You should be able to slip them in with another set of hands helping. You can slide the muffler back and forth on the exhaust hangers, which gives you about an inch of flexibility.

kewl thx....I might try this tomorrow. I cannot believe my Nismo CBE ($1700) proved zero hp gains on the dyno and really did nothing to the exhaust note. So I am gonna try and get my monies worth with this $6 mod. Plus I have Berk HFC's so it should be even more interesting than "Holiday's" setup.

gotcha....wonder what 5 or 6 washers would sound like?

Here is another video.

http://www.the370z.com/526733-post152.html

YouTube says broken link.

i am highly thinking about doing this (till Berk gets there exhaust in stock), anybody know of the drawbacks of running this within the cold rainy weather in Washington?

Works for me.

Hey guys,

A video won't really do the sound any justice. It is such an easy thing to do you gotta just try it. I did mine by myself.

-Jack the back up a little to have more room. If you don't have a jack you can still do this so don't make excuses :)

-Get some lube and spray the hangers so you can slide the exhasut back a little.

-Take out the 14mm nuts

-Slide the exhaust back and take out the metal gasket.

-Put the 4 washers on each stud. I don't think 2 on each will sound as good. It might not be a big enough gap and sound like a leak. Anyone else that has tried 2 should chime in.

-Put the 14mm nuts back on and tighten her up.

I must warn you on cold starts it is loud. Let it idle down and you will hear it rumble. I can't keep my foot out of the pedal now :)

I love the sound of downshifting with this setup. I'm telling you, if you got nothing better to do and you are really thinking about it, GO FOR IT! It will turn heads fo sho. Not because you have leak, but because they can hear the sweet sound of a sports car rolling by :rock:

DO IT! ~ DO IT! ~ DO IT! ~ DO IT! ~ DO IT! ~ DO IT!

i think i will correct me if im wrong but you used 3/8 stainless steel washers? yes?

YES SIR! Good luck! let us know what you think :tup:

i was bored a few weeks ago and did this. but with 6 washers on each. sounds really good for $3.15

hey, i actually have 5 spacers on each on my set up, i think it just depends how thick your washers are(do they even come in different thickness?? lol) but yea, i'm sure if it's anything close it wont make much of a sound difference, just make sure you still have enough thread to put the bolt back on lol

I know I had some Metric ones I was going to use first and I would have only needed 3 to make the same thickness as the 4 Standard ones I used. So yes, they come in different thicknesses.

I agree also with having more or less as long as it is close it will be good. If you just put one I could see it sounding like a leak, and if you put 6 or more it might get louder and your tips will start to stick out past the bumper.

I just made a video with my new Sony NEX5. I still don't think the sound is going to be the same as in person though. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faUmve8W03A

awesome camera, i just think that it makes it sound a little more raspy than it really is in person

^Me too. The way I had the car on the driveway you could hear everything underneath. I do have HFC's so it will have some rasp but I swear by the sound. It is way better in person.

ooo you have HFC's??? did u do the washer mod before u had cats on the car, and then put cats, or u had HFC's and then did the washers? im only asking b/c i wanna know how much louder the washer mod is with HFC's if any louder

k...I did five washer yesterday on my car and four washers on the bros red Z34. When I left the deeler I gasssed it no more then I would normally in first gear and got the tires scratching (a first) went next door to the Ford dealership to show a buddy and all the vultures were out at the cars after a 4.5k rpm rev. Funny the car was warmed up BUT never could get it to rev past 4.5k in neutral. Maybe a rev limiter?


So with five washers cruising down the freeway between 70 - 75 mph, winds at 10mph, windows down, I was getting fumes in the cabin. I heard the bro pass by and I swear it sounded like a formula one car. He had four washers. Four washers do not have fumes coming in the cabin. I did notice the power range decrease (sluggish and not as fast of a throttle response). After the placebo effect wore off I realized it sounded like it was gargling with mouth wash (in the cabin of course). I have not heard the car outside as a bystander with drive-by's.

With two cars to work with I can mix up the amount of washers and see the difference. I spent the rest of yesterday dropping the washer count to 3 washers then 2 washers. What I found with decreasing the washers that I was gaining back my power band and throttle response. So for me it's going to be either 2 washers or 1 washer (1 washer giving back the most amount of band band and throttle response).

I was using some really fat 3/8 washers and decidied to see if home depot had thinner ones and they do, so today I am going to go with 1 fat washer and 1 thin washer to give it 1.5 hopefully a sweet medium.

For me 4 washers and 3 washers was just annoying loud and it sounded garble (in the cabin of course). The main reason to drop the washer amount down is to keep the power band and throttle response. I heard though that by increasing the gap will decrease the amount of back preasure. This could have something to do with the loss of power band and throttle response.

My mod setup is:

Nismo CBE
Berk HFC
Injen CAI

Everyone may have different results depending on their mods.

Thx for the video, my camera was positioned farther back and off to the side. I have not heard it yet thru computer speakers, just played it back in the camcorder and there was wind muffling the sound so prolly not a good candidate for showing.

Sounds good with the HFC's. I did notice a little gasp or hestitation when you reved it, mine did the same with 5,4 and 3 washers. Guess it all comes down to a personal preference. Wish I could hear it outside the car, but for me it has to also sound good in the cabin as I am the one who has to live with it in the cabin. With 5 and 4 washers mine sounded garbled and 3 washers was too much rasp.

Yea, just put it in gear and hold the clutch in, then you can rev galore :rock:

I put the HFC's on well before I did this. There was only a slight difference after the HFC's were installed. This was a huge difference so I would recommend it with HFC's still. Good luck with your choice :tup:

Just keep in mind that the 4500 RPM limiter is there for a reason. You don't want to spin your unloaded engine too high or else you risk damage.

:iagree:

Use good sense when you do this ;)

sorry to keep asking guys, but is there any possible problems with driving the car while in rain with this mod?

Huh?

It's the exhaust not the intake...

Water could potentially get in the muffler, but considering the exhaust temperature, it should boil away without issue - water and water vapor often exits the exhaust anyway, so maybe this would help.

It will be fine.

A three-way catalytic converter has three simultaneous tasks:

1. Reduction of nitrogen oxides to nitrogen and oxygen: 2NOx → xO2 + N2
2. Oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide: 2CO + O2 → 2CO2
3. Oxidation of unburnt hydrocarbons (HC) to carbon dioxide and water: CxH2x+2 + [(3x+1)/2]O2 → xCO2 + (x+1)H2O

You already have H2O in the piping from the cat's. That is why you see it coming out of the tailpipe sometimes :)

thanks for all the help and everything guys, i really appreciate it. So my buddy came by and we did this mod. 4 spacers on each bolt, gaskets removed and such. Only mod i have is the BERK hfc.

impressions: It is loud, as soon as you start it up to the point of operating temp. it's loud. Drove around the block, at around 2k rpms, it's loud then goes back to normal until you gas it more to 3k rpm. The sound is not a clean roar, but somewhat, raspy? but not deep either. Overall, if you were stock then it would be tolerable and a little tamer. BUt with HFC's, honestly, i did not like it. Not trying to say it sounds bad, just not quite my taste. I was going to run it this way till i got the BERK cbe, but ended up putting it back to stock. It's weird, because the video's sounded good, but on mine, not as much. It is noticeable with the windows rolled up as well, quite a bit. But overall, many of you will like this mod, but for me, just a little bit much. cheers!

Hey thx for the tip Holiday :tup:

Yeh like float the valves.....4.5k rpm in neutral was good enough for me.

I settled into 1.5 washers and the sound is livable but more important the power band is at its peak with this much gap and loss of back pressure. I took video's of boring start up's and rev's in the driveway. I would imagine everyone wants to hear it rolling and a drive by. I did get a rolling cabin shot and will post them up when I can upload them.

That is the reason I went down to 1.5 washers. It was annoying loud to the point I had to decide is this what I want to live with in the cabin. It may sound good on a drive bye, I dunno know I have not heard mine and have just heard others video. I will be interested to hear mine at 1.5 washers on a drive by, but the sound in the cabin is allot better than with 4 washers.

There really is a difference with slight changes to the amount of washers used, that is in sound, power band and throttle response. It really is a personal preference and not everyone will like it. For me, it sure beats the Nismo CBE that sounds stock.

this won't throw a code?

Not a chance! If you can run this car out of oil and no light comes on there is no way an exhaust leak with throw a light :)

I did this last night just to play around. Wasn't really crazy about the sound. Went to remove the washers today and stripped one of the nuts because i was being careless. Looks like I'll be living with this for a few days now :icon14:

oooo snap lol

they should make some JDM Titanium washers that we can buy for $100 each! That would be so much better.

littlephilly- were you using your needle nose pliers to do the work? :icon17:

I bet Greddy can make some to go along with their LED headlight strips!

:bowrofl:

Had to buy new bolts and nuts, well worth it when experimenting with different quantities of washers.

What size nuts and bolts?

bolt = 10mm-1.25 x 30mm
nut = 10mm -1.25
lock washer = 10mm

The socket wrench for both bolt and nut = 17mm