exhaust system questions

[brandonjustice93J30]

I reciently bought my J30 from my Mom when she got her new car, and the exhaust has been repaired once for the pipes rusting near the cats. I'm curious about how the fitment of the headers and cat back exhaust systems offered by Stillen for the 300ZX would be on the J30. Just figuring since I'm going to have to eventually gut the exhaust system and start from zero, if I plan on keeping the car for a while longer, I might as well modify it and try to get a bit more performance out of it. Just curious if anyone else has thought of this idea or looked into it any deeper.

Thanks

[yodawill2000]

Ive heard many a pro here says the J's exhaust is already optimal performance wise .Maybe headers would help but the piping is good already .

[elwesso]

Hey Brandon, welcome to NICO.....

We are having a meet in Indy this weekend at FAST TIMES go karts, and will go bowling after that for some bowling and drinks..... If you come id be happy to look at your J for you... If you wanna come, call me at 765-621-8336 or email me.....

The J30 exhaust is closer to the Q45 exhaust in actuality......

[brandonjustice93J30]

Thanks for the welcome.

I may have to show up this weekend. I'll have to check and see what my fiance has planned and if I'm working Sunday or not. Even if I do I'm out of there by 2:30pm. I'll let you know.

I located my current leak, which is what brought out my curiousity to look around for exhaust parts, as well as having way too much free time at work. I just have to repair it if I can today when I'm off work.I'm open to suggestions all around for it, even just making an appearance improvement without being too obtrousive would be nice as well as any performance. I like to have my cars have at least a few subtle hints that it's mine and no one elses. I think any car person likes that to a point.

[DominickJ30]

The stock J30 manifolds are defenitely not optimal for performance.

You need equal length runners, thats what Ive seen most aftrermarket 300z headers like. The only problem is with equal length there is more pipe sticking out. I think some may fit.

If you would like to guinea pig some ebay exhaust manifolds...

I was looking to redo my whole exhaust and would mind the info.

[brandonjustice93J30]

I'll search around, see what I can find. I'll post any info too when I start the project.

[brandonjustice93J30]

http://www.stillen.com/product...03260 those are the stillen units, they look to follow tight and not stick out too far

but the ones on E-Bay look a lil further outhttp://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...QrdZ1

Not sure if I want to drop almost $600 though, with a very limited return policy pretty much

[elwesso]

I'm pretty sure we have determined the N/A Z headers wont fit on the J..... but icant say for 100%, but i remember someone saying they wont work...

[elwesso]

what I was thinking you could do is bolt a Z32 test pipe onto the J, maybe that would work???

[elwesso]

Just for comparison, hers the Z32 exhaust vs the J30 exhaust.

Z32



J30

[diamond]

just for records.anyone in the seattle area or tacoma can have headers made at stans headers kent wa.i forgot how much .probable 1200 or so.all my jeeper buddies go there to have them made.they are really good shop.spendy tho.i was there a few weeks ago they were doing a brand new catback on a z...nice work.

[brandonjustice93J30]

I think I discovered another leak after I got further into it somewhere under the heat shield right after the manifold, grrr ...looks like I'll end up taking it to a shop and seeing if they can completely replace the piping between the manifold and the cat for less than it would be to order online/find on ebay/find in a junkyard, a replacement bolt-on part.

[gr8scott72]

I have an exhuast leak on my wife's J30t and it looks like it's coming from the driver's side manifold. I think the problem you would run into with the stillen 300 zx headers is that the steering shaft coming out from the dash is pretty close to the manifold. I decided to just get a replacement manifold from the dealership for a few reasons. The first is the cost. The stillen headers are, like mentioned, around $600. Second, I didn't want to drop the cash and then them not fit. Third, it's the wife's car and while a little more performance would be nice, it's the wife's car and just not worth it.

The manifold from the dealership is sitting in the back seat of my car waiting to go in. I bought it, the gasket to go on the head, the gasket to mate to the cat-back, and 2 o-ring seals to fix the leaking p/s for a grand total of $141. I've been spraying the manifold bolts with pb plaster to make it as easy as possible when I do get around to doing it.

I'll keep everyone posted and try to take a few pictures.

[elwesso]

You can get the headres from a N/A Z pretty cheap on ebay...

[brandonjustice93J30]

mine looks to come after the manifold, somewhere under the heat shield and then a lil bit after right before the support bracket connected to the car...I'm hoping to call a couple small shops and see if they can cut it near the flange at the manifold and replace the entire pipe to the cat. I'll end up replacing both sides if it's not too much. I'd do it myself if I could get the pipe bent and my welding skills didnt suck. And actually had a place to lift it and do the work.

So far EBay's been about $150-200, but they look to stick out a lot wider than the stillens even do. I'd be happy actually to just get the leak completely fixed since like I said in my JWT post, if I do too much I'll catch hell from the fiance. Even though today she asked me what we could do to her Aztec to make it faster.

[DominickJ30]

Tell her to buy a real car first

An Infiniti of course.

[brandonjustice93J30]

if I had the extra money per month, I would have made her get an FX35, since she's into the SUV style of things right now. But she picked it out and fell in love with it, so not much of my choice. And wont let me drive it too much either (although I'd much rather drive the J30 anyday), even though I'm the one paying for it. lol

[diamond]

if it has somehting to do with the down pipes id have a shop make new one to the cats.the oem ones buzz anyway.thats what im doing.i dont got no leak but got to get that done.i wouldnt think it would cost to much inless stainless.and that 7 a foot or something,i forget,lol.

[brandonjustice93J30]

Yeah, that's the area. When my Mom owned the car she had it fixed once and the shop told her that they couldnt repair that section any further and would have to order the parts @ like $1100. I called bull**** on the shop. I just figured they were in it for the money and the easy way out for them and just didnt want to do the repair that shouldn't be over $100-200. I'm hoping to find a place less than that to replace both sides. I'm going tomorrow while my fiance's at work and I'm off work to get estimates. Hopefully I'll also get the check from the bank for the overage against the payoff on my old car I traded in for my fiances. That will fund my project.

[DominickJ30]

Supposedly there is a company that makes an aftermarket for the J30, the kit costs around 900 dollars total.

The shop was not ripping you off, they just quoted you the price on probably both manifolds and pipes etc. Stock exhaust from Infiniti is expensive.

[brandonjustice93J30]

I know they wasn't if they had to order the parts, but...they told her they couldnt repair it any further, they had to order new from the manifold to the cat if the leak came back, even though they only replaced about a 6" section on each side. They couldnt cut just the rusted part out and replace just that part with new pipe. They had to remove the old parts completely and install new factory units.

[DominickJ30]

Thats what you have to do when pipes are rusted. Its not real easy to weld onto rust, plus the weld is that much weaker.

[brandonjustice93J30]

True...I didnt think about that off hand. Should have remembered that when me and my friend were trying to weld a new muffler onto his Neon. It's on there, but was a pain trying to get the weld to start and stay.

I'm just trying to get a less expensive fix for now, even though I may have to tell the fiance she cant go shopping for a few weeks so I can fix it right. Looks like I'm going to get familiar with my couch...lol. Just kidding.