This upgrade was long over due. I had porting done on the head, intake, ex. mani., and turbo on a stock exhaust. The power would fade away after 4000+ rpms.
I knew I was taking a chance from reading the SSAutochrome exhaust manifold and o2 housing stories but got it for a good price.
The package it came in was well packed, tons of Styrofoam peanuts that had static charge and kept jumping away from the broom. Man it took forever to get all those. Despite the good packing the muffler had a scratch dent on top about 2" long and 1/8" deep. No biggie. Stainless steel piping and mild steel flanges. Came with silencer, grade 10.9 bolts and nuts, 3 gaskets and a 3" to 2.5" reducer.
DOWNPIPE - 2.5" entrance to 3" after flex tube, 3"exit
The gasket included was the wrong size. The bolt spacing and I.D. was wrong. I checked AdvanceAuto and all they could come up with was composite gaskets with no inner ring. The guy at the counter looking up different gaskets kept shaking his head asking me if I really wanted to put a 3" exhaust on my 4 cylinder car. Poor guy had no understanding of our cars. Found a compatible gasket at a local non-corporate parts dealer. I still had to dremel out the bolt spacing on the gasket, but the I.D. was right. The downpipe flange bolt spacing was too long for my stock O2 housing studs. I dremeled the downpipe flange with no trouble and the downpipe bolted right up with no issues. The engine block bracket before the flextube sat perfectly against he block bracket. The rear downpipe hanger just after the subframe lined up right.
MID PIPE - 3" entrance, 2 resonators, 3" exit
I've had the most trouble with this section. One installed, one of the resonators was about 1/8" from the drive shaft. I losened the flange bolts, readjusted and got a clearance of 1/4" and decided to go with it. On the test drive it immediately began rubbing. We jacked it up and tried to bend the hangers so the exhaust would sit more to the drivers side of the car. 2nd test drive; rubbing. So we lowered the exhaust and tapped the resonator with a 8lb sledgehammer. Problem solved. As to the hangers, all were a tight fit. The rear hanger had to be unbolted, turned 180 degrees and reinstalled. The 2nd O2 sensor fit right.
AXLE BACK - 3" entrance 5" muffler 4" tip
No problems at all with this part. fit right into stock hangers nicely. Perfect clearance between rear bumper and tip. IMOTORIA was on the side of the muffler. Did a search and found they made exhaust systems for RX7,Supra,240SX, etc.
The sound is not much louder at idle. When I had my stock exhaust I had a test pipe and had hollowed out the muffler and welded it shut so it was pretty loud to begin with! On the new turbo back, once I hit boost the exhaust note changes to a craZZY purr. Highway drone; somewhat, I have removed all exhaust heat sheilding, rear seats, sound deadening so with a stock setup it might be quieter. After time the exhaust note got much deeper.
A couple of days after installation, I went to the track and dropped .487 off my 1/4 and added 5.79 to my trap speed.
I like this system and if it could be purchased for a decent price, I recommend it!
