Straight Pipe vs E-cutout

[JdsCoupe]

So I want to change up my exhaust setup to get a more aggressive tone out of it. I live in NJ and have to deal with the emission laws during inspection. Obviously if I straight pipe I'll have to buy a sticker, but besides inspection, would a cop be able to give me a ticket for it based off of the sound alone? Can a cop pull me over and look underneath the car? Would there be any difference in tone between straight piping or going with an e-cutout? Would the performance gains vary at all? Any help is appreciated!

Thanks

[Hussain]

I've done both. On a 100% stock 2008 3.5se CVT I ran a 13.912 with my exhaust unbolted (straight pipped) and as far as I know, that's still the fastest 1/4 mile time for any altima coupe (except the Turbo guys). so the gains are there... If you go with the E-cutout, dont get one from QTP, mine was pure crap. It would frequently get stuck open... I also ran into ground clearance issues because I put mine before the cat and not much room their (I'm also riding on Eibach pro-kit springs). If you got a Racingline Y-pipe which deletes the cat, you can move the cut-out any where and wont have the ground clearance issues. But try and find one better than the QTP one.

outside rev:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihzZV5Yb ... g&index=21
Inside driving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6NSkrm- ... QkCn0vofLg


straight piped would be easier BUT the car gets REALLY LOUD! you'll hate yourself everyday you drive it, unless you're hauling a** everyday and then you'll love it. I had a bad experience with my E-cutout but that does seem like a better option if you can find a high quality one and solve the ground clearance issues. here are some straight piped videos... the audio cuts out a little because it's so loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwqGVlvX ... Lg&index=5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjlBVoq ... Lg&index=4

[JdsCoupe]

Thanks for the input. When you unbolted your exhaust, was that before all your cats or just the last 1 that the RL ypipe deletes?

[Hussain]

sorry, I forgot to specify. When I unbolted my exhaust and ran that 13.9, it was after all the cats. I now have a racingline Y-pipe and have noticed a huge difference with the exhaust bolted up. makes me wonder what a stock 3.5 with a Y-pipe and exhaust unbolted could do.

[JdsCoupe]

You're saying the car feels quicker with the rl ypipe than when u ran the 13.9 with your exhaust unbolted?
If I were to just straight pipe it after the first two cats wouldn't it have the same effect as the RL ypipe? I'm currently running a 3 inch cat back leading to a 2.5 inlet muffler. Do you think running a 3 inch straight pipe would be too large and hurt performance? I'm tryin to decide between 2.5 and 3 inches.

[JdsCoupe]

Also, to the nj coupers out there, anyone know of a shop that sells inspection stickers?

[Hussain]

You're saying the car feels quicker with the rl ypipe than when u ran the 13.9 with your exhaust unbolted?
If I were to just straight pipe it after the first two cats wouldn't it have the same effect as the RL ypipe? I'm currently running a 3 inch cat back leading to a 2.5 inlet muffler. Do you think running a 3 inch straight pipe would be too large and hurt performance? I'm tryin to decide between 2.5 and 3 inches.

we only have 1 cat on our cars, the other 2 are pre-cats. when I unbolted my exhaust and ran that 13.9 it was AFTER the cat. So if someone had a racingline y-pipe (which deletes the cat) and unbolted their exhaust, they would probably run faster than a 13.9 (assuming they had the same weather conditions and altitude as when I ran my 13.9).

you could straight pipe it after the pre-cats but their isn't a lot of room there and I'm told you would also have to buy flex pipes (unless you used the stock ones) which would make the price similar to the RL y-pipe. I used to think the RL y-pipe was over priced and over rated so a while back I had a shop replace the flat part of the Y-pipe with 3" piping and delete the cat. I lost low end power. I later added the cat onto the y-pipe and gained SOME low end power back. I finally just bought a RL Y-pipe and I had huge gains down low and huge gains up high.... long story short, the RL Y-pipe works really well, I've had my cat taken off, I've had 3" piping, but nothing worked as well as the RL Y-pipe in that area.... for the rest of my car I've always ran 2.5" piping. so I think to make the car fastest, you'd buy a RL Y-pipe and then do 2.5" or 3" back. Going 3" will probably make you lose some low end power. but the gains may be worth it since I was able to get a really good time with no exhaust at all. only worth it for the track IMO.

sorry to make this so long, I've had a bunch of exhaust set-ups on my car and I'm still not even done lol