| KevinH |
Sep 1, 2005 01:45 PM |
Less expensive approach
I didn't want to pay all that money for a performance name brand system, but wanted the performance and DEEP 'throaty' sound of a V8 mussle car. I went to a muffler shop that custom made their own pipes. I wanted someone that mandrel bent the pipes so that there was not any ripples in the bends. I found a local muffler shop thru the race club at the college my son attends. I had 3" pipes installed from the down pipes all the way back with new catylictic converters (2), resonators(2), and Flow Master American Thunder mufflers (2). This set-up gave me the deep 'throaty' sound that I was looking for, a jump in HP, and a significantly better throttle response. I initially didn't have the catylictic converters put in, but you couldn't carry a normal conversation on inside the car without them. Though I must tell you that at the time when the system was installed, my car was running significantly rich, which had a big contribution to it being too loud for me. I straighten out the running rich problem (with help from this forum) by replacing the O2 sensors. You can do the same with Magna Flow mufflers. My son claims that the Magna Flow mufflers sound better to him. You can go to Flow Master or Magna Flow's web site and listen to the sound of the different mufflers that they offer (.WAV files). It will be close, though I imagine that the samples were recorded off of V8s. I got my system (mentioned above) done for $650.00 (cash was agreed upon as a condition of this pricing after neogotiation :D ). This is a heck of allot better than the $1200.00 :eek: I was quoted for the stock Cat Back from a regular muffler shop!
BTW - According to my research on the net, 3" dia. pipes was optimal for the 300ZX N/A, and 3-1/2" was optimal for the 300ZX TT.
Hopefully, this will give something to think about, and investigate in your area.
Good Luck!
|