Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[CateraMV6]

My Catera came OEM equipped with two mufflers located in front of the rear axle and a Resonator on the driver side behind the rear suspension.
After listening to a few clips where other owners have replaced the OEM Mufflers (under the rear seats) with straight pipes I decided it was too loud for me so the quest began to find a quieter sounding system with a deeper tone but louder then stock. 
Thats when I found a few AUDIs running in the area with 3.0L V6 engines, 2 cherry bombs and OEM resonator... the sound was just perfect so I bought two flowtech mufflers off Ebay and paid a shop 100$ to install them.  Total cost was around 160$.

Youtube Video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxcZ66-Bapc

But that was in 2007 and now its 2011 and finally the left bank broke the welds and as you can image it was time for an upgrade.
I chose to go with a less restrictive glasspack.  Turns out Dynomax makes Thrush glass packs with perforated pipes internaly rather then the Louvered look on the Flowtechs.  This not only reduces back pressure but it also increases the sound by a few dB. 
The project took 2 weeks to research and plan and the result is 2 Dynomax Mufflers (glasspacks) and 1 2" x-pipe.

Here are some pictures.
OLD SYSTEM


OLD VS NEW


NEW System
X-Pipe after the two pipes come together just after the gearbox.
Those go into twin glass packs (24" long)
Mandrel bent pipes and welds for smooth flow.
Sound is deeper and more balanced, no more rumble.

[CateraMV6]

My first impressions are, the car has more power across the entire band, sounds amazing, seems to have more low end torque and hp up top. 

Total cost of the project was 80$ and 8hrs of my time on the floor of my garage. I used nothing but hand tools and a MIG welder. < I should note that this was my first encounter with a MIG. 

[Dishevelled Den]

That's a good looking system Cat. 8-)

Nicely put together 'Tube video by the way.

Would be interested to hear the new set-up.

[MV6Matt]

That's magnificent!
Fancy coming over and starting an Omega Exhaust shop?

Nice one!

Matthew

[x25dt]

looks beautiful mate

[amba]

Looks most impressive and great cost.

How the hell do you keep the rear diff cover plate that clean ? I assume it doesn,t rain where you live.

[CateraMV6]

Looks most impressive and great cost.

How the hell do you keep the rear diff cover plate that clean ? I assume it doesn,t rain where you live.

Well a little scrub with a wire brush, then some brake cleaner to remove the grease and a fresh coat of silver paint... and its been clean like that for a while now...

[Miggylover]

Looks tidy. What paint did you use on the exhaust?

[tunnie]

excellent stuff, really does look nice. Any shots of the tail pipes?

Wish I could weld! 

[CateraMV6]

Looks tidy. What paint did you use on the exhaust?

The mufflers are powder coated, so those wont see rust any time soon.  X pipe is stainless steel 409, and the welds are mild steel so those should last a while.

Paint that you see that is black is 1200°F designed for headers so it has a ceramic component in it, and it will stay on there for a long long time. 

The exhaust is actually some sort of stainless steel because for the 10yrs of salt use it hadn't rusted one bit!

Car has 275,000km and its going strong!  I bet the current set up will outlive it!

[CateraMV6]

excellent stuff, really does look nice. Any shots of the tail pipes?

Wish I could weld! 

Here you go.. Steinmetz Muffler built by REMUS

[tunnie]

excellent stuff, really does look nice. Any shots of the tail pipes?

Wish I could weld! 

Here you go.. Steinmetz Muffler built by REMUS

I like that, suits the car. 

[Andy B]

.....

Wish I could weld! 

Buy yourself a reasonable MIG welder and have a play. It's just a balance of wire feed, current & not burning a hole through what you're welding. 

[tunnie]

.....

Wish I could weld! 

Buy yourself a reasonable MIG welder and have a play. It's just a balance of wire feed, current & not burning a hole through what you're welding. 

I had a little play with DTM's welder, was fun, as he said setting the temperature and getting right burn is tricky bit.

I can't see me ever selling my 2.2, it might need welding at some point 

Might have to wait until I get myself a house, I miss having a garage to go tinker when ever i feel like it 

[Nathan]

Fantastic job, just goes to show what you can do when you put your mind to it 

Helps having a nice big garage though to work in....