My new 2.25" exhaust system

[Gregg86DX]

This is the full 2.25" exhaust I custom made. It starts at the down pipe and goes through a stainless flex coupler into a Magnaflow high-flow cat, resonator and back to a stainless dual tip. All bends are mandrel and made from 2 90 degree elbows and 4 45 degree elbows and a about 1 foot of straight pipe.

It took most of a weekend to get it all fabricated, but I am pretty happy with the results. The sound is good, strong but not raspy. It may be a bit too loud for my taste, but I need to drive it for a while. It definitely freed up some power and I can feel a noticable difference past about 3000 rpm. It's a much better match for my B20A than the stock system!

[A20A1]

Really nice.... I gotta set up a new 2.5 for my ride... I'm tired of sucking up exhaust fumes cause my muffler is right under the passenger seat.

[SteveDX89]

Damn dude. That looks real good. Nice work.

[zero.counter]

I have to congratulate you on an awesome job! It looks very professional and once again, awesome. What type of welder did you use?

[i.c.]

that whole car is hawt...

[Gregg86DX]

I have to congratulate you on an awesome job! It looks very professional and once again, awesome. What type of welder did you use?

It's a Lincoln SP100 MIG setup using straight CO2 and .030 wire.

[NXRacer]

looks damn good. Thats very encouraging. Justin just bought a pipe bender and we're gonna (try to) do that same thing. hopefully i'll be getting rid of my pea shooter soon.

[danronian]

Nice looking car. Your new exhaust makes me jealous that I can't weld myself. Oh how I hate leaking exhaust clamps!

[Hash_man_Se_i]

Looks awesome... I must say those welds look really good, and i'm amazed at the end result. Mad props.

[88Accord-DX]

That looks real good. Looks like you got some welding experience there by looking at them welds. Hopefully Justin gots the time to make some stuff for eveyone looking into a bigger exhaust flow. More flow=more H.P.

[adams86lxi]

damn dude good job!!!

[SavageG]

Did you lay it out from the old exhaust? Any problems with fitup or installation? I think I will make myself one out of stainless soon.

[PortugalFocus]

In-Freaking-Credible man....... That looks great.

[Gregg86DX]

Did you lay it out from the old exhaust? Any problems with fitup or installation? I think I will make myself one out of stainless soon.

I didn't really use the old exhaust for reference, just general guideines for where the hangers would need to be, but mostly it was a lot of test fitting. I started with the center section of just the cat and the resonator and once they were welded together, I loosely hung them with the center hanger. Then I made the down pipe and flex pipe. I left one end of the flex pipe loose with just a slip fit. After I was able to bolt the down pipe to the cat, I started working my way back through the 2 90 degree bends and back to where the hanger is behind the wheel (wheelwell hanger). Again, I left a slip fit on the joint between the resonator and first elbow so I could move things around.

It definitely involved some trial and error, for example, the first time I mounted the rear hanger, I was not happy with the way it was hanging, so I had to grind the welds off and redo it. This is why you don't do the final welding until you're sure you're sure it all fits. I tack-welded everything first, then went back and finished the welds later. This would also allow me to tack weld stuff while it was on the car, then pull it off and weld it on a bench, where it is much easier.

After I had pipe back to the wheelwell hanger, I welded the hangers on to the muffler tip and got it hung where I wanted. I had to use some wire to hold one end to keep it in place. This left about a 2 foot secttion that had to be filled from the tail pipe to the muffler. At this point, I went back and made sure I was happy with the way the pipes were hanging and I welded the remaining slip joints. This way, the exhaust system was firmly in place and I could connect it to the muffler and not worry about it moving the tip around.

Then I fabricated the last section of pipe to the muffler. This section is a bit tricky since it angles under and around the rear control arm, but it was not too bad. I left the final slip joint from the pipe to muffler unwelded and used a clamp. This allows me to do any final tweaking of the muffler tip if anything moves around.

So in summary, I used 2 90 degree mandrel bends and 4 45 degree mandrel bends. The 90's were welded up almost untouched, but I cut some of the 45's across the bend to make some different angles. that's how I made the "S" curve in the down pipe and the funny angles under the rear suspension.

In the end, it turned out well. It does not rub and the ground clearance is good. Despite using the big resonator, it's still pretty loud. It has a bit of a "drone" sound around 2500 rpm that I don't care for, but it's not too bad. It sounds real nice pulling up to 6000 rpm and actually seems to get a bit quieter (although it's still plenty loud).

Since you are in Portland, if you want to get together and chat about it or look at my setup, just let me know.

Gregg

[Justin86]

So what was the total price for all the piping?

[Robs89LXi]

Looks really good. Nice job.

[Gregg86DX]

So what was the total price for all the piping?

Here are links to the big parts:
http://www.completeexhaust.com/prod...products_id=407
http://www.completeexhaust.com/prod...products_id=308
http://www.completeexhaust.com/prod...products_id=106
http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/P...X/appId-461392

Some links to the mandrel bends:
http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/P...X/appId-384792
http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/P...X/appId-385193

and plenty of pipe:
http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/P...X/appId-385554

Gregg

[HondaBoy]

that looks nice. looks like you put some good work into that. sounds like it paid off. A20A1, how about a side dump right infront of the rear tire? maybe on both sides. i dunno, i think that would fit your car. kinda old school or something.

[truetune]

Great job. your Accord looks great.


no thats how you do an exhuast job.