Straight Piped Exhaust vs Cat-Back Exhaust?

[theoctopussi]

pros and cons on both please - if you got em!

[LinkNuc]

I hate you guys with your straight pipes annoying the whole f'n neighborhood, why don't you just complete the the crap and put a AutoZOne Fart Tube on it!

[theoctopussi]

LMAO! is it really that much louder??! is it too ricey? I've never done it which is why I'm asking... but that was funny. haha

[Darius]

I hate you guys with your straight pipes annoying the whole f'n neighborhood, why don't you just complete the the crap and put a AutoZOne Fart Tube on it!

x10

My loser, hick, kid neighbor put straight pipes on his grand prix and it sounds like crap! It is loud and cackles like a hyena. OHC engines don't sound good without resonators/mufflers IMO.

[theoctopussi]

true very true... but will it make any hp gains? because the res and cat are not restricting too much flow just quieting the tone and cleaning the fumes...

[Darius]

well yeah straight pipe might give you a couple of hp bump MAYBE, but I don't think it is worth the sacrifice in sound over a good cat back. I'm running an Apexi GT spec 3.5" stepped up to 4" exhaust on my RB25 motor and it has a resonator on it. A properly designed catback will give you improved flow over stock AND be tuned for good sound without resonating and sounding like a can of angry steel bees.

[theoctopussi]

thanks for the informed info... I was planning on going either borla or stillen on my coupe... what do you recommend of the two or any other exhaust?

[Darius]

I have always been partial to Greddy/Trust because they don't go overboard with the loudness and most keep a fairly mild, low tone. Of the two you list, I've only heard the Borla on youtube and it's a little cackly for my taste. I've only heard good things about Stillen, but I think they're a little pricey too.

[LinkNuc]

I hear ya, I am partial to Borla I had that exhaust on my Z and Titan, a little pricey but not too loud.

[generic808]

I have always been partial to Greddy/Trust because they don't go overboard with the loudness and most keep a fairly mild, low tone. Of the two you list, I've only heard the Borla on youtube and it's a little cackly for my taste. I've only heard good things about Stillen, but I think they're a little pricey too.

HKS or GReddy would be absolutely fantastic!! Unfortunately, I don't think they'll ever make one for the new Altima's Stillen is good though, so I may have to settle for them. Or wait til Nismo comes out.

[bembol]

I went with GReddy EVOII for my '02 Acura RSX, loved it!

GReddy has no love for Altima? I would definitely pick it up again if/when I have to replace it.

To answer OP, go with Cat-Back.

[theoctopussi]

Dope... You guys really helped, I'mma go with the Stillen Axle-Back exhaust... the Borla sounds GOOD on a 3.5 though, the 2.5 I heard sounded a little honda-ish for my taste...

[Hussain]

i'm actually debating the same thing lol except if i do it, ill keep the cats on. do you have the 2.5 or 3.5? the 3.5 doesn't have any resonators BUT Nissan's cheap way of doing it was to bend the pipe a little. so i went to a muffler shop and got 2.5" cat back but kept the stock muffler (not sure what set up i'm going to go with yet) but before the guy welded the stock muffler onto the 2.5" pipe, i told him to start it up and rev it a little... OMG!!!! i was AMAZED by how good it sounded! it sounded MEAN! it sounded like a mean *** V8! it was loud BUT no where near as loud as i expected. when he had the car on but wasn't giving it any gas, i couldn't even hear the car. he said he reved it to 4000 RPM and it was pretty loud but not insanely loud. if you have CVT and just go light on the gas when you see a cop, i don't think you would get in trouble, unless he notices your tips in the back are gone lol but the down side is that the muffler shop was telling me not only is it illegal in California BUT you need a little back pressure. if you don't have any back pressure (having no muffler on it) you'll actually lose some low end torque. you'll gain HP but lose torque. so they said they only recommend it on V8's or bigger.

[theoctopussi]

I have the 2.5 6 speed... mine has that "kink" in the piping as well, but with the resonator - I'm definitely straightening the kink out when I throw on the exhaust! lol yeah the 3.5s sound like chevys straight piped unfortunately the four bangers don't.... I'm still thinking about about removing JUST the resonator with an axle back exhaust, but I'm afraid of the consequences if any (bad tone, loss in torque)

[Hussain]

i'm no expert but i don't think it would really affect your torque if you have a muffler on it. i think they were just telling me that cuz i was going to have no muffler and it was going to be hella free flowing. i took out that "kink" in the piping and it didn't really change the sound much, you could only tell if you listened for it but it did feel faster. what i'm actually thinking about doing in the future is cutting off the 3rd cat (the area where the 2 pipes go into one) and run (2) 2.5" pipes to the back and put Magnaflow mufflers. i want to have "true dual" on my car and i LOVE the sound of magnaflow mufflers! 1 of my brother's had a 93 Honda Civic CX with a (i think) 1.5L motor in it and he just took off the stock muffler and put a magnaflow muffler on it (didn't touch the cats or go 2.5" pipe) and it sounded REALLY NICE! it didn't sound ricey at all... it just wasn't very loud but thats on a 1.5L motor and stock cats and piping. later on he sold that civic and bought a 2001 GT Mustang with a 4.6L V8 and put magnaflow mufflers on that and that sounded amazing too. some magnaflow mufflers do give a ricey sound but they look different then the one he put on the civic, the one on the civic looked the same as 1 of the mufflers on the Mustang (it had "true dual"). so from 4 to 8 cylinders, magnaflow always sounded good for my brother.

[Darius]

The H-pipe or Y-pipe whatever you want to call it serves a purpose in performance. It helps scavange exhaust gases from the cylinders and since the firing order alternates sides, the H-pipe provides the connection for the pressure wave to "suck" exhaust gases out of the engine. If you delete the H-pipe from a twin bank, NA motor and it will hurt performance. Now if you decide to turbo your motor, it doesn't matter

[theoctopussi]

dope. lol you guys really help here - thanks