Best exhaust with great power gains..
 

Hey there,
I've been surfing the internet for a while and found quite interesting exhaust systems. i just wanted to know which exhaust type gives you the most performance gain..

please help me and thank you.

This some variables in here that we need to determine which is the best suited.

Do you want dual tip exhaust? How loud do you want the car to be? Are you looking at just cat-back, or want to go full header-back?

Start with the Headers, and work your way back. Biggest gains to be had there. You arent going to get much catback alone. Of course, like previous poster said, what are your actual goals with the car?

One with a turbo in it :D

The most performance gain will come from catless manifold. Then a catless front pipe/mid pipe then a 2.5in catback assuming you dont have a turbo and/or wont be getting one.

Youll see the best gains with a tune so get one.

A dual tip would be great, not too loud but with great torque and hp gains

I use the car as a daily use vehicle and i dont want the cops after me so something abit loud and with great performance would be good, and im not planning to change the oem headers.

Any specific exhaust manufacture in mind?

header w/ free flow cat, catless front pipe, stock catback + tune will net you the best gains while staying rather stealth in the sound department.

I have dyno tests showing 178 HP 168 ft/lbs torque with a $333 TOP SPEED PRO-1 Performance Header Straight Flex Pipe, a $380 TOP SPEED PRO-1 Rear Exhaust Axle-back Exhaust System, and a $100 TOP SPEED PRO-1 Race Spec Over Pipe.

This was with stock mid and front pipes, a $349 Skunk2 powerbox intake, an OFT stage 2 UEL 91 octane tune, and a custom MAF scale. This is an A/T that normally dynos at about 157 HP and 135 ft/lbs of torque with all stock components. Once I get my 4.875 FD installed I expect to dyno test over 200 HP and 190 ft/lbs of torque with the added 19% mechanical advantage of a 4.875 FD.

With the mechanical advantage a M/T car has, this setup could easily do over 180 HP and over 170 ft/lbs of torque, NA. Add a supercharger on top and you'll need a pilot's license just to drive it.

If you're not going to change the headers, you might as well get a catback of your liking and then get a supercharger that is CARB certified. End o' story.

You will not really see any whp gain from a catback, period, in these cars. The catbacks are for really just for looks/sound and some of them will even drop some weight. With that said, many of the catbacks on the market will actually act to increase drag depending on the shape/style. Since you daily the car only, you will not notice any of these factors, however, so just get the one that looks and sounds the best to you.

As mentioned before, a header + tune is the first mod you should do. Since it is a daily driver, I would go with a UEL option. UEL won't make as much power up top, but will give a bit more power in the low to mid range and also relieve the torque dip giving a more fun feeling on the streets. If and only if you can get away with it, get rid of the header cat. This will free up even more power. If you have to deal with smog, though, and don't have a connection, you will want to get a header with a high flow cat.

With just a header, alone though, you won't be that much better off, if at all. To really bring the car to life, get a tune. Since you will have the header off anyway, I also recommend changing out the overpipe at the same time. They are relatively inexpensive, so it's am easy way to free up a little more power.

Next on the list should be your front pipe. There are a number of options for this and most are pretty much the same. For street only use, I would recommend staying away from titanium options. They are more brittle and will sound much louder and even sound like complete shit if you stick with the stock cat back. Again, if and only if you can get away with it, you should go with a uncatted option.

As I mentioned at the beginning, if power is your concern, the catback should be the last piece to complete the setup since it will do nothing for you. As with the FP, for a streetable setup, go with a quieter option (especially if you removed even one of the cats) such as the Greddy SP Elite or Invidia q300.

Then you won't get power gains.

I'm biased to Corsa, but with any exhaust make sure you get resonators. It will atleast reduce rasp, the only way to keep it not so loud would be to add cats.