JDL/Perrin Exhaust Set-Up?
 

Hi guys, new enthusiast to the forum here. Just bought a brand new manual 2017 Pure Red BRZ with PP in late May 2018. This is my first car (got my license a week before buying the car) and this 22 year old is loving it so far. It's perfect for Northwest driving.

Just broke 1,000 miles last week and was planning ahead for the future of this car. I've researched a lot of header-back setups in this forum and finally wanted to post questions I had.

I initially wanted the MXP Comp RS Ti CBE (those burnt tips tho) until I heard it's almost as loud as the Invidia N1 with any further modification to it (I really don't like unnecessarily loud exhaust systems. My brother's 04' STI is loud enough for me...) I researched more tame systems and found out about the Perrin 2.5" and 3" CBE. Lucky for me, I live in Portland, Oregon and they're just a couple minutes away.

I am going to go F.I down the road eventually (3 or 4 years from now after warranty is up) and have settled on getting the resonated Perrin 3" CBE system with full JDL Catted UEL headers, 3" OP/UQFP with dual resonators.

My question is will this set-up be moderately loud or obnoxiously loud? My goal is to have a moderate mature sounding exhaust, definitely not anything ridiculously loud/raspy. I am planning on buying the parts individually besides the OP/FP combo throughout the years to build the car as I age with it.

Any tips and input would greatly be appreciated!

Instagram is my username too :D would love to follow some fellow drivers!

sounds like you're deleting one cat, and the perrin must be a bit louder than stock otherwise what's the point, so here's something I'm going to pull out of my ass: it'll be somewhat louder than stock with the difference UEL headers make being more noticeable than an increase in volume. maybe like if you got an STI and got the oem "sport" exhaust. if anyone else has something they'd like to remove from their colon please chime in, but I think it wouldn't be so bad

I had the Perrin 2.5" with a full 2.5" catless exhaust and UEL catless headers. It was loud, but sounded fantastic. It did piss some people at my apartment complex off when I started up in the mornings. Post turbo, the Perrin was too quiet so I got a Dezod 2.5" catback to match the JDL turbo kit.

If you don't want to be obnoxious, the Perrin 2.5" is perfect while naturally aspirated, and slightly louder than OEM after turbo.

Well I'm going catted UEL, so I thought that with dual resonated FP would keep the 3" CBE toned down a bit. I could go cat/resonated UQFP but since I will be catted in header, wouldn't matter much since O2 sensors run off the headers. I think your 2.5" was primarily loud because of your catless UEL.

Highly recommend against a catted UEL. Performance gains are much less than catless. I know a couple of people who have blown the cat in these with FI. And the cat blew in mine while NA. Catless and a tune will be much better performance and reliability.

Also, why 3”?

Keep the cat in the frontpipe, not the header.



You'll need a tune, so budget for that (you may have that in the plan already)

I just did JDL Catted UEL with the Catted/Resonated UQ FP/OP Combo Pipe with the Perrin 2.5in Resonated. I’m very happy with the results after getting it tuned by PTuning. While I could have made more power using a Catless JDL UEL, I wanted to keep it as street legal as possible and keep the sound tame.

Performance and Sound are excellent. I honestly couldn’t be happier with the setup. While I’m only 30, I’m no longer a fan of super loud cars, so rest assured when I say it’s not loud. Cold Starts the only time, but that’s mostly because I’m in a closed underground parking garage.

Cheap sports cat will not last long... One of the best brands is HJS, but a 200 cells for our cars is around 500€ alone, so a 800$ header will not use it. I.E. Supersprints uses HJS cat in its frontpipe, but it's 1200€...

I am running UEL JDL catted header, Perrin OP, Motiv front pipe (no res or cat) and 2.5" resonated Perrin CBE. I love the sound! Fairly quiet for casually cruising and highway speeds, but then the noise comes on as soon as you start putting your foot into it. She screams above 5k. I added the Motiv test pipe after everything else to add a bit of noise since it was still a little quiet for my liking. With 3" Perrin CBE, you will get a smidge of added noise but it will mostly just make the tone deeper. If I could go back and do anything differently, I would have just opted for the catless header. The JDL kit is a high flow cat, and I only ordered catted in hopes of not throwing a code. Well, I threw a code anyway and ended up picking up an OFT and just tuned out the sensor code anyway.

Let me know if you have any other questions since my setup seems pretty similar to what you are looking for!

3” to go for gains while keeping it quiet with the rest of the setup I had planned out initially. I was worried that going uncatted UEL even with the UQFP with either cat/resonator or dual resonator combo would be too loud for me cause I’m pretty set on the Perrin 3” resonated. I’m also hesitant cause of CEL, even though I am going to end up with an OFT tune or Delicious tune which I heard can take out the CEL. If the cats are that susceptible to blowing out in the header, then maybe cat/resonator would be the way with catless upfront.

Hmm... sounds a lot like mine! As stated above, I’m mainly worried about sound and CEL, but if catted headers still throw CEL, then might as well go uncatted and get everything I can get from the car power-wise with modest noise. Hopefully the UQFP with cat/resonator will achieve my goal then with uncatted up front... The 3” system is still a go for me. Thanks for the info!

If you are going to go uncatted header with the 3" system it is going to be loud. I have a Nameless header with a nameless catted FP and the 3" catback was very loud. I ended up going back to a stock catback.

gains between 3" and 2.5" are negligible, even with a turbo.

the Stock catted front pipe will keep rasp/noise down and let you pass visual inspection if needed. OFT/ECUtek will tune out the code and keep your car legal. I just passed inspection in Texas with my turbo on ECUtek.

If you are mostly concerned about noise, I would suggest installing your header, OP and catback first. It seems that on these cars the front pipe is what keeps the noise level in check. Even the ultra-quiet front pipes will be louder than stock. Try out this setup and if you think you can handle more noise, then move forward with the front pipe replacement

Sorry for reviving a semi-dead post. I think I will do this, thanks for the information! I spoke to my friend who's straight piped about my situation. Living here in Oregon, we have DEQ checks every two years but I guess I'm settled on going with the Catless JDL UEL and just switch out to stock headers whenever DEQ check is needed. I don't mind noise as long as I'm not dealing with drone, which I heard the Perrin is good at eliminating. Thanks everyone!

I had a Tomei UEL, JDL ultra quiet over frontpipe (1 cat and 1 resonator in the front pipe), and Perrin's 3 inch. So it was very similar to what you were planning. If you plan to go FI, you'll most likely burn through/melt both cats eventually especially if you plan on tracking the car too. If it's just a DD, then a cat in the front pipe should be enough. But don't bother with a cat in the header.

But anyways, it sounded really nice. Loud-ish when you punched it, but subtle while cruising. It was actually not loud enough for my taste. So now I run the JDL turbo kit with their 3inch over front pipe, dual resonated, 0 cats, and the 3" dezod catback exhaust. The turbo acts as a muffler so it's definitely louder than the setup I previously had while supercharged, but it sounds deeper and has a nice boxer rumble to it.

I have a Perrin 2.5" resonated with catted front pipe and P&L catted equal length header which is very similar to the JDL one. I have to get an overpipe still, but the setup sounds great; just loud enough without being obnoxious during acceleration, and quiet when cruising with no drone. This sounds clean, little to no rasp and you get the occasional fun little pop and burble here and there. The Perrin 2.5" system and catted front pipe are discontinued so you'd have to go used like I did or look for something similar (wouldn't hurt to ask Perrin how much louder the 3" is vs 2.5", I bet it's not much different). I hate the UEL sound on BRZ's personally, but that's just me.

I have the JDL catless UEL and a 2.5" resonated Perrin catback. Perfect volume. Doesn't attract too much attention around town, but really sings when you're on it. I would love a few more decibels, but I'm sure replacing the stock FP/OP would do the trick.

Currently running JDL UEL catless header, JDL 3 inch overpipe/front pipe combo with dual resonators and Perrin 3 inch resonated cat back exhaust. This set up is louder than my straight piped Invidia N1 exhaust I had before. I wanted it quieter, but this was not the way to go. The Perrin is raspy on throttle and drones like crazy in 6th gear.


My question is does anyone have any idea how to quiet this system down?

Perrin 3" resonated supposedly is comparably loud to 2.5" non resonated. I guess you should have gone 2.5" resonated route if lowering noise was goal. I'd probably sell off 3" to someone w/o catless header and get 2.5" one instead of trying to mod this. Or get some other exhaust from other vendor.

I wonder how your exhaust would sound if the front pipe was catted/resonated instead of double resonated, since that’s the setup I was leaning towards. My thoughts were that having a cat+resonator in the front pipe would make the 3” bearable. I haven’t bought any pieces of this setup yet but any help/advice is greatly appreciated!