I just called every place in town, and nobody does mandrel bent exhaust.

How much is it going to affect the overall performance if I have a 2.5" non mandrel bent catback?

 

Not much since 2.5" is pretty big anyway. And especially when the # of shops that have machines that have mandrel bending machines is few to none.

There's only 1-2 in Wa. state.

 

Have you ever heard of WarpSpeed Performance?

http://www.warpspeedperformance.com/

Or are you looking for a better price?

 

excellent suggestion....talk to Dallas and he should take good care of you and he does mandrel bends also.

 

i did the whole exhaust deal from warpspeed, complete with magnaflow dual-tipped. i'm happier than hell with it. sound is loud. love it. sets of car alarms. lots of pickup. complete from y-pipe to back about 800 bucks if i recall correctly.

 

I'm looking at the following setup:

WSP Y-Pipe - Mandrel or Non
Carsound Cat
Custom 2.5" catback
Flowmaster Muffler
Hooker resonating slash cut tips - Nice!

Love those hooker tips.
http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...02&prmenbr=361

I'm also thinking of a "remus style" muffler because I like dual tips, but I'd probably want to add a resonator or two on the catback because the one I saw is straight through.

The idea here is to get the performance gains and make it louder, but not 'ricer loud'. Also I want to keep reasonably stock looking. The top setup seems best because it's more custom and probably won't be as loud as some chrome polished straight thru muffler.

 

..."but I'd probably want to add a resonator or two on the catback because the one I saw is straight through."

yes. add a resonator. that will keep the y-pipe from sounding too much like a tin can.

"The idea here is to get the performance gains and make it louder, but not 'ricer loud'."

i see your point. my setup is loud, though. the magnaflow is very robust. go with a quiet muffler, then. like a factory 5th gen. it will need some adapting. people on here have done it.

"Also I want to keep reasonably stock looking."

me,too. i did not want a huge coffee-can muffler. mine is dual-tipped and is chrome. looks so awesome. it harkens to stock with the dual tip, but is better looking.

i chose warpspeed for the whole thing because they had everything at a one-stop deal. and all the piping marryed-up and matched.

also, make sure you get a b-pipe. i don't think the b-pipe is actually the resonator. it runs out to the back.

 

As far as the resonator goes, it's just like a miniature low restriction muffler right? So, I could maybe have them weld in a glasspack instead. Not having looked at the resonator I don't know, but a 2.5" glasspack would probably cut the noise a whole lot.

 

People seem to think a good cat-back is over-rated power wise..

But Neal recently asked in the Gen forum about it and four or five guys dyno'd a good 8-10 hp and tq with a nice cat-back.

Spipedong90...if you're gonna skimp on any part of the exhaust and go non-mandrel I'd make it the B-pipe. Definitely go mandrel on the y-pipe...crush bent 2.5'' the rest of the way will be good enough.

Of course if you can you wanna go mandrel all the way