Hi, I told this one guy I saw at a performance shop (customer) that I'm about to invest in a budget y-pipe. My 99 Max SE-L is all stock, except for an intake. He told me that it's a bad idea because by eliminating the 2 pre-cats I am f@#king with back pressure, which supposedly kills my car. Is this true? I'm afraid to get the y-pipe now! Also, I heard that the y-pipe can quickly kill the stock catalytic converter.

 

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS BACKPRESSURE.

Well there is, but it's not a good thing.

There's a good article on it somewhere...
An engine breathes. It's like saying you'd work better if you
exhaled while closing your mouth and holding your nose.

 

Guy has absolutely no idea what he's talking about. Nobody on here has ever lost power or really damaged their car at all by getting a Y pipe.

 

Backpressure is always bad.

Read the FAQ, and maybe mechanics wont be able to BS you as much.

 

He probably owns a civic with a jackson racing supercharger that gives him 40 hp and that he paid 4,000 dollars for, thats $100 per hp.

Now the gains of a Y-pipe are roughly in the 20hp catagory and cost about $200, thats $10 per hp, this guy was feeding you a line because he was mad about the unfair advantage that aftermarket parts make on a strong motor that the manufacturer tried to keep quiet, and that the price per hp modification is so in favor of such a car.

The Y-pipe will give you no trouble other than it may rub against the heat sheiled under heavy load, which is easy to bend out of the way. This is a must for a max, I have raced three max's now without one and I can tell you that it is night and day with a Y-pipe no matter the intake and exhaust(b-pipe, removed muffler) mods that they may have.

 

I just go my y-pipe put in and i love it, the only way you could mess up your motor is if you run open headers or something. That guy is just a hatter and doesn't what what he's talking bout.

 

If the guy's making claims, ask him to back them up with substance (as in facts, not 2nd hand info, nor subjective impressions). If it eases your mind any, many folks have taken their Maxs with performance y-pipes for emissions testing and have successfully passed in many states/provinces (in Canada).

As rule of thumb, ask detailed questions and expect detailed answers.

 

the guy doesn't know what he is talking about. tell him to shutup and go buy a Budget Y-pipe.

 

I believe you guys, BUT at the same time it seems that you all have had a mod like the y-pipe for a short while. Obviously, no mod kills your car right away. I guess to rephrase my question - will a mod like the y-pipe kill your car in the long run? For instance, i'm not talking about 2 or 3 years. Some, or perhaps many of you, have had the y-pipe on for not longer than say 3 years. Buy technically speaking, it may screw something up in the long run, past 3 years. I guess I'm just worried....don't take it personally guys. I really do want the y-pipe cause I know how much faster my ride will be. Yet, I plan to continue driving my Max after 3 years with it on.

 

like most every one says... back pressure is bad.. the precats are not there to cause back pressure they are there becuase they heat up immediatly and start clensing the exauhst befor the catalitic converter can heat up. any one who has been in the mechanical that does know what they are talking about will tell you that a free flowing exauhst is healther than blocking it up... try sticking a potato in to the exhaust now thats bad

i have driven my s-10 blazer for over 7 years with a flowmaster exauhst with no cat and no backpressure (no emmisions in my state) and have never had a problem with the truck.. but then again its not a maxima

 

a stock car will last longer than a modded one. no doubt.

 

There you have it...now I'm totally LOST!

 

Nothing to be lost about. A y-pipe is not going to diminish your car's reliability.

 

putting on my y pipe is the best thing i have done to my car

 

Yeah dont worry about it. I could see worrying about a supercharger or spray reducing reliability. Because it puts a lot more stress on the engine and tranny. But a Y-pipe is nothing to worry about. The only way i could see it being bad for reliability is that it is going to make you want to open up your car more...

 

The Less Back pressure you have the better, Your engine life gets longer cause the car doesnt back fire as much

 

Not having to heat up those damn pre-cats when the car is cold makes it feel so much better. The car does not choke on automagic shifts and stuff. Hard to describe other than it feels much beneficial to the health of the engine.

Anyway, this is all somewhat pointless because you probably have a 99.5 (SE-L) which means you have a third (cali-spec) not-yet-removable pre-cat anyway. Thus, it's not quite as big a mod as it is for other 4th gens. You won't gain nearly as much power. Sorry to tell ya.

 

Ya know at first I was on your side - with all the name criticism.

But with a newbie Q like that I'm startin to wonder.

 

Did you see him drive off in a primer coated cut coiled civic with a boeing wing? If he had an engine swap or built engine in his car, then he is a little more reputable, but his is still wrong!

Y Pipe will not kill your car. If anything, you will maybe see a cooler running engine with increased gas mileage(if you can resist going WOT) and 20 more hp.

 

Just get the pipe and enjoy it.

 

C'mon now cop hater. Do you really think that a simple exhaust mod will hurt your car? What do you think adding an aftermarket muffler will do? The y-pipe is no different. To make it simple, all you're doing is helping your car breathe, or exhale a lot better. This in turn makes it more efficient. Your mechanic sounds like he is crooked or a dumbass if he doesn't know how exhaust modifications effect a vehicles reliability and performance.

 

Wow... this thread has dredged some great minds from the weeds....

lol

But honestly if you are worried, don't do it.... what's the big deal?

-RMB

 

So what are you saying...that I can't put a budget y-pipe on my 99.5 Max? Why do you say it's different? I don't live in Cali. I do own a 99 SE-L but what do you mean by "third (cali-spec) not-yet-removable pre-cat"????????

 

as far as a modded car not lasting as long, that's partially true. why? because every mod we put on our car makes us drive it a little bit harder. i dunno about you guys, but i never really raced my max much at all. then i put on an intake, and the revs raised more. then the exhaust, and so on. so basically, people who mod their cars tend (i know not all of the people who mod them do, those people do the mods "for looks") to drive their cars harder. obviously that's gonna put some wear on things more than cruising in a stock machine, right? right..

 

any of you ase certified? on many cars, the exhaust flowing TOO well can eventually lead to burning a hole in a piston- my uncle builds chevy race motors and hi-po street motors, and its not too uncommon to have problems with that. "backpressure" loses power, but the power you have kicks in at a lower rpm, so in some instances, its nice. theres a REASON you don't want 3" exhaust on a n/a car, it won't be able to MOVE down low. free flowing exhaust might be great for the strip or racetrack, but low end torque is more useful on the street than peak hp- think about how long the average street race is.

 

more power=more stress on parts. of course a modded car isnt going to last as long as a stock one driven identically in identical conditions.. but since that NEVER EVER happens it doesnt really matter.


anyway a y pipe isnt exactly header dumps, he will still have backpressure, and his car wont fall flat on its face on the bottom with it, and if he REALLY wanted low end torque he wouldnt have bought a max in the first place.

bottom line is that the y pipe is a safe and effective mod.

and no im not ase certified, im taking ase's NEXT month..

 

and what a fun test THAT is!!!!

 

are the reason reading the damn faq should be a necessity before you are allowed to post in a forum... i believe every question you have asked in this waste of a thread could have been answered with 15 minutes of reading the damn faq's.. so next time.. instead of asking dumb questions, do a little research first..

wJ

 

A free flowing exhaust does not cause burned pistons or valves. This was s symptom of poor tuning on older (usually carbureted) engines.

We know that a free flow exhaust lets the engine move more air. Well, if you dont add more fuel to the more air, the engine runs lean. This can burn things like pistons and valves.

Our cars' computers are more than able to automatically account for the extra air with extra fuel. This prevents the lean condition.

If you read the link in the FAQ, you would see why backpressure is always a bad thing for performance, no matter what the engine speed.

Your uncle needs to join the 20th century.

 

While we are on the Y-pipe topic, will adding one increase the sound levels when driving. I drive on the high everyday and don't want a loud car. I have an intake and HKS Muffler and that's as loud as I want it.

 

No offense guys, and take this with a grain of salt because I as well have a budget Y-pipe and am not trying to be a hypocrite. Yea I'm only 19, but the way this thread is going, it's like "yea the nissan engineers are really dumb, good thing we found their mistake and put a "better" piece on".There is no doubt that the Y pipe improves high end to mid-end power by not letting the engine choke up top, but their are reasons for why they spent probably months developing that y-pipe. There is a lot of factors that come into engineering, me being in engineering school, and an engineering intern at a developmental company that goes through all the processes I talk about, I've come to learn something, more then enough validation goes into making every nut and bolt, and its all for a reason. I kind of appreciate it now, and start to see all the small things, as far as backpressure, I dont know if I can agree that our goals here are to reach zero backpressure. From some of the research we were doing, in a daily driver car back pressure is significant in the sense of putting pressure on the back side of the exhaust valves when they are shut. The zero vacuum behind the exhaust valve can cause a lot of imbalance on each side of the valve. Some backpresure helps to keep it more balanced when it opens and stays shut. I just cant see how zero backpressure in anything but a race car being beneficial. Yea this post is too long, and some people are gonna flame, but everyyy mod you do, you have to realize, does sacrifice something to gain something. After My y pipe and engine back exhaust, ive suffered a little bit of low end(when i say low i mean from the 1-2.5k range) for hugggge high end gains, as well as obnoxious back fires.

 

Check out the dynos for a 2.5" mandrel or non mandrel bent y-pipe... You loose next to nothing down low but where the power starts to fall off, there's a nice healthy gain in HP, (i'm sure your average street race will allow you to hit over 4.5k RPM's and probably around 100kph at least)... True what you said about 3" exhaust, but the part in question is a 2.5" Budget y-pipe...

 

I have a y-pipe, test pipe (no cat) and b-pipe (with resonator) and a stock muffler and the sound isn't much louder than stock at all. It is just deeper, and the tone stays nice and low. Using "noise" as a reason to not get a y-pipe is not really correct.

 

How do people here with no cat pass emissions? Does your state do the full emissions test with your car on rollers?

-RMB

 

2 points:

1) Yes, exactly, I agree with you - I'm boosted + exhaust + VI....I'm over 5k RPM pretty much everywhere I go.....(well, not now because I'm mid-tranny swap)

2) I H8 COPS - Don't you think that at least ONE person would have had problems by now? At least 1000 people on this board have Y-Pipes, and none have blown an engine or torn something up because of it. Your guy at the shop was totally full of it. Not to mention that some people on this board have already driven 5-7 years worth of driving (100k +) with Y-pipes and no problems.

 

I need a y pipe because my factory one is almost out the door. It’s actually hanging by one hanger only; one side has totally rusted off… I wanted to get a Y Pipe that is not loud from driving on the highway @ high speeds when I go to work everyday and something that was made of stainless steal. Who has the best manifold out there? I would do a search but I don’t think its working.
Thanks

 

Yes we have emissions and when the time comes, the stock cat is sitting at home.

 

A little back pressure will help manufacture low end torque? No back pressure at all will give great high end power, but not great low end power. Does a y-pipe eliminate back pressure and also when coupled with a short ram intake eliminate the Maximas best assest - LOW END TORQUE? please correct me if i am horribly off...but i still agree a y pipe is good...except when you are a poor college student...

 

If it is OBD II (I think 96 and newer) they just hook it up and check to see if you are throwing any codes, if it is not you pass. If it is 95 and older then warm up your car, the pre-cats that are taken out with the Y-pipe are very small so they warm up fast this is so that your car will have good emissions even before it is fully warmed up, the larger main cat does the work after the car is warmed up, so all you have to do is make sure your car is fully warm and you will be fine

 

me too. best $160 the car ever sucked out of me