Exhaust plan. Thoughts?
 

I will either purchase an Invidia Q300 or go custom this weekend...one or the other.

I know what I will be getting with the Invidia, but I'd like some feedback on the custom idea.

What I am planning to do if I go that route is get all new piping in either 2.25" or 2.5" from the cat all the way to the stock muffler leaving it intact and reusing my stock resonators along with adding a crossover before them.

It's basically the exact same setup many of the aftermarket systems use except that I will be keeping my stock muffler (and viewing a cut open view of it, I don't think it's all that restrictive) and resonators instead of the ones they supply (at GREATLY inflated prices in most cases I feel).

I can get this done for about $250 at a good muffler shop close to me.

What are your thoughts on sound (wanting it to stay close to stock...a bit louder is fine) and performance.

My guess is the sound will be very similar but a tad bit louder and the performance will be on par with most of the aftermarket setups...expecting around 10HP increase.

Nothing wrong with a custom exhaust, but the beauty of a CBE is that they bolt on stock mounting points with no mods so it can easily go back to OEM if you have to.

Im no exhaust expert but I dont see you getting 10HP just from what your saying. I have been wrong before though =) I would at least get some HFC's to go with it. That will also help increase your sound.

Most of the aftermarket cat back exhausts are making 13-18 additional and the only difference from what I am planning is the mufflers they use.

The stock muffler from what I have seen isn't a problem. The most restrictive part of the exhaust setup is the Y-pipe which will be replaced with a true dual exhaust setup.

I think you should give it a try but definitely get before and after dynos so we can see how you did.

Unless you are building custom from the ground-up you will be sacrificing your original exhaust system that you might need in the future for selling of your Z.

I thought about that, but then again, there is always someone selling one of those and really, would most people care if the piping between the cat and the muffler was improved upon anyway?

Any updates on this im curious....

Didn't get it done last weekend...got in too late in the day. Going to try again this one.

might want to check out the exhuast I just put on Exoticspeed, under $1k looks and sounds awsome.. I did both got bolt on my my coupe and custom for my wife's sedan, Bolt on was better and only saved $200 on custom VS bolt on.

I don't know your taste but must people really don't like the sound of the invidia Q300. It has excellent gains, i think one of the best gains but the sound is awful. That is just my opinion.
Im also on the look for exhaust and i was going to go with the invidia q300 just for the gains, but when it comes to exhaust you really want to choose it based on the gains, the sound and the quality. I prefer to save up a little more and buy the F.I exhaust which has awesome gains too...

Where did u get that for under $1k?

ZLmotorsport on Ebay. :) Great company and people.. Super A+ service, Was intouch from day one till I got it..

Bump

Any progress?