Vibrant Performance Custom Exhaust Build
#1
Vibrant Performance Custom Exhaust Build
Hi Guys,
I'm starting a little project this summer and wanted to document it incase someone else wants to do the same sort of thing. I'll try and give as much detail and answer the questions I had getting into this project. Currently I have all the parts I need but I have a couple small things to sort out and the meat of the work to do. I will try my best to make timely progress updates. I loosely plan to sell this exhaust on the forum after completion so if you're interested let me know.
Alright some quick background. Feel free to skip this bit and head down to the meat. I've wanted an exhaust for my G since I got it. I love the sound of the VQ35 but I want something that has some extra volume and with a really nice deep note (little to no rasp). I know that there are tons of aftermarket exhausts but for me in Canada paying full price and shipping from the US for a quality brand really hurts the wallet. I also didn't want to cheap out and buy parts that use lower grade stainless and have a bad reputation (I learnt this the hard way when I bought megan v2 test pipes that leaked after a couple of months from the flex). So after some research I landed on Vibrant Performance parts. Vibrant Performance is a Canadian company that builds performance parts for custom jobs and they make some quality stuff too. Here's what I got from them:
http://vibrantperformance.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1022_1031_1110&products_id= 37<br/>http://vibrantperformance.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1022_1033_1054&products_id= 291<br/>http://vibrantperformance.com/catalo...oducts_id=2389
Everything is 2.5" 304 Stainless and beautifully polished. The muffler and resonator are both straight through with perforated cores. This means that at idle with low exhaust gas velocity they should absorb a fair amount of noise. When I start it up in the mornings it hopefully won't bother my neighbours too much but when I rev it higher, the higher gas velocity should have great flow and more noise . I guess I'll find out once I'm done just how loud/quite it is. Also the flex pipes are a must in Canada because where I am I see +30ēC to -30ēC (its a good stress relief for the whole system regardless). I noticed a number of aftermarket setups don't have this and because of my experience with my megan test pipes i got a lined flex to be sure it doesn't leak.
The set will go something like this. Connection to stock cats which I believe to have 2.25" flanges. flex pipes and then merging into an X pipe (Based on my engineering background I believe an X should work better than H but that's a whole other can of worms). the rest is true dual with resonators after the X and of course the mufflers at the end. Because I may sell this exhaust I've got some extra flanges so I can break the exhaust into smaller, shippable sections.
Alright for the welding guys out there here's what I'm working with.
Lincoln TIG 200 Square Wave Tig/stick inverter typer welder
AC/DC, pulse and AC balance/frequency
torch and power cables.
PTA-17F flex head torch
all the other necessities
Weldingtipsandtricks.com sells a stubby gas lens kit the provides better gas coverage for better looking better quality welds. Check out Jody's youtube channel. this guy knows way too much about welding. note it also came with 2 of his big fingers and the parts on the lid are what came with the welder.
Some other things I need to sort out:
- I have 20' 180 grit polished 304 SS tube but am having difficulty finding someone who can mandrel bend it for me. Pie cuts and pre bent pipe are still an option.
- I'm waiting on a backordered helmet and I need to run another outlet for the welder the welder asks for 30 amp breaker so Im using 10-2 wire. (simple issues)
- I haven't decided on tips yet. I really like the Motordyne rounded burnt tips but the inlet is 3" and my tube is 2.5" so I need a reducer or to make a connector to address that.
- The connection at the cats needs some attention similar to the tips.
Thanks for reading guys. I'm pretty busy working on a bike project too so don't expect updates for a few weeks but feel free to leave me some pointers and comments. Oh yea, lets keep the bs debates and trash talk to a minimum.
I'm starting a little project this summer and wanted to document it incase someone else wants to do the same sort of thing. I'll try and give as much detail and answer the questions I had getting into this project. Currently I have all the parts I need but I have a couple small things to sort out and the meat of the work to do. I will try my best to make timely progress updates. I loosely plan to sell this exhaust on the forum after completion so if you're interested let me know.
Alright some quick background. Feel free to skip this bit and head down to the meat. I've wanted an exhaust for my G since I got it. I love the sound of the VQ35 but I want something that has some extra volume and with a really nice deep note (little to no rasp). I know that there are tons of aftermarket exhausts but for me in Canada paying full price and shipping from the US for a quality brand really hurts the wallet. I also didn't want to cheap out and buy parts that use lower grade stainless and have a bad reputation (I learnt this the hard way when I bought megan v2 test pipes that leaked after a couple of months from the flex). So after some research I landed on Vibrant Performance parts. Vibrant Performance is a Canadian company that builds performance parts for custom jobs and they make some quality stuff too. Here's what I got from them:
http://vibrantperformance.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1022_1031_1110&products_id= 37<br/>http://vibrantperformance.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1022_1033_1054&products_id= 291<br/>http://vibrantperformance.com/catalo...oducts_id=2389
Everything is 2.5" 304 Stainless and beautifully polished. The muffler and resonator are both straight through with perforated cores. This means that at idle with low exhaust gas velocity they should absorb a fair amount of noise. When I start it up in the mornings it hopefully won't bother my neighbours too much but when I rev it higher, the higher gas velocity should have great flow and more noise . I guess I'll find out once I'm done just how loud/quite it is. Also the flex pipes are a must in Canada because where I am I see +30ēC to -30ēC (its a good stress relief for the whole system regardless). I noticed a number of aftermarket setups don't have this and because of my experience with my megan test pipes i got a lined flex to be sure it doesn't leak.
The set will go something like this. Connection to stock cats which I believe to have 2.25" flanges. flex pipes and then merging into an X pipe (Based on my engineering background I believe an X should work better than H but that's a whole other can of worms). the rest is true dual with resonators after the X and of course the mufflers at the end. Because I may sell this exhaust I've got some extra flanges so I can break the exhaust into smaller, shippable sections.
Alright for the welding guys out there here's what I'm working with.
Lincoln TIG 200 Square Wave Tig/stick inverter typer welder
AC/DC, pulse and AC balance/frequency
torch and power cables.
PTA-17F flex head torch
all the other necessities
Weldingtipsandtricks.com sells a stubby gas lens kit the provides better gas coverage for better looking better quality welds. Check out Jody's youtube channel. this guy knows way too much about welding. note it also came with 2 of his big fingers and the parts on the lid are what came with the welder.
Some other things I need to sort out:
- I have 20' 180 grit polished 304 SS tube but am having difficulty finding someone who can mandrel bend it for me. Pie cuts and pre bent pipe are still an option.
- I'm waiting on a backordered helmet and I need to run another outlet for the welder the welder asks for 30 amp breaker so Im using 10-2 wire. (simple issues)
- I haven't decided on tips yet. I really like the Motordyne rounded burnt tips but the inlet is 3" and my tube is 2.5" so I need a reducer or to make a connector to address that.
- The connection at the cats needs some attention similar to the tips.
Thanks for reading guys. I'm pretty busy working on a bike project too so don't expect updates for a few weeks but feel free to leave me some pointers and comments. Oh yea, lets keep the bs debates and trash talk to a minimum.
#2
#3
I completed the exhaust a couple months ago now and I given the exhaust a chance to break in. I couldn't be happier . Well my welds could use some work but.. they're plenty good enough and have 0 leaks. Here are some pics (video to come soon hopefully)
post install pics of the car. I winter drive this so the rims you see are 18" mid offset charger wheels whit 245/45/18 rubber front and back (small spacers on the front to clear callipers)
Note the slight rise after the flex was added to tuck the resonators up nicely to avoid scraping
nothing is welded here. just fitting it up.
this pass was stil undercut but I like the color. not perfect color but could be worse.
ignore the random crap on my garage floor
flex and x pipes
x pipe
resonators
muffler sections
The exhaust is near silent at warm idle and doesn't rasp at all (I almost wish it had some more rasp that's how little there is... maybe I need to make some test pipes next). All around it has a unique tone compared to any other VQ35 I've heard with any exhaust and that's one of my favourite parts about it. I do a lot of highway driving to school and at highway speeds you can barely hear it (unless you'er accelerating) but I could easily drive 10 hours straight and it would not bother me at all. All around performs exactly as planned.No drone. No Rasp. Let me know what you guys think!
post install pics of the car. I winter drive this so the rims you see are 18" mid offset charger wheels whit 245/45/18 rubber front and back (small spacers on the front to clear callipers)
Note the slight rise after the flex was added to tuck the resonators up nicely to avoid scraping
nothing is welded here. just fitting it up.
this pass was stil undercut but I like the color. not perfect color but could be worse.
ignore the random crap on my garage floor
flex and x pipes
x pipe
resonators
muffler sections
The exhaust is near silent at warm idle and doesn't rasp at all (I almost wish it had some more rasp that's how little there is... maybe I need to make some test pipes next). All around it has a unique tone compared to any other VQ35 I've heard with any exhaust and that's one of my favourite parts about it. I do a lot of highway driving to school and at highway speeds you can barely hear it (unless you'er accelerating) but I could easily drive 10 hours straight and it would not bother me at all. All around performs exactly as planned.No drone. No Rasp. Let me know what you guys think!
#4
I drove ttrank's car solo
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G35 sedan w/ too much money in mods
Absolutely blown away here, looks great!! Fits like a glove, would love to get a video post of it running.
From a performance standpoint, I know some major manufacturers spend hundreds of hours or more in R&D to tweak their systems for max gains. What does you butt dyno tell you?
Thanks for making my day, doesn't happen much around here these days........
From a performance standpoint, I know some major manufacturers spend hundreds of hours or more in R&D to tweak their systems for max gains. What does you butt dyno tell you?
Thanks for making my day, doesn't happen much around here these days........
#5
Thanks for response blue dream. I really appreciate it! The butt dyno tells me that up to 3000 rpm things are pretty normal but after that and for sure after 4500 the car seems to pull noticeably harder. The design of the exhaust is largely bassed on the most popular ones on the market and the research that I did. I'm really not sure what I would change to produce more power because I feel like my na engine doesn't need more than 2.5" diameter piping in a dual system and the x pipe location is pretty static.
#7
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#8
I took a video on my iPhone today and you can find it here:
. This video won't be searchable, only through that link and I won't leave it up after I replace it. It's very easy to tell where the iPhone mic's range is exceeded... but I have loosely planned to re-shoot this with a proper mic this weekend.
The following 3 users liked this post by GoalieMan:
#10
I took a video on my iPhone today and you can find it here: https://youtu.be/EdS_tNwezOY. This video won't be searchable, only through that link and I won't leave it up after I replace it. It's very easy to tell where the iPhone mic's range is exceeded... but I have loosely planned to re-shoot this with a proper mic this weekend.
#12
I drove ttrank's car solo
iTrader: (50)
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: By the sea, Tx
Posts: 18,299
Received 1,486 Likes
on
1,221 Posts
G35 sedan w/ too much money in mods
I was thinking the same thing and haven't watched it until today. Curiosity got the best of me though this morning and damn, it's worth a look. Do it you won't be disappointed, I sure wasn't.......
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