[s-cars] About exhausts

[chad clark]

Rolf, since I have been down the exhaust 'ghetto mod' road before, I'll post
my findings. This was all performed on a stock exhaust system. First I
deleted the cats with 'euro pipes'. Boost seemed to come on a bit sooner,
maybe 200rpm sooner with really no perceptible sound difference(not louder)

Next I deleted just the center resonator(the box just aft the cats) This
gave the car a bit of a deeper tone only on boost, definitely not intrusive
to passenger and driver alike, and again no real difference in decibel level
from stock at idle. Boost response didn't seem to get any better with this
mod. But, after listening to the car from video taken at Steamboat in '01, I
realized that the car sounded anemic, not the throaty 5 banger sound I was
looking for. Sounded like an Audi truck motor=not cool:-(

The last phase and my current setup, I have gone to a 2 1/4" dual pipe-cat-
bypass(just a bit larger than stock pipe diameter) to a Y junction, 3" cat
back system with one magnaflow rear muffler. Car sounds exactly the way I
want it to, nice deep tone, definitely a bit louder at idle, feels like I
may have picked up another 100-200 rpm reduction in boost response. System
will resonate only between 2500-2600rpm, nothing too loud as it still passes
the wife test:-) 

Now before I receive the expected response from listers asking why I haven't
just slipped down the Stromung slope for all the effort and $$$ spent on
this mod, it's because I have had friends with excellent welding experience
help with all three stages of these mods, costing less than half of the
Stromung system. Do I or would I like a full SS 3" Stromung system? Hell
yes. I've driven so many of the Stromung equipped Ur-S cars and love the
sound. It's a bit deeper and even more refined sound than my current setup
and I realize that my stock downpipe may also be a limiting factor, not to
mention many other benefits of the full stromung system, ie SS, fit and
finish. But for now, it gives me the sound I was looking for, price was
definitely right, and seems to have given me a lower boost threshold which,
in Colorado, you need all the help you can get.

So, IMHO, have your local exhaust shop build you a 3" cat back system for
less than half the price of the Stromung. Otherwise, just slip your way to
the full 3" SS Stromung.  HTH,

Chad 



on 2/27/04 7:11 PM, R. Mair at waves at comcast.net wrote:

> My 94 S4 has the stock exhaust system and i've been eyeing it up for a
> change. I don't intend to go nuts on this car, id like to leave it with just
> a chip and filter. Has anyone simply deleted the stock center muffler on
> this car and what was the result? For $35 i can have  the local muffler shop
> remove it and install a pipe. Just wondering if it gets too noisy. I'm sure
> the turbo would appreciate the less restriction too. Your thoughts??
> 
> Rolf
> 
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