the best exhaust?

[alias dante]

:confused:just curious what the best exhaust anyone's ever heard on a 95-96, non-turbo 240

[Dousan_PG]

Originally posted by alias dante
:confused:just curious what the best exhaust anyone's ever heard on a 95-96, non-turbo 240

there is no such thing as 'best'

every exhaust has its plus and minus

and the 'best' is usually the one someone owns.

so if someone has a Flowmaster, they'll probalby say that is teh best
and if someone has a Kakimoto theyll say that is the best.

[vodka]

Custom Titanium Piping! w00t w00t

[alias dante]

allrightty then! in your opinion which exhaust has the most advantages?

[Heartwork]

Originally posted by alias dante
allrightty then! in your opinion which exhaust has the most advantages?

when it comes to +/- about performances, its not a matter of opinion, but a matter of cold hard facts...

do some research on the exhausts you're interested in....

[ZOLTAN]

They're all just metal pipes.
There are so many choices that it really comes down to personal preference.

Here are some things to ask yourself.
1. Stainless or titanium(there's mild steel too, but I suggest you spend a couple bucks more on full stainless).
2. Resonated(extra smaller "muffler" closer towards the motor) or not.
3. Piping size(this is really dependent on if you go turbo or stay NA).
4. Style(dual tips, single tips, huge cannons, etc. the list is endless)
5. Price/Budget
6. Street car or track car(what are your plans for the car).
7. Am I a brand whore(jdm:rolleyes: )?

Do tons of research.
Don't expect people to just say "oh yeah, buy this one".
Also, look at the group buy section of this forum.

Just get what YOU want.


.Eddie.

[240sxguy72]

i like my borla muffler on mine. not too loud, but has a understanding growl.

[89s132b]

My APC muffler is the best!

j/k - I have a Blitz NrSpecR - I like it but ithink it's only good for turbo applications.

[Phoen_x_s14]

Originally posted by 89s132b
My APC muffler is the best!

j/k - I have a Blitz NrSpecR - I like it but ithink it's only good for turbo applications.

haha oh man ,lol. Hey but I beat you!! I have mine wrapped in apc stickers!!! BOO-YA! :p

j/k, the blitz Nur SPec R is intended for turbo apps, but hey as long as its not "high pitch whining" at high rpms then your not killing your self power wise that much. I had HKS hiper N/A, sounded nice not to loud or high pitch at top rpms.

I think jspec.com is still having the Trust/Greddy Power Evo II for sale. "...4 version available(off road only). 1. S13 80mm pipping 2. S13 94mm pipping 3. S14 80mm pipping 4. S14 94mm pipping ..." comes with a 3 inch test/straight pipe also.
http://store3.yimg.com/I/jspec_1768_11525616
They quoted me $750 with shipping to the east code, zip 30084.

[Kreator]

OMG. Its a fuckin exhaust. We are talking about 1-2hp differences. Get whatever you think looks best and sounds best (sound clips available on this site).

Personal opinion: spending more than $500 on an exhaust is a waste... Actually even more than $300 is a waste, but they dont make brand name catbacks for that cheap :-/

[andrave]

the factory spends thousands on the stock one, I'm sure.
so it must be the best.
And if you order it from the dealer, its probably the most expensive, too.

[Phoen_x_s14]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kreator
[B]OMG. Its a fuckin exhaust. We are talking about 1-2hp differences.

maybe 2-5 AT TOP PEAK HP on a dyno, but throught the whole band width its around 4-7. Just because it says such and such TOP PEAK gains, doesn't mean its not affecting the whole rpm hp ratio. Read a dyno graph. and for 4-7 TOP PEAK gain, thats probably with Natural Aspiration. With Turbo, you could get a gain of close to 20HP or more just for TOP PEAK, throught the entire rpm, probably 18+.

just get what looks and sounds best???......... guess your not into performance eh buddy?


The Apexi R95 fitted on a JDM spec S14 Silvia, made close to 30HP Top peak hp. So yes, brand and model specific does make a difference, not every exhaust is acttually built the same. EXE Piping size/diametor, Muffler style/size/diametor, attached resonator or not, tip size/style, and that does affect how it will sound. Most times with custom made exhaust, no one has really tested, unless your self on a dyno after install. Hence CUSTOM, plus and minus are yours to discover. Aftermarket already weld/made have been tested, just search for which exhaust model on what make and model of car.

[Kreator]

Originally posted by Phoen_x_s14
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kreator
[B]OMG. Its a fuckin exhaust. We are talking about 1-2hp differences.

maybe 2-5 AT TOP PEAK HP on a dyno, but throught the whole band width its around 4-7. Just because it says such and such TOP PEAK gains, doesn't mean its not affecting the whole rpm hp ratio. Read a dyno graph. and for 4-7 TOP PEAK gain, thats probably with Natural Aspiration. With Turbo, you could get a gain of close to 20HP or more just for TOP PEAK, throught the entire rpm, probably 18+.

just get what looks and sounds best???......... guess your not into performance eh buddy?


The Apexi R95 fitted on a JDM spec S14 Silvia, made close to 30HP Top peak hp. So yes, brand and model specific does make a difference, not every exhaust is acttually built the same. EXE Piping size/diametor, Muffler style/size/diametor, attached resonator or not, tip size/style, and that does affect how it will sound. Most times with custom made exhaust, no one has really tested, unless your self on a dyno after install. Hence CUSTOM, plus and minus are yours to discover. Aftermarket already weld/made have been tested, just search for which exhaust model on what make and model of car.

Ha, yeah right. From reading peoples stuff, fireball gives the most gains which is 7rwhp, out of the affrodable exhausts. Other premade catbacks give you on the average of 5rwnp. So wow, a 2 rwhp difference. Everybody now must get fireballs. At lower rpms, im pretty sure the gains differ by that much.

Now dont u fuckin teach me about exhausts. I've been here way longer than you, and know all the shit about exhausts that i want to know. All it is a fuckin hollow pipe if you think about it. Look here. My custom exhaust has 2.5" mandrel bent piping. The number of bends: 2 ~25deg bends and 1 ~30deg bend. All mandrel. Now, i stick a glasspack at the end. There, as free flow as it goes. Compare it to aftermarket exhausts, i dont think u'll notice the difference. Will sound like shit but who cares. Well i do. So i stick a restrictive ass muffler in this setup. Dunnow how much i lost, but im pretty sure alot. The car doesnt make sound though. at all. You can barely hear it when it accelerates if u stand close. People in the cars on the road dont hear it. Now as for performance, my car does accelerate way better. Throughout the rpm. With a very close to stock setup. Total cost: $100. Now i can take those $400-$500 saved, and buy myself a front mount so i could up the boost and gain 40-50hp. Compared to you 20 :-/.

and what i meant by the best looking and best sounding, was out of the brand name catbacks. As in apexi n1, blitz nurspec, fireball etc. Either one of those will give you similar gains. Ofcourse, you can try and chase some 1000 dollar exhausts, but is it really fuckin worth it? Id understand when u are running 40psi of boost, and there is nothing else u can get to maximize you performance, but honestly on a ka, or even mildly tuned sr, as long as you get the right diameter piping, any exhaust will do.

oh and im into performance. Just not into wasting money :(

[Phoen_x_s14]

Typically I would believe, but I didn't say I had an exhaust that would only give me a gain of 20HP AT PEAK. And with you saying what you did, the only way to prove it is to have it dyno.

Of course you could just muy a FMIC, but the subject of this thread is about exhaust. Anyone could buy anything turbo related and make even more horsepower, so for you to say that is avoiding the subject. Hell after I drop in the RB25, even with a simple little boost controller $320 or less for me, and I could get an easily 60-80 HP TOP Peak GAIN. And through the entire rpm bandwidth, power would have an average gain of 40-60. Add in a 3 inch down pipe thats probably 30hp gain TOP PEAK with maybe 14-20 gains throught the entire rpm. But then again we're not talking bout turbo related applications, if we we're someone would have brought in downpipes since that is both turbo and exhaust related.

You brought up the 5zigen Fireball, and the most it gave people that have posted on this forum was said a gain of 7WHP, that 7 is probably at TOP PEAK on a NATURAL ASPIRATION ENGINE. Did they post a dyno chart they tested on their car of how much a gain/loss they recieve for the entire rpm bandwidth? Becuase all you keep posting, is the TOP PEAK horse power, seems to me you don't know how to read a dyno. So I'll post this link and anyone else to understand when companies say for example "gain 10-15 horse power with a intake" Their taking the power gaining from the entire bandwidth and giving you an average. Because like you said, the Fireball probably gave a 7whp gain. But did they just get the max 7hp gain right away? Probaly not, so here's the link and hopefully you can learn something bout reading a dyno chart and understand.
How to read a dyno chart (http://www.turbomagazine.com/tech/0304tur_chart/)


It doesn't matter if you have been on this forum longer then me, posted more then me. Whoop-d-doo.... I have been repairing and tuning cars at my friends Performance shop for a while, Tiger Racing (he's thai...go figure) and I am taking mechanic's/shop class on the side at a local college.I have been dynoing car's ranging from imports to domestics with various parts. And we've tested and retested cars with different exhaust 5 runs on each to see if there was a difference, and most times there is. But you wouldn't even know that because under my screen name says Leaky Injector with under 100 posts. And for you to say that you know all about exhaust that you want to know....that says your limiting yourself and being ignorant to learn something new, correct? Because what if new technology comes out, that changes completly how exhaust pipes are made and design and would give out more power then the exhaust systems made today? You wouldn't know about it and just cuss out the next guy for bringing it up and say "I know everything bout exhuast so don't go telling me I could make more power by spending such and such". To assume you know everything is ignorance.

oh yeah, Import Tuner dyno'd a 240sx with various bolt ons includig the 5zigen Fireball, so take a look for your self buddy.
240sx, CAI, lightweight Pully gears, Fireball, dyno (http://www.importtuner.com/tech/0210it_powerpages/)
and a pic of the dyno after Fireball install
http://www.importtuner.com/tech/0210it_powerpages09_zoom.jpg
quote from Import Tuner,"Peak power was increased from 143.2 to 146.8. Peak torque numbers increased from 154.3 to 158.0. The biggest difference was seen at around 4000 rpm where the 5Zigen Fireball generated about 10 hp more."

So I guess now people with the 5zigen Fireball actually have a top peak gain of 10whp. But like you said, you know everything about exhaust, but Oh look at me, I think I just proved you wrong again.:cool: Lets see your dyno chart and compare then. Custom exhaust to 5Zigen exhaust. Not only by peak horsepower, but the power gained throught the entire rpm.

[Kreator]

look pal. Maybe if you learn to read, then u could probably save yourself some time but not typing all the common knowledge stuff u did. First of all, i never said i know everything about exhausts. I said i know everything I NEED TO KNOW about exhausts. That means i dont really give a shit about how much faster a car is in the qtr. mile due to the weight savings of using a titanium exhaust. Second of all, i never ever talked about TOP HP gain. I was talking about gain at a specific rpm. Exactly what your dyno picture proved.

All these aftermarket exhausts are designed the exact same way. Different companies, different names, same exact design. If fireball gives a max of 10rwhp at x rpm, and some other exhaust gives 7, than at y rpm the gains are still proportional to these numbers. And the difference is still ~3hp. Woohoo what a huge fuckin difference.

The guy is running a bone stock car. There is no use for a freaking $1500 exhaust. Its 1/3 of the price of his car damnit. I'll pull you a turbo kit together for that money. Jeees

Now as for dyno of my exhaust... I'm not the type of guy who needs to know what exact hp im running. I'm also not someone who goes around sticking his timeslip in everybodies face. I have better uses for $80 that the dyno cost. All i care about, is htat with my exhaust i like the gained performance. Yeah, with a aftermarket catback i mightve gotten more. I do however doubt that the extra 2-3rwhp im missing would be worth the extra 400 bux.

i dont know who of us is close minded, but your posts are not proving me a single thing since i know all of that already. And i really doubt you are going to make me change my opinion. So i say we stop this pointless argument. Thats not what i was looking for when i was posting here.

Ok i think you misread my original post... Or i worded it incorrectly. What i meant by the 1-2hp difference, is the difference between the aftermarket exhaust performance. In other words the max hp gain difference between say n1 dual and fireball. The sounding/looks also applied only to aftermarket catbacks. In other words, the point of that post was that all the affordable exhausts out there (n1, n1 dual, nur spec, firebal etc) are all the same. So he should get the one he likes most.

There is nothing an exhaust technology can do to maximize exhaust performance. Reason is simple. Its a fuckin exhaust. A hollow tube, that flows exhaust gas. No science here. You can make mandrel bends, make it as straight as possible, run a glasspack muffler... You can spend money and design whatever you want, but u will never beat the performance gain and weight savings achieved by not having any exhaust at all. And even that will give you only that much hp back.

And finally. I dont really care what you do. Test and tune turbo cars, or put alluminum wings on. I just dont. But if you want to be fast in a straight line, you buy a domestic. If you are looking for a well performing track car, then there are always better uses for the $1000 that the titanium exhausts cost. If the fireball is getting 2-3rwhp throughout the rpm less than some $1000 exhausts, id still buy it, cuz its good enough for MY performance goals, as the extra $500 can be spent on suspension and what not, which i care more about.

[Phoen_x_s14]

I didn't take it as a argument but as a friendly debate. Maybe because you used cursing, I didn't seem like I was trying to argue with you and that I quoted you the first time included a cruse word. I'm not a censor, but sometimes when people include curse words seems like they say it with anger behind it. Thats why I chose not to curse back. Also I never said anything bout 1/4 mile times. That sport is starting to get boring...wow...run in a straight line. Having everything light weight on a car that Auto X or of that kind of racing like touring is ideal.

Agreed, his car is bone stock, but he only asked "Whats the best exhaust anyone's ever HEARD for non turbo 240sx?" With your first post seems like you just jumped all over his back, with out mentioning that there are some minor difference, only that all are the same. Some N/A catbacks have a mini resonator, some don't. Some are one piece, some are two. Other then that, like you said, just really comes down to piping bends. But then there is quality. Some manuf. do a crappy job on the welding, some use cheap material. Heck some are just plan freaking ugly.

When I stated that the shop I help at, we've done various exhaust brands and models, there is a difference. Even if its a small there is a difference. You might not consider spending more just to make even the smallest power gain, but most people want the best they can get with the most hp they can gain. Heck I would have sold him my N/A HKS Hiper for $300 if I didn't sell it a while back. And all I bought it for was $50 more at Nopi with a hookup. And that had very small bends in it.

so alias dante, the "best" catback you could probably get is the 5zigen Fireball. Look on groupbuycenter.com there's usually a group buy for those on there, most times the dealer includes free shipping.

[alias dante]

thank's phoenx, i'm glad you caught that i was refering to the best SOUND, since the post i've asked around and quite a few people have refered the 5zigen firball, probably going to give it a try.

[20vturbo]

what have you guys heard about the GT spec. from apex?

[Phoen_x_s14]

Apexi GT Spec will sound high pitch on top end if your not going turbo, it will sound deeper if you had turbo. But a N/A Apexi N1 sounds nice, so does the HKS Hiper N/A, Deep but not high pitch at High RPMS.

[20vturbo]

will be going turbo....later

[Phoen_x_s14]

Ok, well if you put it on now, the Apexi GT spec will sound a lil high pitch at high RPM, 5000-6000. At Nopi they sell it for $450, but since it comes in a 8 foot box, since its a one piece catback, shipping might be up to $60-$80. Best bet, see if a local performance shop can get it in stock, or www.groupbuycenter.com usually a company named Turbo Evolution does group buys on exhaust like the GT spec.

Regardless tho, it would save time and get more power if you just go turbo or save up for it first. Going for bolt ons before Turbo or engine swap, is kinda a waste of money, becuase Turbo is like close to $3g's I think. And plus installation, and all the other things you need for turbo, Turbo timer, oil cooler, etc. But thats just me, good luck when you get your turbo, give the V8's hell for me haha.

[20vturbo]

i'm just researching now i plan on doing an s14 sr swap but i need suspension and brakes first...i just finished the vw for a while and want to start the 240(the project beast car;)) i just got the five lug conversion on and 300z wheels but i need shocks BAD...

[BSeay]

I've got the HKS Hi=Power on my 24-, it's a low sound and doesnt buzz at high rpms...

If i had to do it again i would have gotten the Hi -power Carbon Ti exhaust for my 240...

[Phoen_x_s14]

Originally posted by BSeay
I've got the HKS Hi=Power on my 24-, it's a low sound and doesnt buzz at high rpms...

If i had to do it again i would have gotten the Hi -power Carbon Ti exhaust for my 240...


Hmm......to have a extremely light weight exhaust system for racing purposes, or to show what you have a carbon muffler barrel with a titanium tip?

[240Degrees]

i have n1 duals and it sounds good and everything, but one thing I'm thankful for is that when I did my LSD swap, I was able to remove only the rear section of the exhaust, allowing me to have access to the bolts on the half shafts. My car's stock exhaust piping is rusty, so I can't unbolt it from the cat. It's welded on. If I were to get a catback exhaust, I would get only a two-piece. All for convenience purposes.

[final act]

I got a cat back without a resinator, just straight piping, then out of a dtm,its really loud on any na powered 240sx::bow: