillate much faster than the one behind the cat should... when the obdII see's the rear reading too close to the front reading then it sets an efficency code & can't pass inspection... if the cat does a decent job then the rear readings should be far enough from the fronts for it to be happy, then inspections are no problem...
in ny the vehicle has to be scanned & communicate with the state computer, as long as the obdII sees no faults the car passes, the visual is not an issue for me, I can pretty much inspect it myself, but I need it to communicate all's well with the obdII... there is no sniff test on obdII cars in ny, they trust the obdII system to report any fault...
funny thing is, I drove for like 60 miles without cats & no check engine light kicked on... I expected to see it pop up on the way home, but no...