Okay well I might have decided on buying the tubing kit from www.vrsexhaust.com. I can get a 3" for $150 and it comes w/ all the tubing, hangers, and gaskets. The kit just needs to be welded together. I would also still need a muffler, but I have a few questions.

1. What would be a good muffler to get?

2. This system would be a 3", I was planning on doing a 2.5" downpipe so I don't get any boost creep. I might get an EVO3 sometime in the future. Will the 2.5" downpipe still be good enough.

3. I have a highflow cat right now that bolts up to the stock exhaust. Can I still use that or should I get something else?

4. How do I go about connecting the 3" exhaust to the smaller catback and downpipe? Is there some flanges I can purchase somewhere or will it have to be welded on somewhere.

I think those are all of my questions for now....Thanks

You might want to check out JC whitney or RRE and just look at the mandrel bend pipes.. it might be cheaper to get all of the pipes individually

1) I use the Dynomax Ultraflow Welded. If you want stainless, there is a ss version as well, the Ultraflow Stainless. MAgnaflow makes an acceptable version as well. 90% of DSM vendor non-name brand exhaust use these mufflers, like bushur, etc.

2) I think you meant to say evo3 16g? If so, the 2.5" DP will be fine, but naturally bigger is better for our cars.

3) Sometimes people bolt up 2.5" cats to the stock exhaust. If this is the case, it will work with your DP. If its smaller than 2.5 I'd toss it.

4) You have a few options. There are 3 to 2.5" adapters available for some of the name brand exhausts, I Would see if you can get one of those seperately. You can use a 2.5 to 3" "exhaust cone" like the ones I use in my UICP (www.summitracing.com) to either make an adapter with a flange on each end, or just weld it to your catback and stick a 2.5" flange on it. Thats what I would do if you dont plan to upgrade anytime soon, just weld it on. Fewer gaskets the better. You can always modify it later if you need to go full 3" for whatever reasons.

You may want to just try a local muffler shop before you have all of that piping shipped to you. Many places will supply pressbent piping, weld it, and hang it for you for about the same price you're looking at for the piping.

Kevin pointed out to me earlier that press bent 3" can't be much worse than mandrel bent 2.5" ;)...just something to chekc on before you make up your mind.

Well how do you guys feel about a 3" downpipe for my GST? The only reason I was thinking about going w/ 2.5" is to deal w/ boost creep. I didn't want to have to worry about it.

If 3" would be better to go w/ I could order some piping and a flex for that and just weld the whole damn thing together and have one long pipe, lol.

Does that sound good?

And Ashah, I did look at JCWhitney, it's $100 for 5' of SS 3" pipe. I'm not sure what bends I would need also though for the rest of it, thats why I kinda gave up on that and figured I'd just order the kit that comes w/ it all. Do you know where I can find out exactly what and how many bends I would need? (Besides crawling under the car and trying to figure it out, lol)

Maybe email VRS and ask what bends come with this kit :D Otherwise I am not sure either.

JoeMathews, I thought about doing that as well, but then they wouldn't be able to do the whole thing due to the whole "illegal to remove cat" thing.

FYI, I've never done anything like this before. I've just been looking for an exhaust and I want something that sounds nice and works good. I was just thinking of doing it this way (building it myself) to save money. I don't want to end up w/ a POS. If you guys think it would be better to purchase an exhaust from somewhere I want to get my moneys worth. I'm just tryin to get the best bang for the buck.

Before this I was considering ordering an RNR but I thought their customer service sucked and they take forever.

Oh and Kevin yeah I was talking about the EVO3 16G, maybe the T-28. I'll have to do research later on what would be better for my car. I'm just saying EVO since it's so much cheaper than the T-28.

2.5 will cause just as much creep as 3" PEople naturally think that because 2.5" will cuase more creep than stock, 3" must cause more creep than 2.5. The difference between 2.5 and stock is huge as far as pressure after the turbine goes, while the difference between 2.5 and 3 inches is much smaller. Unless you are moving massive amounts of air of course. As an example, my 2.5 exhaust and 14b was good for 18 psi creep with a cat, and 22 psi with a test pipe.

T28 and 16gs are pretty small, you could go either way on exhaust size. Its really up to you, your budget, and what your future plans are. I wish I went 3" right away, I pretty much knew I would never stop modding the car...

So you think I should just order the 3" piping and and make my own downpipe? I'll have to figure out what is needed for that. I'm assuming just a 90 or 45, a flex, and a straight pipe. RRE's gotta 3" flex for $66

I could then get the dynomax muffler. They have 2 on summit, which one would you recommend. There is this one http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=WLK-17296&N=120%204294923429%204294922711%20307218 and this one http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=WLK-17519&N=120%204294923429%204294922711%20307218

I read that the first ones design is better flowing than the one w/ the dual tips. I'm guessing that is why it's more expensive. Is that true?

RRE also has a magnaflow for $80 vs. the Dynomax from summit for $116. The Mag pretty good? I don't want something that is going to sound like crap. I'd rather spend the extra money and get something already made instead of getting something crappy, lol

What do you guys think? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get a good exhaust.

Edit: I should also probably mention that I don't want anything very loud. I'd take my stock exhaust if I could but I want some good performance. So I just want a nice sound

I ported out my o2 sensor housing which I have heard helps with creep. I also cut and ground off the stock flanges and welded on a 3" flange, I then ground out the housing so it taperd out to 3" by the flange. I then put the o2 housing back on and bolted the flange I would use for the down pipe. You will need a 90 to get around the oil pan, cut it to size and tack it where you want it then I continued back tacking a flange bolting the next and tacking the next pipe. I also only tacked everey thing else together well enough to just hold itself together untill I could get it out to weld it. I also just cut off all the brackets and rear o2 sensor hole to reuse on the new 3". I just relized I don't know if you have a 1g or 2g, either way you will want the 90 downpipe. On my 2g I think I got one more 90 and 2 45s then you just cut out the section you need to make particular bends. 1 ten foot stick of straight pipe left me with about 2 extra feet. I got a 3 inch apex i coffy can off ebay, it sounded awsome, but it was very loud, A month later I got a noise violation ticket. If you want to avoid this I would suggest getting a resonator and cat, and plan them into the install, then if you want you can make a straight pipe at the same time so if you want you can bypass the cat. I found ebay has great deals but you have to know what you are looking for, they advertise high flow cats and resonators bolth as high flow cats.

Ebay high flow cats are just resonanted pipes. But look for dynomax mufflers on ebay.

Ebay high flow cats are just resonanted pipes. But look for dynomax mufflers on ebay.
you have to know what you are looking for. I think it's messed up they do that, but I orderd a magnaflow 3"cat which was the real deal, and a 3" lancer evolution "high flow cat" which was just a resonator.
I haven't put it on but the magnaflow looks pretty good quality.
I will need to cut off the lancer evo flanges and it will make a good resonator, just don't be fooled.

95GST basically did the same home made 3" exuast I did. We both used RRE downpipes. I'd rather spend the money there to save time. The catback is cake. HE put up a good review here, I'm sure a quick search would turn it up. Pics too. Ihave some pics on my site, but ont enough. You can find my info on an od thread at racingknowledge.

I found your post right hereYour exhaust (http://racingknowledge.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=87&whichpage=1&SearchTerms=build%2Cexhaust), couldn't find one about making an exhaust for a FWD though.

I wish mine was just a straight shot like the AWD's :(. I still haven't decided on what to do yet.

Let's see, for 3" Catback welding it myself with the Dynomax Ultra Flo is $300.90 shipped.

Or I could do RNR exhaust and that comes out to $404 shipped. Neither is SS. SS would be $50 for the DIY exhaust and $30 more for the RNR.

I guess $100 isn't bad for something that you just have to hook up once it gets here. But then again, it'll take about 13 months to get something from RNR. Hmm, decisions decisions.

That doesn't even include cost of downpipe and test pipe

Welcome to the world of DSM vendors... lol

ahhh I can't decide, it's driving me crazy. I'm just going to buy an exhaust and not deal w/ any of the welding I decided.

But I've been looking at this exhaust right here. http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/default.asp?BrandCd=PITP&ModelCd=DSM3&SubCategoryCd=EXHA No reviews on it anywhere really except one on www.dsmreviews.com Horsepower freaks is supposed to be a great company and I haven't heard anything bad about them. They say it's good but I'm not sure. After shipping it's $441.59. Anybody heard anything about Pit Performance? Then I can always go back to the RNR but they said it will take 2 weeks to get one out. It cost $404 shipped from there, not SS but don't really care about that. I would prolly get the Pit Perfrmance if I could find some good things on it. I don't konw what to do, it's driving me crazy.

There's a thread on DSMtuner.com about Pit Performance exhausts right now. The vendor from Horsepower Freaks that is a member on Tuners was saying how great the quality was, but one person pointed out that there is a huge resonator on the exhaust....let me see if I can find the thread...

lol, don't worry I made the thread...it's titled the same thing as this one

Well I said F it and went ahead and got the Pit Performance exhaust. Hopefully it was a good idea and I won't regret it. Wish me luck!

I am thinking about getting the Megan downpipe for about $135 shipped from ebay, I've heard good things about it. We'll see.