Y8s put his spec all over me and I liked it. (exhaust build)
 

Fine day of wrenching was partaken in today. Started at 8am and finally got back to my house at 10:30pm.

First it started with a nice clutch and trans swap, which took roughly 2-2.5 hours; we weren't really counting.

http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0004.JPG

went from a 1.6L ACT HD with 6-puck to a 1.8L ACT HD with a street disc

http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0007.JPG


even busted out the good lube:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0009.JPG





Then on to the y8spec exhaust upgrade:

the legend itself:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0005.JPG


cutting some hangerz:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0009.JPG

test fitting:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0012.JPG


My first weldz:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0013.JPG


Elephant schlong:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0016.JPG


about to tack:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0019.JPG


being tacked:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0022.JPG


tacked:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0025.JPG


y8speced:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...5/DSC_0027.JPG


final welding:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0029.JPG


finished:
http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0033.JPG

http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0034.JPG

here's the before:




and the after:





hard to tell from these, but the new muffler is the perfect dB level, there is zero drone and it just sounds great. If you have fairly good speaker what you can hear is all the bass is gone. I still sounds the exact same, except when I'm halfway up the street you cant hear me coming anymore. Maybe my wife will stop calling me on the weekend mornings telling me i woke her up because I pulled my car out of the lot.

So with my new clutch, trans that makes ZERO noise, and exhaust the makes LITTLE noise, i'm a very happy brainesack.


oh yeah, after this we swapped the axle back muffler on y8s' civic...

trust y8s to know how to fit something long and girthy up somewhere tight.

34 views and 1 reply is unacceptable.

looks like you didnt do to bad for your first time, good job man! is it stainless?

You realize you are talking about the cheapest person on here. Do you really things its SS? The only thing stainless might be the muffler, everything else I guarantee is aluminized.

it just didnt look like regular steel so thought i would ask........

I wish my friends wrenched for beer...

you need to find better friends...

That is god damn awesome if I do say so myself..

good job. sounds and looks so much bettah

Muffler is stainless fosho. This IS the muffler to have. I tried two others prior (flowmaster & turbostyle) - both were louder and flowed less.

DIY win!!!

I remember when I made my diy exhaust ~ 3 years ago and you replied that you should man up and do one yourself.

It's nice to see you finally did it.

I was very impressed with Y8S fitting that 5x11x22 up in there. That looks to be the 5x11 c anister, not the 5x8. Is that a misprint on your youtube video?

My 5x8x18 might be too loud for me as I'm getting old. :(

Great job DIY, I needs a lincoln MIG! My HF mig is barely adequate for tacks.

I wish I got beer too.

It's definitely the 5x11. the 5x8 was the original muffler.

the difference is pretty significant. scott's car used to be very boy racer annoying and now it's perfect. aggressive and sports-car but not loud.

Fuck my neck is sore. I think I might go get a beer right now.

I think I will invent the "head creeper" to avoid sore neck.

I'm soar but I feel like a man.

Yep, muffler is stainless rest is aluminized...

I had the enthuza budget racer exhaust prior, with a 5x814 muffler. Wasn't that bad, when I crashed into a pole and had to replace the muffler I bought a 4x9x14 by mistake and ever since I've hated my exhaust. Now I couldn't be happier with it, like I said it still sounds the exhaust same just cut the drone completely out and dB levels down probably 75%.

I got a better sound check video:




I'd say all in all, the car sound similar to when it had a stock cat and 2.25" borla dual exhaust on it with the turbo.

Sounds good. I'm a bit sick of my FM 2.5", it's too deep and hurts my head. How hard was it to weld for your first time? Is a DIY exhaust like this n00b friendly with no welding experience?

Only one word and the most epic title change can be made

Good job. :bigtu:
Which one of you owns the chop saw? And could I arrange to borrow it when I get to my install, for making some mad tyte IC pypez?

Scott, where'd you end up buying the 5x2809234x29838724983270982q Magnaflow from? I need to build a Laguna exhaust and I don't feel like taking chances (needs to be 90db at WOT).

performancepeddler.com

looks like no matter where you buy a magnaflow from everyone, incluing pp.com, is charging the same amount. But they can drop ship from magnaflow (CA) if it's not in stock (IL).

I also like what ARtech did with the 5x8x18 muffler on in his thread, but I knew this thing would trump all as far as dB levels and still sound great. It's weird to start the car with fast idle and not wake neighbors.

nice. perhaps a before/after datalog of spool for comparison?

it's a straight pipe with holes shoved in a box. it's not going to hurt performance compared to the 5x8x18 I gur-un-tee.

ScottFW: I own the chop saw. They're so cheap at harborfreight you should buy one. you'll use it for everything. except aluminum.

I've used mine on Al, just clamp it down and use the saw with one hand and wd40 in the other. Works great.

i figured as much. i just had nothing else floating around in my head to spam the thread with. ;-)

The previous was 4x9x14, not 5x8x18. 5x8x18 would sound good.

Why not? Work slow and just don't do a lot at one time. We cut everything under the sun with the chop saw... Rubber, plastic, aluminum, steel, and even cloth rope from time to time.

Get decent welding flat pieces of metal together before you try doing round.

agreed. I cut aluminum all the time on wood bladed tools ... cuts like butta. Though it seems like the marine biased alloys (5086?) containing a higher magnesium content can be a bitch - I sheared a bunch of teeth off the band saw at work after cutting 5052 for a couple hours without issue.

-Zach

Okay stupid question, or maybe I just can't read, which exact model is this muffler? I really like the sound. Please go easy, I just got done with 3 15 hour days in a row at the hospital.
The sound is perfect!!!

12589

I bought an "aluminum" abrasive chop saw blade from mcmaster a while back, works great. looks just like a standard blade for steels but works on aluminum.

I was at my dad's shop a few weeks ago and noticed a big chunk missing from it. Fantastic.

Also, I found the Hitachi chopsaw from Lowes to be far better than the harborfreight unit while costing similar (get a 10% off coupon from a post office/new home owner packet).

aluminum tends to clog up steel blades. maybe not so much on the chop saw though?

Curious, why not just put a lesonator on it instead of changing the whole thing out?

I'm just down here in NC, I will bring keg and piping and 18yr olds for exchange on labor for 3" straight pipe exhaust. :)

We're not lesbians, not lesonators here.

It does "some", but unless your cutting a LOT of aluminum, the steel you cut in between aluminum cuts will keep the disc clean. Plastic is the biggest killer for us with grinders and the cutoff wheel. It cakes fast, holds the heat, and shatters the discs in no time if you don't keep them clean

Sorry for the thread jack. Now back to the sweet exhaust :)

:idea::idea::idea::idea::idea::idea::idea::idea:


I could have saved myself so much trouble and just replaced my resonator with a lesonator! I just looked it up, the lesonator is able to reduce the dB output of an exhaust by over 50dBs by use of "muff diving"; unlike a muffler, who's sole purpose is "muffling."


I'm almost offended by your post!

bumpety. I put one of these on my car and took 12-14db off over my normal open exhaust (85db at Laguna Seca). Spool suffered noticeably, though.

I'm surprised spool suffered...I saw no ill effects in the performance department on my setup...must be the bends.

EDIT: Looking a log from last week, still making 15psi at 3600RPM in 4th gear.

got before and afters? I'm curious what I've condemned people to.

what did you use for bends? that exhaust looks and sounds sweet

Dude, this is Braineack we're talking about. He just picked 'em up with his bare hands and bent 'em.

The Columbia River bends.

On a more serious note- I don't see any shielding gas. Did you do that with flux-core wire? If so, it looks amazingly good. (If not, it still looks pretty decent.)

Argon.

:brain::brain::brain::brain::brain:

nice one. ha!

Ok, I don't feel quite so inadequate now. I've only ever owned a flux-only rig, and my welds look like someone took a shit on the workpiece, and then had it plated over.

Sidebar: I need a new welder. Gotta figure out a way to run 220v into the garage. Damn apartment living...

Wait... pure argon, for mild steel?

No and I probably never will since the car isn't street legal. This is going from no muffler whatsoever to the monster y8saflow. I noticed a huge difference in transient boost response, coming out of corners where I normally can just roll in and the boost comes up quickly, there was a fairly significant delay (maybe half a second).

I am pretty sure that is the norm. It is what we use for all our welding.

click full size...

http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...1/DSC_0029.JPG


proof we used GAS:

http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...2/DSC_0022.JPG

Huh. I always thought that you were supposed to use of mix of argon and CO2 for steel.

You know, I just went out there and looked, and it is 75% Argon/25% CO2 mix. I am not sure if it has always been that way or not. I suspect that if you asked for Argon, the mix is what you got.

75/25 argon/Co2 mix is what we use, but pure argon is supposed to give a cleaner weld for some reason..... But we are cheap :D

I've tried migging with pure argon in a pinch and it doesn't work. The CO2 is there to bring some heat to the party. i couldn't get any kind of penetration with straight argon.