Perrin Catback Exhaust Installation and Review!
 

Hello everyone! This first post is a preliminary review of the Perrin Catback Exhaust! Unfortunately I cannot finish the review due to my own stupidity involving never having used V-Band clamps before and some minor dyslexia, I ended up snapping one of the clamps. More on that later! I will finish the review tomorrow when I have received a replacement V-Band Clamp which I purchased and had overnighted.

First things first!

The Prep!

I removed my old exhaust from the BRZ yesterday in preparation of installing the Perrin kit. I do not have pictures of this, it was however exceedingly easy and took me all of 30 minutes. It consisted of unbolting the rear axelback flange, unbolting the front Catback flange and popping the pipes off the hangers. I usually spray the hangers with a little bit of WD-40 to aid in sliding the studs off the hangers. Make sure to wipe the excess off before reinstalling the new exhaust to prevent the WD-40 residue from smoking from the heat of the new exhaust. I also recommend supporting the muffler with something while removing the hangers so it doesn't fall and/or damage the rubber hangers during removal.

The Kit!

I picked up the Kit from @Kaizen Tuning over in Boxborough, MA and quickly threw it in the back of my truck and rushed home as fast as possible stopping for lunch along the way.

http://i.imgur.com/4hur5.jpg

Once I was home I layed the kit out below the BRZ in order (Yes I do own my own garage lift.)

http://i.imgur.com/gHxlj.jpg

The kit consist of a hardware bag, a mid pipe with resonator, a rear S-pipe and the Muffler with dual 4" brushed stainless tips. The entire kit is 304 Stainless and is VERY shiny and well finished.

http://i.imgur.com/m6G5C.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/P1zIs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/viDEy.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hukc5.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/5d3g2.jpg

The hardware bag comes with everything you need, including different bolts for when/if you install the Perrin Front/Over pipe which isn't even released yet!! Talk about thinking ahead!

http://i.imgur.com/GWgwo.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/J9rzO.jpg

The Install!

The install was very smooth, first step was to slide the new muffler onto the hangers.

http://i.imgur.com/YQCul.jpg

Then Hang the S-Pipe on it's hanger and loosely secure it to the muffler with the V-Band Clamp, DO NOT TIGHTEN THE CLAMP, leave it loose for adjustment later.

http://i.imgur.com/bOJCk.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/69iPg.jpg

Then the trickiest part, installing the resonator, with two people this would be a piece of cake, however I was working by myself. It was still not difficult, just tricky. First step was to remove the donut gasket from the stock front/over pipe. Then place the supplied gasket on the flange of the front/over-pipe.

http://i.imgur.com/Q414H.jpg

Now take the proper two flange bolts! The proper two are the M8 bolts with the 13mm head, they are silver, the Grade 8 3/8-24 bolts are for when/if you install the Perrin Front/over pipe. Since the Perrin front pipe is not available yet you should use the galvanized (grey/silver) M8 bolts. Now pre-place the two M8 Bolts with only the large washer through the holes in the front/over pipe flange and gasket. the small washer goes on the resonator side with the nut. Unfortunately Perrin only gave me one small washer, luckily I has a spare spring washer that was the proper size so I used that on the bolt with the missing washer.

Now here comes the tricky part for one person, this is the easiest way I have found to do this. First pre-place the V-Band Clamp on the v-band flange on ether the resonator or the S-Pipe. Place the resonator on your shoulder. Now while supporting the weight of the resonator with your shoulder, line up the bottom bolt hole with the proper bolt on the flange and use both hands to put the small washer on the bolt and thread the nut. Now do the same with the top bolt, washer and nut.

http://i.imgur.com/bfMLn.jpg

Once you have these placed turn around while still supporting the resonator (this method prevents undue stress to the vibration isolator from supporting the resonators weight) and attach and loosely tighten the pre-placed V-Band clamp, securing the resonator pipe to the S-Pipe.

http://i.imgur.com/HZ3VZ.jpg

Next we have our hanger clamps which are the little billet aluminum blocks with an Allen screw. These prevent the muffler and S-Pipe from slipping off their respective hangers due to vibration. You are SUPPOSED to have 5 of them, unfortunately Perrin only sent me 4, so I placed them on the 4 muffler hangers for now and I will request one more from Perrin tomorrow. Adjust your muffler left to right on the hangers to center the exhaust tips in the openings on your bumper. Once it is placed, slide the hanger clamps up against the rubber hangers and tighten them with an Allen wrench until they are hand tight and do not slip.

http://i.imgur.com/K0SqJ.jpg

Now you are ready to tighten everything, this is where I f***ed up very stupidly.

Tighten the exhaust from front to rear starting with the front/over pipe flange. Tighten the front-over pipe flange to 25 ft-lbs (foot-lbs) evenly, try to tighten the bolts as evenly as possible to prevent leaks.

Now with the v-band clamps loose you can twist the S-Pipe and adjust how much each tip sticks out from the bumper, adjust this until each tip sticks out the same amount. Next tighten the resonator/s-pipe V-Band Clamp to 75 in-lbs (INCH-lbs!!!) THIS IS WHERE I MESSED UP. Me being so used to foot-lbs on EVERYTHING and having never have used V-Band Clamps before immediately read that as FOOT-LBS (ft-lbs) so very STUPIDLY I set my torque wrench to 75 foot-lbs and proceeded to tighten the clamps. Much to my dismay I ended up tightening FAR too much and snapping the freakin clamp bolt...I felt like a dumbass.

Anyways, once you have done successfully what I did stupidly (By the way, I did the conversion for those of you who don't have a inch-lb torque wrench, 75 in-lbs is 6.25 ft-lbs) proceed to tighten the rear Muffler/S-Pipe V-Band Clamp and YOU ARE DONE!

Luckily my buddies at Kaizen Tuning ( @Kaizen Tuning ) knew where to get clamps quickly and $50 of overnight shipping and the cost of a clamp later I will have my new clamp tomorrow. I will finish this review then.

In the mean time!

The Glamour Shots!

Just the Tips...

http://i.imgur.com/2tX4R.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/HCGBZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VIWZq.jpg

Dat Ass

http://i.imgur.com/WBBza.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/am7eN.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/adN2y.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/iw0d6.jpg

On the Lift Looking Sexy.

http://i.imgur.com/iTGr8.jpg

Aw Yeah who's on Top ;)

http://i.imgur.com/60vsQ.jpg

Tomorrow I will conclude with the Final Reviews, which will include my thoughts on the sound, the final fitment, professional quality HD (192khz/24-bit) sound recordings (NOT YOUTUBE!) from my pro-audio rig (I am a stage technician by trade) and some short walk around video's.

In the mean time enjoy the plethora of pics.

-Trev A.K.A Sony

UPDATES!!!

Good Evening Mentlegen!!

So I finished installing the exhaust today! I unfortunately was too busy today to be able to get video and sound clips so I will do that this weekend with help from my friend @2forme. However here are my final thoughts and I will update the third post with sound clips and video this weekend.

We shall start with:

The Final Fitment!

The fitment of this exhaust when it was all clamped together and done was impeccable. Everything in the kit fit into place easily and properly the first time with barely ANY adjustment. Basically all I had to do was hang the muffler and adjust it left and right. I ended up adjusting the S-Pipe a tiny bit to make sure the tips were sticking out evenly but it was barely anything at all. The V-Band clamps are a little tricky to get on if you have never done them before but they were by no means difficult. Once they were on though they were super easy to cinch up and get a tight fit and they hold everything super tight, no wiggling, they are rock solid. This kit is very well designed and very well thought out it's wonderful. It's one of the easiest kits I have ever installed. The cheap Flowmaster kit on my truck was far more difficult to install than this. Once the old exhaust was out of the car the new exhaust took less than an hour to install and I was taking constant pics the entire time slowing myself down.

THE ONLY thing I can fault the exhaust on is I wish it had a little more clearance between the rear cross member and the S-Pipe, I am worried that the S-Pipe will hit the cross member over bumps or with excessive vibrations as there is only about half an inch of clearance. So far I haven't had any problems, but time will tell.

Next is:

The Sound!

The first time I hit that start button, I'm pretty sure I almost came immediately. Needless to say, I love it...no, that's an understatement, I F***ING LOVE IT!!! Idling upon startup the car has a wonderful deep idle growl, then once the first 30 seconds pass the car quiets down and it's just the regular quiet rumble, it's great. It's the kind of rumble that doesn't pound you in the chest, but you can still feel it, and it feels mean.

I then proceeded to drive to Kaizen Tuning which is a 40 minute long trip which consists of all types of driving from 70+MPH cruising down the highway to 45mph rural driving to stop and go traffic. I will say, this exhaust with the resonator is JUST loud enough for me. This is my own subjective taste but I don't like loud exhausts, I do not like calling every cop in the town to my location. @2forme has an SRT Resonated exhaust on his BRZ and I've driven that car and it is FREAKIN LOUD. The Perrin is MUCH quieter by I would venture a guess of almost 15 to 20db quieter which is A LOT. It's not loud enough to be even remotely obnoxious, it was actually quieter then I expected. There is no raspiness even at WOT, it's a very good tone and the volume doesn't dramatically increase with RPM above 3,000rpm, in fact it stays pretty even all the way to redline.

In Stop and Go traffic, the car is barely audible when stopped, just a quiet rumble. When you get going and give it a bit of gas it rumbles your chest just like it should but it doesn't draw any unwanted attention or glares from onlookers for being too jarring. There are no pops or weird noises when shifting, overall a very smooth and consistent sound.

In Rural driving the exhaust is noticeable only when applying the gas but not overly loud under normal acceleration. It's definitely fun and sounds good during regular driving and doesn't have any drone or raspiness that can get on ones nerves. This definitely isn't a fart can off your average riced out civic.

On the highway this thing is exactly how I wanted it, merging onto the highway from the on-ramp, drop gear into 2nd or 3rd and punch that pedal to the floor while accelerating to highway speed and my god. This thing is awesome, still not even close to the deafening noise of the SRT but it sounds MEAN. It's not like an LFA with all the high pitched F1 car sounds, it's much deeper, VERY deep, hard to describe but there is very little high end noise in this exhaust, it's almost all low end. I'm sure everyone in a 100+ yard radius will notice you but it's not deafening, even at WOT you still feel like you can hear the radio. While cruising at 70mph the exhaust is nearly silent, the only time you really hear the exhaust is going uphill or accelerating. There is no drone, not even a hint, nothing, zero, zip, nada, this is definitely an exhaust you can take a long road trip with and not get annoyed.

And finally:

The Conclusion!

This is a great exhaust, I definitely plan on keeping it for a long time, and the great part it it's compatible with future mods since it bolts right up to the existing front/over pipe. Perrin definitely thought ahead with this one, providing bolts so you can bolt up this exhaust with their aftermarket front/over pipe even before it's been released, I definitely like this! Also if you ever decide you want to remove the resonator you can just purchase ONLY the un-resonated mid-pipe from Perrin and replace just the mid-pipe, no need to buy or replace the s-pipe or the muffler after you bought it the first time, definitely a much cheaper option for the future. The fitment and installation of this exhaust is wonderful and also super easy! The look is great as well, definitely looks WAY better than the stock exhaust.

The exhaust sounds great as well in my opinion, if you like loud exhausts, look elsewhere, this exhaust is NOT loud by any means...I doubt even at WOT@7000+rpm it surpasses even 85db. I am very happy about this, I hate loud obnoxious exhausts, and what it lacks in volume this exhaust makes up in smooth sound and tone. This exhausts tone is VERY deep, almost too deep in my opinion and that may be the only thing I could think to fault it on, it's so deep you lose a lot of the sound of the high strung boxer engine, there is very little high end, it can almost sound muted at times. I miss a bit of the high end but I don't mind all that much, again this is my subjective opinion as someone who does not enjoy laud raspy exhausts.

So if you like loud exhausts that sound like an F1 car or Ferrari/LFA, this exhaust is not for you.

If you like a deep tone with a great growl and boxer rumble without earsplitting volume. Buy this exhaust, you can't get a better fit and finish at this price with any other exhaust out right now in my opinion.

My .02 cents

-Trev A.K.A. Sony

P.S. sound clips and video will be up by Monday hopefully!

Sound Clips!

Cold Start

Warmed Up Rev to 7k

Warmed Up Rev to 4k

Please Click the Link and then click the "Download" button in the top right and select "Direct Download."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...908_130000.jpg

Please excuse the crappy cellphone pic!

MORE CLIPS!

These clips were done on a DynoDynamics Dyno so please excuse the dyno noise in the background!

Dyno Pull in 3rd Gear

Accel to Highway Speed

UNRESONATED CLIPS!

Unresonated Dyno Pull in 3rd Gear

Unresonated Accel to Highway Speed

why resonated instead of non?

Same power output no done. If you plan to one day go full header over pipe mid pipe and cat back resonated is flowy for track but not track pipe loud, I'm loving mine! A few days into it I went nd snugged up the bolts, no torque wrench needed on these bolts...

cant wait for videos... loving the Perring Catback, kinda want to sell my Magnaflow axle back

Just curious what attracted you to the manga flow?

Looking fwd for the vid/sound clips.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Can't wait to start seeing all of these exhaust systems reviewed to see which ones exceed or fall short.

I'm a bit confused on their decisions.

They go with V-bands, which are more expensive than normal flanges.

But then they hit it with cheap, nasty-looking wire-feed?

I don't get it.


Nice wheels, btw.

why do you have 7 garbage containers? *_* lol just messin'.... great stuff! i'm jealous of your access to a lift, size of the garage, and your exhaust :D

I'm jealous with the size of your garage! Do you live in a giant building? :D

there are 6 units in my building and 8 parking spaces. I only have 1 parkign space, the rest are my neighbors.

Is it finished yet?

Wire feed welding (MIG Welding) can be just as strong if not stronger than TIG welding. Ever watch them weld stuff together at a shipyard or Auto Factory? It's all wire feed welding, so strength isn't an issue if thats what you're complaining about. If you're complaining about looks then yea, they may not look quite as nice as TIG welding but who cares? It's under the car, my car isn't going to be a show car, so it wont be placed on a pedestal with a mirror underneath for all to see my underbody.

Non-resonated is too loud for me, I don't want to attract unwanted attention, plus this is a daily driver for me so I don't want to have to listen to any drone all day.

does perrin make a nonresonated version? i always love their exhausts. i had one on my 09 GR sti when i had it, the fit and finish was amazing...i just wanted it louder. there are so many exhausts available for these two cars that i'm so undecided!

Following Perrin's dev here, I would just be disappointed receiving that. Their prototype was TIG'd. They told us production would be MIG for cost reasons, and show a polished system on their site. Fair enough. But now are shipping out un-polished/brushed systems to customers.

But yeah, under the car and makes power. I'm just pretty anal about craftsmanship.

what rims are those btw?

i am really jelly of your garage there.

SSR Type-C.

Well I'd hope so considering they are stainless steel....

the deeper tone of their mufflers.

Its all a balancing act.

We showed a prototyped Tig part, but as you said we told customers they would be MIG welded for production. Its obvious why we did this, its for cutting cost. TIG is very very time consuming and would have made our system way to expensive. TIG is something people are used to seeing because of all the overseas parts that are made by robots. This is exhaust is 100% made in the USA and that is a huge cost adder for companies like us. For us its worth the added cost for control and for keeping jobs in the USA.

The finish on the prototype, and on the website are all the same as the final product. Its all a 220-ish grit brushed finish (that is what we call it). Maybe we didn't do a good job of pointing this out to customers, but we even made a small "Box" on our site pointing out the finish.

http://www.perrinperformance.com/ass..._finish_02.jpg

I will have to look into the info on our site to see if we are misleading customers. We never had intentions to do that. We are done with polished systems as its too "over sea's" looking to us.

I am glad you think the V-band flanges are more expensive, that is why we used them! They provide the gasket-less seal, and adjustability we wanted in the system, and not to mention better clearance for things. Yes we could have gone super cheap with some thin flanges and gaskets, but we didn't.

Over the years we have come to find that 70% of the customers out there don't give a crap about what the tubing looks like. Even fewer care less about the welding. Internally we are like the smaller % people that do care about finish, but to a point. It just comes down to being able to hit a price that suites peoples wallets, having features that make people want the system while still having tips that people like and of course good sound.

We say this to a lot of customers, but if enough people ask, we could do a premium type system that is super finished. Tig welded, CNC v-band flanges, CNC main flange, quick release V-band clamps and so on. But releasing a system like this that could be in the $1200+ range steers away a huge customer base.

I hope that helps answer your comments and also keeps onlookers from thinking we "pulled a fast one" or cheapened out on the system. We NEVER had the intentions of EVER doing that.

actually i like the brush finish of the cat back. it looks good and quite unique from all the mass polish/burnt finish out on the market.

You can call it what ever you want mr perrin rep but no matter what you say I'm not not goin to buy one. Matter of fact I'm going to take the one I already have ordered and shove it up into my existing exhaust! I am going to rock it hard and brag about it to all brz owners rather you like it or not.

Yeah how you feel about that!?!

Customer product:

http://i.imgur.com/bOJCk.jpg

I can't link to it on my phone, but the close up pic on your Description page beside the V-Band shows a much better finish (I should have been more clear about 'polish', meant the satin/brushed finish). Also you can still see a bit of the 304L printing (yay 304!) on the customer pic, clearly untouched.

Your pic looks like it was brushed after welding, and the customer's before. MIG welds aren't pretty at the best of times and just hitting the whole thing after welding with however you finish it wouldn't hurt.




EDIT:

I went back to your site and looked through ALL the pics and need to clarify MY ERROR. Seems I fixated on the V-Band pic as it caught my attention pretty good. The other pics, especially the installed ones, are consistent with the piece in this thread.

I still think that satin polishing AFTER welding would be a great value to the customer, though.

Oh hello, just found my favorite exhaust as far as looks go. I don't think I remember liking the sound of it too much. In for a video clip though!

Edit: NVM! sounds great without the front pipe.

I love the looks of those tips. So how about that sound clip, OP?

UPDATES!

Find the update in Post #2! Here!

PS. Unfortunately due to a busy day today and tomorrow sound and video clips will need to wait until this weekend.

Nice!

This review sealed the deal for me, now I just need to get my car! Another 6-7 months to go....

OH YES!! I see the picture! That is a generic picture we used from the older polished systems. We need to change that on our all systems! We are on it!

When we did the brushing of the tubing, going back and brushing the welds off was very hard to make consistent at all junctions on "all" systems without spending a hour a system hand finishing it. It actually ends up making a funny pattern where the brushing doesn't match. So we opted to leave them raw to there would be consistency from system to system(BRZ, STI, WRX, EVO....)

I do like the feedback for sure on this. Its the kind of thing we need to hear so we can improve things and suite more and more customers.

I thought that was a given? lol Not he just needs to teach me how to drive one at Lime Rock Park :P

Thanks for the awesome write up Sony. I have a WRB BRZ on the way as well and have to say that after seeing those SSR Comp Cs on there I am definitely going that route. Absolutely love the direction you are going with this build.

They are SSR Type-C's not Comp-C's, and I appreciate the compliments! Thanks!

http://www.ssr-wheels.com/wheels/typec_171819.asp

I've got some great recordings from inside my garage!!!

Unfortunately the driving recordings inside the cabin didn't go as well :( The old cheapo radioshack inverter I used to power the recording interface I own is not a Pure-Sinewave unit and is therefore introducing a terrible square wave noise into my recordings. Hopefully I can get this thing on the Dyno at @Kaizen Tuning where I can use wall power and get some really clean recordings. We'll see! In the meantime I will post the three recordings I have, I just need to throw them up on dropbox and post the link. :)

UPDATES!!!


Check Post #3 for Sound Clips!!! Here

-Trev A.K.A Sony

can't watch them guess i have to be on a pc instead of a mac?

either way my unresonated will be here tuesday and i am hella excited!

They aren't video's, they are straight Audio Only recordings! They are a standard WAV file, you should be able to listen to them on any audio replay software.