BenJ

I'm going to be having a custom exhaust made by Speed Force Racing in San Diego and had some questions. There are two approaches that I'm debating, the first is to have have an entire system made including the headers and the second is to have one start from right after the headers and continue back; I basically do not want to have any cutting done to the factory exhaust and figure that the headers offer a good point to work off of to accomplish this.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but given my experience with other cars and their O2 sensors, the way they work is basically by operating off one another in the sense that as long as the front sensor is reading richer then the back/secondary sensor, no codes are thrown. If this is the case, is it possible to eliminate the primary cats, replace them with straight pipes, and in the location of the secondary/post cats, put aftermarket highflow cats, placing the O2 sensors in the same locations? This will yield the same effect of having the primary O2 sensors reading richer then the secondaries, I just want to be sure that they dont operate off any certain tolerances as well.

Last, Would anybody be interested in getting in on a possible long tube header group buy from Speed Force Racing? Below is a picture of an equal length manifold that he made for my porsche a few years back. Tim's (owner of SFR), work is top notch an the best that I have seen.

blackbenzz

You can get your ECU tuned to get rid of the CEL you will get by getting rid of th eprimary cats. The headers on these cars are very restrictive from the factory. I would strongly conside getting headers done if I was you. Didn't Tim/SFR build Cameron's badass E36 turbo M3 too? That Porsche manifold looks nice

Forrest Gump 9

You are right about the exhaust and cats. There are also other ways of not having the cat and be ok with the O2 sensors.

For the headers, I'm interest as long as the price is not too crazy.

BenJ

Correct, Tim built Cam's crazy M3, as well as a few other crazy porsches, supras, and skylines. I'm going to be bringing my car down to Tim's shop at the end of next week to have him look at things and give me a price but without a group buy I'm expecting the price to be around $2000-$2500 (depending on material) for the headers, which is still $500-$1000 less then I've seen from other manufacturers/shops.

Jakpro1

Dayum! Those headers look puuuuurdy!

shardul

iTrader: (1)

i think if you get headers and a mid pip you will be happy with the results.

BenJ

Can the Mid-pipe be done without cutting the original exhaust?

jkintegra

I would be interested in a group buy for LTH.

I have stock exhaust straight piped to the stock manifolds.

No cats, no resonators with the H pipe. o2 bung with spacers and some extension tubing got rid of any codes from the 02 sensors, as I still have all of them intact.

The sound is nasty. Sounds like a muscle car the way it should, with a whine to go with it.

BenJ

I will let Tim know about an interest in a group buy if the price is right. I'm definitely going to keep the cats, well, high flow aftermarket cats, to help keep some of the rasp down. I have my other car to fulfill that desire and with the E55 I want something that will net a large gain in performance but be able to be driven daily without a headache. I do agree though that a loud and agressive supercharged V8 sounds very good.

jkintegra

Only loud at initial start up and when floored.

No sound in cabin while driving. Yes, I said no sound in cabin while driving.

In fact, my buddy Wizo just redid his exhaust and kept the cats, is running brabus mufflers though, and his is not as loud on start up or throttle, but sounds a bit nicer, less raspier, but much louder when actually driving at highway speed.

I drive about 50 miles everyday on the hwy, and cannot stand drones or humms.

MY point, just cause the cats are gone, does not mean I have the drone or humms. It all comes down to using the stock mufflers in the end.


The H gives me the rasp in the morning and on throttle, the pipes give me the power, and the stock mufflers give me the sound deadening.

BenJ

Interesting....I may look into this as an option.

BenJ

Also, I'm going to approach Tim with the possibility of a group buy for long tube headers in the $2000 range....does this price sound good to everyone? As for material options, I will talk to Tim but he does 304 and 321 quite often but can also do more exotic materials such as titanium and inconel...but realistically those will be very expensive and not worth it really unless you want to be different.

BenJ

Update:

Went down to SFR yesterday and got some preliminary prices. Without any type of discounts, the LT headers will be between $2000 and $2500 and I'm also going to have a midpipe fab'd up that will cutout the secondary cats and resonator and replace it with straight pipes and an H pipe, all v-banded together for easy install and uninstall. The new midpipe piece will be around $500 and be constructed out of all 304ss and ss vbands. Is there any interest for this midpipe piece because if there is I will have Tim make up a jig to make more.

guysandiego

tim is an awesome fabricator