Spikuh
12-22-2010, 07:50 PM
Decided back around Thanksgiving to pick up a few items to spruce my almost 20 year old car back up. It was suffering from worn out bushings, ball joints, and a terribly shot stock exhaust.
So bought and replaced the bushings and ball joints and then tried to find an exhaust I thought would be quiet, discrete, and large enough to allow for further upgrades when the increased capacity to flow air would be needed.
Settled on purchasing the ISIS Dual N1 from over at Enjuku, some new hangers, and a couple odd items during the Black Friday sale. Ya for fine print.
Anyway, here are the trials and tribulations from my experience.
First up, exhaust came well packaged and with all the needed hardware. No dings, good welds. The gaskets were bent up a bit, but easy fix.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4227.jpg
Now for a quick list of the tools I used:
-Nice large comforter (makes pulling items on the ground easy and non-damaging)
-Bungee ties (4 to 6)
-Ratchet
-10mm socket to remover the Catalytic Coverter shield thingy
-12mm socket and wrench
-17mm socket and wrencg
-Creeper
-Some sort of spray luricant like WD-40 or ZEP-45
The whole ordeal took around 3 hours by myself and wasn't to difficult to complete. I basically followed the process outlined by bshots:
http://zilvia.net/f/s-chassis/256082-isis-s14-dual-n1-cat-back-exhaust-review.html
Only real difference was swapping out the old exhaust hangers for the new ones. Pretty simple stuff.
Took some pictures of the two exhausts side by side once I got the stock one out:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4224.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4220.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4221.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4223.jpg
Installation was simple enough. Started with hanging the two pieces of the exhaust with bungee ties, followed by bolting it all together losely and retightenting the bungie ties to pull out any unecessary slack. After that, I began making everything snug starting with the bolts in the cat, then moving to the first exhaust hanger, and finally the four bolts connecting the exhaust pieces together. Would have gone onto the rest of the exhaust hangers, but I ran into a couple problems, so ended up just going back and tighting up what I could.
That brings me to the problems that I will need to adress. I don't think they occured because of the product. I think they occured because the rear end of my frame may be slightly warped....
First problem is part of the exhaust essectially rests on the rear subframe. I wedged a small piece of rubber in between them so we will see how well the works.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4230.jpg
The other two problems deal with getting the exhaust and the hangers put into place.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4229.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4228.jpg
I think I can fix the issue in the first picture with a little elbow grease but it may cause a lot of tension which I am not to keen on.
The bigger problem is in the second picture. I can't get the bracket to line up for the life of me unless I want to break something. My only idea is to torch and then reweld the braces to align better.
Hope to get this addressed in the next couple days.
So onto sound. It is easier if I let the videos speak for themselves. They were taken within a 3 hour window so temperture was relatively the same between them all. Only real flub is in the first video when I had the window up muffling some of the noise....
Anyway, first video is stock exhaust, but no resonator. Second is no exhaust beyond the catalytic converter. Third is with the ISIS Dual N1 installed.
1st:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39nSM6Wk2OQ
2nd:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPu1dRpatBY
3rd:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFh1okOWaJQ
All in all, I enjoyed the experience and love the sound. Money well spent.
[EDIT] Videos didn't embed, so I made them links. Will look into fixing them if I can.
So bought and replaced the bushings and ball joints and then tried to find an exhaust I thought would be quiet, discrete, and large enough to allow for further upgrades when the increased capacity to flow air would be needed.
Settled on purchasing the ISIS Dual N1 from over at Enjuku, some new hangers, and a couple odd items during the Black Friday sale. Ya for fine print.
Anyway, here are the trials and tribulations from my experience.
First up, exhaust came well packaged and with all the needed hardware. No dings, good welds. The gaskets were bent up a bit, but easy fix.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4227.jpg
Now for a quick list of the tools I used:
-Nice large comforter (makes pulling items on the ground easy and non-damaging)
-Bungee ties (4 to 6)
-Ratchet
-10mm socket to remover the Catalytic Coverter shield thingy
-12mm socket and wrench
-17mm socket and wrencg
-Creeper
-Some sort of spray luricant like WD-40 or ZEP-45
The whole ordeal took around 3 hours by myself and wasn't to difficult to complete. I basically followed the process outlined by bshots:
http://zilvia.net/f/s-chassis/256082-isis-s14-dual-n1-cat-back-exhaust-review.html
Only real difference was swapping out the old exhaust hangers for the new ones. Pretty simple stuff.
Took some pictures of the two exhausts side by side once I got the stock one out:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4224.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4220.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4221.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4223.jpg
Installation was simple enough. Started with hanging the two pieces of the exhaust with bungee ties, followed by bolting it all together losely and retightenting the bungie ties to pull out any unecessary slack. After that, I began making everything snug starting with the bolts in the cat, then moving to the first exhaust hanger, and finally the four bolts connecting the exhaust pieces together. Would have gone onto the rest of the exhaust hangers, but I ran into a couple problems, so ended up just going back and tighting up what I could.
That brings me to the problems that I will need to adress. I don't think they occured because of the product. I think they occured because the rear end of my frame may be slightly warped....
First problem is part of the exhaust essectially rests on the rear subframe. I wedged a small piece of rubber in between them so we will see how well the works.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4230.jpg
The other two problems deal with getting the exhaust and the hangers put into place.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4229.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/Spikum/IMG_4228.jpg
I think I can fix the issue in the first picture with a little elbow grease but it may cause a lot of tension which I am not to keen on.
The bigger problem is in the second picture. I can't get the bracket to line up for the life of me unless I want to break something. My only idea is to torch and then reweld the braces to align better.
Hope to get this addressed in the next couple days.
So onto sound. It is easier if I let the videos speak for themselves. They were taken within a 3 hour window so temperture was relatively the same between them all. Only real flub is in the first video when I had the window up muffling some of the noise....
Anyway, first video is stock exhaust, but no resonator. Second is no exhaust beyond the catalytic converter. Third is with the ISIS Dual N1 installed.
1st:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39nSM6Wk2OQ
2nd:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPu1dRpatBY
3rd:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFh1okOWaJQ
All in all, I enjoyed the experience and love the sound. Money well spent.
[EDIT] Videos didn't embed, so I made them links. Will look into fixing them if I can.