After writing a 70 plus thousand dollar check for my TT I didn't really want to drop another 5k into a Europipe right away.
I had my mechanic put an extension on his drill and go to town

Went straight in and drilled a pilot hole then augered out the hole to about 1 inch dia. each side.

I told him that if we f it up we'll just be installing the Europipe a little sooner than I had hoped.

Sounds pretty damn good!

Way better than stock and better than some aftermarket exhausts I've heard.

There are no hp gains to speak of but I couldn't handle the quiet for another minute.

 

Hmm is this a bad idea...possible lost power? Im curious about this idea, stock exhaust is SO quiet... you say it sounds good now?

What if any are the downsides to this experiment?

 

I had Hergeshimer (sp?) in Orange Co do this to my 01 Cab stock exhaust and the sound was great.

 

You mean you drilled out the centre of the Cats ?

 

[cringe] I think they just punched a 1" dia hole in each side.

Um, bet it sounds... different...

 

I think it may be a super idea....and fully support it. Pending a dyno run, I think he may have done something super. It will not be as good as a pure aftermarket option, but if it avoids any power loss and gives great sound, it is a winner. If any power is added or turbo spool up is sooner, it is just amazing.

Thank you for sharing. I for one also don't want to drop 5k on an exhaust right now after having the car only 6m, althought the EP's are amazing units of the highest quality I have ever seen. Someday I will get an EP. I just wish they had a "junior varsity" version for 1500$. :-)


jcb-memphis

 

what about the hot exhaust gasses going back up into the engine compartment especially at a standstill. Could this be a problem?

 

Pictures of the actual result (holes)? Why was an extension needed for the drill? Do you just mean an extension cord?

In addition to the heat issue covered above, would this action encorage rust and corrosion to begin at the edges of the holes? What about gases seeping into the passenger compartment?

If these items are non-issues - I'm there!

 

The thing is stainless....so rust should not be an issue (am I right?).....


Gas: if it points out back and/or down...should not be an issue either. I have seen people do this with NA racing cars.....I suppose one could just weld a pipe to the hole site and such....or some sort of air wall to help the gases move out. Once could put another heat shield in place too.....cheap and easy...if needed.

Anyway, it is a brilliant move in my mind if it works. Not everyone with one of these cars wants to spend 3-5k on stainless pipes.


JB

 

I posted a sound clip to JCB and he likes it.

tw

I can send it via e mail if you pm me.
I have a crappy video cam but you can get a good idea of the sound. I don't notice any drone. I just got back from an 8oo mi round trip up to Laguna Seca for a race and didn't really find any issues.
again, as noted this is not in the same leauge as Europipe or something but it satisfies the need for decent sound for no money untill you decide on something that is designed for h.p. gains.

 

If you want the same effect, but gain HP, have a muffler shop remove the internal baffles.....as Borat says........"Nice"

 

I hear you on this point....but to drill holes.....this is just fast and cheap. I might be able to do it alone myself....

People have told me to open and close the stock unit....about 500 dollars minimum, a tough bit of work, and drone. It is possible that this makes no drone too. It also might give HP, we just don't know.

Fast, cheap, and per report no drone. I liked the video I heard a lot. It actually sounds a little like an AWE to my ears.....just on the video, so who knows what it would sound like in real life. If you stop and think, this adds a new tunnel to things rather than opening up a path wider....he may have just lucked into an amazing trick. It comes down to a dyno evaluation. My guess is a good tuner and 20 minutes......


Stock car.

Dyno it at stock ecu and perhaps 1.0 bar.

Drill holes.

Repeat dyno run(s).

Compare curves.

Sponsors here would not have to worry...I would go and spend on body kits and suspension that much sooner (perhaps even hybrid turbos....my dream is K16/24 ZC hybrids....eventually......

Anyway, you have to love stuff like this. It brings me back to the day of "tighten this one spring and you get 54 more HP and 29ftlbs more torque......just plain easy and fun HP. I hope it works.




JB

 

If you take some pics of where you drilled to get the good sound, I will try it this weekend and dyno it on a Dynojet that I have in our shop. My car is in need of an exhaust mod also. So far I just installed Bailey DV and an UMW ecu upgrade (Kevin was great to work with so far, will be working more with his upgrades in the future) My car is boosting at 1.1 bar now, and still has stock exhaust. I was going to work on building my own exhaust as I have access to the right equipment and have built some in the past for other cars of mine. I will try the hole drilling mod first on the stock muffler and dyno it.

I dynoed the car stock before I added the UMW upgrade and was going to dyno this weekend anyway to see the changes. I have already disconnected my front driveshaft and left it that way for now to test future upgrades. I have been dynoing cars for about 6 years so I will be careful also to make sure the conditions are repeatable as possible with fans on both intercoolers etc. I wll do several runs with about 5 min of cool down between and show several runs, not just one that happened to be the highest.

It's my personal car so I won't do it half-assed but I won't mind if it ends up messing up my muffler either (can always weld it back shut...)

 

isn't the ruf exhaust a modified version of the oem one

 

Yes, with a single 100 cell cat...