240hoke Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 So after getting the vq240 on the road the first thing I realized was that my exhaust was way to loud for the street, however the worst part wasn't the noise but the extreme drone. So much that for a trip of any distance I had to put in ear plugs. My original setup consisted of dual 2.5 inch tubing coming together into a single 3" tube with a single oval Borla XR-1 muffler in the back. When I built it I knew I might have issues with drone but i was hoping for the best..... Original Setup, http://www.vq240z.com-a.googlepages.com/exhaust: I talked with Borla tech support who were very helpful. They told me the oval XR1 was pretty much the same as there xs and turbo street muffler since it had a lot of packing. After looking at pictures of my car and the space limitation they recommended another XR-1 (round, 15" length) as a resonator as close to the engine as possible. I the only place the muffler would fit was right behind the Y pipe in hte transmission tunnel. Even at the location it required removing my flex joint and hacking up the muffler. I always wanted to know what these things looked like inside anyway.... To gain much needed ground clearance I started by chopping the bottom of the muffler off and welding the section back on flat, this was a little tough to get straight but it turned out decent: Finished product..you can see the horizontal section as well, this was a bit harder as the muffler didnt want to stay round after I cut it. I ended up taking about 1.5 inches out of the length. Dont look to closely at the welds, I seem to have a rather large learning curve with SS. Overall iam very happy with the outcome, the car is MUCH quieter in partial throttle conditions and cruising around. Its still pretty dern loud at WOT though. The rasp is still there as well, but i think its is always going to be with a straight through muffler design. Anyway Im happy with it for now but I may change the rear muffler out in the future. Ill post some videos next time I go home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockerstar Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Looks good! Videos are definitely a must! Do you have a before video? I love how your helmet is labeled "TIG ONLY!" Mine got quite a beating when I started using it for stick welding after getting used to having the autoglass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 haha yea, I don't let my Miller helmet anywhere near the MIG. Heres a link to the before videos: http://www.vq240z.com-a.googlepages.com/videos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S130Z Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 The exhaust looks great man. Just a quick question, I keep seeing pics of your car and keep wondering if it is my background for my Myspace. Here's the link. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=57409950 . Check it out and let me know. It has been my background ever since I got my ZX about 13 months ago. Good job on the setup man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vintage Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Yes, that is Austin's car, thinking from that mag shoot when it still had an L28ET. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S130Z Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Thats very cool. Austin, I have to say that you have the best looking 240Z I have come across. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 280ZForce Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Well now you know why the stock VQs have (2) cats, (2) resonators and 1 big ass muffler! And it still has a sound you can hear from a good bit of distance. Good luck with getting the sound down, may take quite a bit more though. Good looking work as always though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 Yea, at this point I think ill pretty much have to redesign the entire exhaust to get it much quieter. But like I said it sounds pretty good now not to loud and less drone. I think if I build another exhaust I might would keep it dual and run a dual full size muffler in the tunnel and then two mufflers in the back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMWHYR0HEN Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Looks good Austin that should help. I actually drove my car a good distance the other day and at cruising RPMs the drone is really bad, I was almost deaf when I got out of the car. I think the drone is a characteristic of most V6's partly because of the 1-2-3-4-5-6 firing order. You know... 2 turbos will bring the drone down a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 Haha yea, thats what Ive been thinking all along, my bank account denied my plans though....someday the time will come . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Looks great, underside of the car is cleaner than most peoples top side... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowlerMonkey Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 It's getting difficult to find a muffler that..........muffles. Most companies cater to people who want to mount a rear muffler that makes the car louder than the stock iteration. Amazing job on getting clearance where there is none. Back in the early 80s, I used to run rotaries (RX-2 with bridge ported 13- and one had to run three mufflers to make the car tolerable without killing the power. On a "long primary" system (the collector is at the rear of the car instead of the front) we used two straight through bullet mufflers packed with stainless wool on the primary pipes and a huge honking rear muffler that cost a fortune.......I think it was called a "primaflow" muffler. The price of the primaflow was excessive so on later cars I made a "Y" after a certain distance of collected exhaust and ran two "turbo mufflers" side by side oriented 45 degrees for clearance issues (too tall when standing up). As I get older, I like my cars to make less and less noise. I also haven't had a ticket in 20 years which I attribute to super stealthy exhaust note. You should submit that design to borla and get some cash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Hmm good to know I'm going to have some noise issues. Austin, can you post a pict of your new modified muffler, in place. I'm having trouble picturing where you said you're puting it. doesn't the driveshaft hit it? Have you guys had any heat issues on longer rides? I was planning on installing my VQ with stock cats, a Y, then a long pipe back to a single large muffler. I like quiet, I hope We can find a solution. Phar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted March 4, 2009 Author Share Posted March 4, 2009 I think its safe to say that there is no way possible to use the stock cats. he factory manifold have to be sustanstially shortened and need 90's welded onto them to clear the fire wall.....and then its a tight fit with 2.5" tubing. I think youll end up have to run a single cat in the transmission tunnel. When you get the motor in the car youll see how precious little room there is in the tunnel/firewall area. Here is a picture of the underneight of my car with the new muffler....it is at ride height. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slow_Old_Car Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 and here i am in the middle of finishing up a long tubes and true dual 2.5" system for a G35 running 4 hand built bullet style mufflers... not giving me much hope that the sounds they make are going to be remotely civil... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Hmm. Okay, I was hoping I'd be able to mount my VQ a little more forward than you guys did. I know that crossmember is going to be trouble. I was thinking I might be able to run some box tubing under the steering rack and bolt a plate to the frame rails in front of all that for stability. I'm thinking at that I should be able to move the engine forward almost to the steering rack. I don't know how much more space that would give. I might need to like you said move the Cat(s) farther down the line. I've been kicking around the idea of putting in a miata power steering rack and mounting it lower below the rails to try to add space in front of the engine and allow it to be mounted slightly more forward in the compartment. It's just that steering crossmember that is the big headache right? Another option may be to mount some aftermarket Ebay cats on each downpipe, but I think you're right, I'm going to be cutting my exhaust manifolds. thanks. Phar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Hey Austin, Glad to see you back on Hybridz. Question for you. When you redid your headers, how did you get the downpipes right? I mean, I'm trying to setup my exhaust, and it comes off the header into where I cutoff my collector into a 90 deg bend. it's about 2 in from the firewall at the bend. I know you're using the DE headers so yours is different, but did you have really tight bends there too? I don't think I can cut back my pipes any furthor. I get real concerned about heat, especially right under the S30 Brake master. Phar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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