Can't decide what exhaust to get
 

So I just got a 370z about a week ago but coming from my last 2 cars having aftermarket performance upgrades I'm already itching to get an intake and exhaust.

Since I cant seem to decide for myself, I'm opening the floor to the community for some opinions.

Here are my choices...

1. Injen CAT Back - SES1989TT
2. Ark Performance CAT Back V2.2 (if available for ATX?)
3. Invidia Gemini CAT Back
4. Megan Drift CAT Back
5. Open to suggestions :confused:

There are a lot of choices you have here. The bigger question is what type of sound are you looking for? Loud, quiet, do you like/hate rasp, do you like to hear scavanging, do like/dislike the hiss? How sensitive are you with price? How long do you want to wait?

F.I. is a big seller here with great customer service, Motordyne has a brand new exhaust system out and I can personally vouch for their customer service.
ARK as well as Berk are good choices as well. Take yourself to the exhaust sticky and start critiquing. If you planning on changing the cats to TP's, RTP's, resonated cats, or ART pipes, it will change your exhaust tone as well. Same can be said with Long tube headers.

I run a setup not normally used here which is shown in my sig. If you want to hear what it sounds like, just peruse through my video's. I put a lot of detailed info in there regarding my particular setup. I specifically wanted LTH's with cats to go with a CBE and this is what I came up with. http://www.the370z.com/intake-exhaus...h-hfc-cbe.html

:iagree: I don't know what else to say. It's all laid out right there!

My experiences with Motordyne and F.I. were second to none. Both give you great customer service way after a sale and even on used parts too.

I would just second a vote for F.I. thats where im going when I have the extra $$$ - performance wise and customer service wise made the choice easy after much reading on here.

That's the problem...there are a lot of choices. lol

Thanks for the quick response and all of the detailed info!

F.I it looks like they make the most whp from what I've seen in my research so far. Can't find the Motordyne exhaust on their site (guessing they didnt post it yet so I'll robably search the forums for it).

I'm not a fan of the hissing and rasp and I definitely don't want to sound like a ricer civic with 5" exhaust. I like a deep throaty sounding exhaust. I'm probably going to go with HFC's. Long tube headers down the road.

I had an Injen exhaust on my genesis coupe which had a great sound and decent performance gains.

Just for my own knowledge...what is the difference (performance and sound) of resonated vs non resonated?

Only Motordyne gives you the ability to run cats with LTH's unless you get one custom built.

As for your question on resonators: Resonators will help clear up your exhaust note and adjust the tone. It also reduces (sometimes completely) rasp. The larger the resonator, the more of an effect it has. With my LTH's and HFC, I still get a bit of rasp with the 18" resonators on my Tanabe exhaust. I have the option to put a third in the place of my HFC if I so wish.

Mike Bonanni had HFC put on his F.I. exhaust where the resonators go. So I'm not saying it can't be done, just make sure you find the right place to do it.

+1 for fast intentions :)

I Vote Exoticspeed PWR. No droan, Not loud, Perfect, Only Rumbles at WOT.. Everyone that hears mine loves it. :)

:iagree:

1+ F.I. non resonated

Fasht Ententiones

decide for yourself. you're the one who's going to be driving the car
go to local meets and check out/ listen to what others are running to decide what sounds good to YOU

FI. I am biased cause I own the set lol. But like xdeslitx said, go to the local Z meets in your area and listen for yourself. Everyones perception is different from each other ;)

I had FI non res CF + FI non res TPs was way too loud and sounded too much like a muscle car (not what a Z is supposed to sound like IMO)

now I am running Invidia + FI non res TPs

Haha, I am running the FI 12" TDX + FI res TPs and I think it is a tad too quiet. Sorry Tony! Lol. I probably would love the non res setup...

its all subjective :tup: which is why the OP needs to decide for himself

Dont get me wrong..at the end of the day it's my money and my car so i will decide for myself, but its nice to hear some opinions and info from the community.

And yes i'm planning on attending the weekly meets and hopefully hear some exhausts in person. Youtube videos are nice but nothing better than hearing them in person.

Thank you everyone who responded.

So I'm looking at the FI, Ark and Motordyne exhaust systems now and I'm torn between FI and Motordyne.

From videos (since I havent seen any in person yet) I love the sound of the motordyne, but FI is claiming some serious gains just from an exhaust. Can anyone vouch for those numbers? Looks like 20-30 whp ???

These are the dyno results I found posted for FI:

Baseline (Stock)
Run 1- 281.94 RWH / 241.25 RWT
Run 2- 276.51 RWH / 241.52 RWT
Run 3- 284.12 RWH / 240.89 RWT
Baseline Average: 280.86 RWH / 241.22 RWT

F.I. TDX Cat Back 12" Resonators / Stock Cats
Run 1- 300.81 RWH / 251.08 RWT
Run 2- 301.62 RWH / 252.11 RWT
Run 3- 301.30 RWH / 253.89 RWT
F.I. TDX C.B. 12" Res. Average: 301.24 RWH / 252.36 RWT

F.I. TDX Cat Back 12" Resonators / F.I. Resonated Test Pipes
Run 1- 308.99 RWH / 259.05 RWT
Run 2- 310.24 RWH / 258.32 RWT
Run 3- 305.37 RWH / 258.70 RWT
F.I. TDX Cat Back 12" Res. / F.I. R.T.P. Average: 308.20 RWH / 258.69 RWT

F.I TDX Cat Back 12" Resonators / F.I. HFC's
Run 1- 304.35 RWH / 258.33 RWT
Run 2- 304.19 RWH / 258.25 RWT
Run 3- 305.79 RWH / 258.50 RWT
F.I. TDX Cat Back 12" Res. / F.I. HFC's Average: 304.78 RWH / 258.36 RWT

I'm gonna have to vote another +1 for F.I. I have listened to a lot of exhausts, and fast intentions was the one that did it for me. What made me start seriously considering them was when I called up Tony to ask him some preliminary questions about what he offers. He was one of the most pleasant people I've ever dealt with, ever. The man had a flu when I talked to him the second time, yet he stayed on the phone with me for almost half an hour answering my questions and explaining things to me. He is extremely knowledgable, asking me questions to help decide what I needed, then took his time explaining how the order process went and double checking that he had everything right. Between the fact that Tony knows his stuff forward and backward, the fact that everything is handmade to perfection, and the fact that this exhaust offers the highest HP gains out of all the others, not to mention the second-to-none customer service before and after the sale, this made it a no brainier for me. You literally can't go wrong with FI. Plus it's very competitively priced.


Sent from my iPizzle using magic and new fangled science stuff.

I have seen multiple independant dynos that can back those numbers up!!! Tony is the man!

:werd: perfectly said

:iagree:

Those numbers will be about right.

But be careful what you're looking at, numbers for parts do not stack. Everything compared to baseline, so basically, the exhaust, the y-back section, will net you anything from 10-15 HP for most good y-back systems.

Extra gains can be made by freeing up the cat sections, which is the other numbers being shown, but remember, that's not so specific as the stock vs just the y-back comparison.

If you go test pipes, just make sure you go resonated test pipes, otherwise you'll hit massive rasp/rice as you put it. The FI resonated pipes are show in that chart, the other options are the Motordyne ART pipes (resonated test pipes).
I don't know about the FI pipes, but i do know the ART pipes help correct for lost power and torque low down that test pipes usually cause.

Depending on what you prefer, so this is personal to me, if you want cats in the mix (they're better further downstream) then i know the Motordyne system has a modular (v-band) HFC available to fit shortly after the y-pipe and first resonator. I do not know if the same is available from FI.

I've heard both on many many vids now, and both sound great, but if i had to chose based on vid sound alone, my choice is the MD, it just has a certain, "fruityness" to the sound, like it was specifically designed to be this way, it's deep and no rasp, so that sold it for me.

That's how I felt when I heard the MD on video. I got that "funny feeling in my pants" lol. I do like the idea of going MD with the HFCs. I wish there were some dynos posted of their system so I can compare it to FI.

As far as the gains, I hear you about parts not stacking, but I'm assuming if I buy either of these 2:
F.I. TDX Cat Back 12" Resonators / F.I. Resonated Test Pipes
F.I TDX Cat Back 12" Resonators / F.I. HFC's

the numbers (from what people are saying here) are legit +20-30whp
F.I. TDX Cat Back 12" Resonators / F.I. Resonated Test Pipes
F.I TDX Cat Back 12" Resonators / F.I. HFC's

And I'm also assuming this is without an intake and/or tune...

There are a few dynos posted, I cant find the thread right now but it's one of the "Motordyne exhaust Review" threads

EDIT: +1 for Fast Intentions.

MOTORDYNE - for the quality, service, performance and SOUND

oh, and no hiss ;)

I think those numbers are with tunes.

HFC's have been known to cause hiss/rasp in the stock positions. I might be tempted with the TP's, but as i said, my personal feel is the MD system, HFC module later in the exhaust.

Also, i really have to add about customer service both personally and from others at MD, it's unbelievable in this day/age.

F.I. has racks of options. If you want to run cats, you just need to let Tony know. The biggest problem that you will have is deciding on what equipment you want to run and then speak with one of the vendors via email or phone to see if they can comply. I vote F.I., but there are other options out there..............

That's good to know, i think you're on the right track with what appears to be the best exhausts out there right now.

First and foremost, thank you for taking an interest in our products.

All of the dyno charts in our original thread or off of our website were with stock intakes. Aside of our exhaust components the car was 100% bone stock.

As you know we have a lot of different options in terms of sound level and price. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to call me directly.

Thank you, Tony

I have a ark exhaust I love it but that 1 sagging exhaust tip can be a eye sore if you don't adjust it!
I myself am thinking of switching to a F.I exhaust for my G

I think you will do fine with whatever decision you make. IMO I would go with Meisterschaft exhaust (all three sections) as my first option and my second option would probably be the FI exhaust. I really do not know much about the FI exhaust except that it sounds pretty clean from hearing it on Youtube. At the end of the day it is all about what kind of sound you want/really like, but the biggest question is how much are you willing to spend. The more your willing to spend the more options you have.

Hks








dan

Fast Intentions! Call Tony.

Really hate to ask this but...it looks like Stillen is claiming 27.4whp in their dyno graph, but on the product listing claiming 18. Any thoughts on Stillen's exhaust?

It's heavy, the Y pipe has no flex pipe, it's too quiet, and ... There are better options ::coughF.I.cough::

Im getting the ARK + BERK HFCs this week! I will post up a High quality vid when i get them on. Have you checked vids on these exhausts yet?

I have but videos never REALLY do an exhaust justice. I'm hoping to get tot he meet tonight and hear some in person :)

I love my ARK. The sound never gets old and it looks great.

I feel the same way about my Tanabe exhaust.:happydance: