Originally posted by aerowilson182
Just put on my TRD axel back exhaust, and I was very dissapointed. didnt notice much power gain at all, and the AEM CAI is still all I hear when I get on it.
Im thinking about having a midpipe made (same diameter as the TRD muffler piping) do you guys think that the ripples in the bends and the welded flanges are going to disrupt the flow so much that the larger diameter pipe will actualy cause a loss of power?
Has anyone done this?
And if I have a custom pipe made should I just go all the way, throw out the cat and bolt it up to the header?
Be very careful how you design this, you could do more harm then good.
You might want to give your exhaust a little time to break in. Are you concerned about power or sound? It would seem like you're a little worried about both. The sound of the TRD exhaust will improve, but I doubt to the piont you're looking for.
Did you reset your ECU when you did the swap? If not, disconnect the negative battery cable or remove the ECU fuse for a few minutes to let it clear it's memory, then plug in the fuse/tighten the battery cable back down.
If you are building a "test pipe" (no cat), make sure you get an o2 immulator or else you'll be tripping the CEL without a doubt. It will go on the second o2 sensor.
If you want it done semi-decent, have it made using pre-bent mandrel U-bends for all the "curves". Just cut the bend off of the U-Bend that is needed for routing and weld it up. I know a lot of people who use "butt welds" in this situation, but I prefer a swedge fit. Swedge fit is when you "open" one end of the pipe and it slips over the piece you're trying to join. It all depends on how close many different "joints" in the pipe are to each other.
This way you'll have all mandrel bends and a pretty free flowing unit using swedge adaption.
The best way is to have a 100% mandrel bent unit made. As of right now, that is a complete custom job and would be quite spendy to have done one-off. Also, the removal of the resonator would make the system quite loud too!
You might want to try cutting the resonator out, but leave enough material on either side to weld a flange. Then build a straight pipe with the same type of flanges on it as well. This way you can switch out from having the resonator and then just unbolting it and running the straight pipe.
That would be a less expensive way to go about things and I bet the sound would make you "think" your car is as fast as you want it to be.
Sorry about the ramble....mind is mush right now. :crazy2:
