I'm having fun reading this =D

 

thanks for the heads up
what made you choose stillen over the berk? was it just of the name brand or did you have some other reason to not use them. i use stillen products too even though its more $$ just wondering. thanks.

 

no im the best

 

hahaha well same here im going cuz of the name and cuz i wanna Feel that i have a product from a company with i think no bad reputation ( well just a BIT pricey) but i have the stillen intakes and exhaust so why not continue with stillen i have no complains what so ever !!! ...but hey u work for ur own money you deserve to spend it how ever you want to!! Im just saying....

 

You seem to be taking this personally, please don't, I'm just trying to debate the issue.

FWIW, you quoted me, then went off about how you can't say "expert" or "best." It seemed like you were talking to me.

The analogy made me laugh because you seemed to contradict yourself. You said you weren't being technical, but were asking for technical proof and research.

 

Honestly, I think you're giving the vendors waaaaaaaaaaaay too much credit when it comes to catback exhaust R&D.

Do you really think the vendors buy and compare all the catbacks on the market, then flow test and dyno them in order to determine which is the least restrictive?

I seriously, seriously doubt that's the way they do it.

Closer to reality R&D:

1. New car comes out.
2. Bend pipes, test fit, bend pipes, test fit.
3. Add mufflers and tips.
4. Dyno. Subtract absolute worst base dyno to best "after" dyno. Post graph, make claims.
5. Sell to market.

 

I think I'll try answering the question the way ugaexloder wants us to.

question:
Which exhaust setup is best for power

answer:
There is insufficient data at this time as to which exhaust is best.

 

For the record, if you stick with name brand aftermarket parts, you will have superior fit and finish, higher quality materials (like stainless steel), and it'll look nicer.


But you have to pay extra for these things.

If you just want more power and nice sound (without killing your wallet), go with a custom setup.

 

I dyno'd also w/ the stock muffler and with no muffler.

There were no gains.

 

For the bold statement, I never said that. What I did say was that in order to truly give a "winner" or dub an exhaust "the best" you would have to do what you mentioned in the bold text.

I agree with you about the reality R&D, because that is probably exactly what they do with the addition of trial and error...but that is more than what your typical exhaust shop does.

I've been to several exhaust shops in georgia and to me, they're all the same. It's a garage with a lift and no dyno most of the time. These guys are going to put your car on a lift and inspect where the most restrictive areas of the exhaust are and then do some fabricating and welding to make a custom exhaust.

This is no different than taking it to a friend who knows who to weld and fabricate to just use some 2.25" tubing and making you some exhaust tubing and then slapping on a borla muffler or whatever...this route is all speculation...and even the gains are exactly that, speculation.

It would be very interesting if one actually takes his car to a mechanical engineer and have him use one of those autodesk programs to design the best flowing exhaust...but this is way too much work when we all know gaining hp from an exhaust is minimal.

My main beef is when people only speculate and assume what should happen instead of getting actual results.

 

The stock muffler design is probably not a problem for day to day use. IMO, the bigest restriction is in the pipe where some areas in the "Y" section that neck down to less than 2 inches.

Also wanted to throw in my .02 about vendor bolt on parts vs. muffler shop parts. Vendors should have experience in what makes a makes an exhaust "sound" good as well for a particular vehicle application. This comes from a LOT of trial and error and scrap parts. There are plenty of threads here with owners complaining about drone using BOTH bolt ons and muffler shop customs.

Muffler shops can definetly do the work to weld up a system, but when you throw in stainless steel tubes, mandrel bends, quality components and flanged fittings, even their price WILL go up. And the sound quality is always a hit or miss.

Just changing a muffler for the sound may or may not work, but its good that the results are posted so others can make an informed decision.

 

Nah ... we don't need CFD to figure out the least restictive exhaust (open headers!). This is not a "steady state" system so the only way to design one (taking sound into consideration) is trial and error.

 

I'll agree with that.

It does seem that people are assuming that the name brand products (expensive) are going to make a lot more power.

From what I've seen on other cars, that isn't the case. The exhaust sytems all have almost the same gains. My experience is mostly with the LS1 fbody. And after looking at countless dynos and dozens of different exhausts and mufflers..... the results are almost all the same.

The restriction isn't what an aftermarket exhaust can do, the restriction is how crappy the stock exhaust is and how much power you can "uncork."

 

Very true about the "should" and exhaust sound.

But, it's like you said, there seems to be drone either way.

When it comes to aftermarket exhausts and sound, from what I've personally heard (comparing the two side by side), the muffler has the largest affect on sound (and drone), pipe diameter is second. Bends, design, etc. seem to have the least affect on sound.

 

Not to go off on a tangent, but I remember my friend who owned a '95 Z28 with a LT1 350...you can "uncork" so much power from those 350's with simple bolt-ons...it's simply amazing. I wish we could do the same for our cars