Finished installing a cheap "racing" catback exhaust
 

After debating about a year I finally decided to take my chances with one of those cheap stainless steal 2.25" catback exhaust systems with the big azz frrt can hanging off the rear. All in all it installed really easy, and everything fit very well. I wasn't crazy about the look of the gutter pipe (or sewer pipe) tip, but I can't see it from the driver's seat, so who cares, really? Like the stock exhaust looked good??? Pfff!

What I did care about was the noise level. It started out ten times louder than the stock pipe, sans the rusted off rear muffler. The design of that 7 or 8 inch hollow can on the new system acts like an amplifier, and it came only with a little, simple, straight through silencer that slips into the tip. I'm sure you've all seen them. I fixed all that today. Oh, it looks the same, but...

I gathered together some basic stuff to make my own glasspacked silencer extension. I bought a $5.00 piece of 1.5" x 36" aluminized steel pipe to add to the new silencer tip. They fit together perfectly. I then cut it down to 16" to be equal to the length of the new can. Drilled about 100 1/8" holes all around the pipe staying in a 10" section, then crushed closed the front end into a four sided crimp to act as a hard baffle that would force the exhaust to go through the internals of the muffler to slow down the sound waves. Last, I wrapped a 10" x about 18" x 1/4th" thick high temperature fiberglass muffler packing around my fabricated silencer extension. After one test fitting and minor adjustment to better secure the glass I slipped it all into the shiny new fart can and attached it with the stainless steel screws and nuts that came with the new system. Somehow I hit the right combination to tune it exactly as I wanted. It still has a little growl to it but no longer sounds like one of those big 4wd diesels on a pull.

So, anyone hesitating to buy one of those aftermarket exhaust systems... as long as you are willing to do some playing with it to tune it to your own personal taste where the sound level is concerned, I can say I'm pretty happy with mine as of now. Let's see if it lasts more than a couple of years. That will be the test... but, it's a 93 Civic DX, so realistically, how many more years do I want to keep the car on the road anyway? It was well worth the roughly $130 to me to replace all that old rusty, leaky, stock crap.

-Roger

Re: Finished installing a cheap "racing" catback exhaust
 

After installing mine a weird rattle sound started. Did this happen to you?

Re: Finished installing a cheap "racing" catback exhaust
 

Something is probably vibrating more then it should. Or to close to something. A potential problem with cheaper exhaust's and them not fitting as well as OE.

Re: Finished installing a cheap "racing" catback exhaust
 

Hi Roger,
If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for the "racing" Catback Exhaust System and where did you purchase it?

Re: Finished installing a cheap "racing" catback exhaust
 

The only rattle I had was a heat shield touching that protects the gas tank. It was easy enough to make some clearance without compromising the integrity of the shield.

I bought my system from dptmotorsport off ebay for $121.98 shipped. It came with a test pipe and adapter to replace the cat if you want to go that route. I could have bought headers for $49 more, but I just don't think it would have made that much difference given that most of the restriction is in the design of the stock muffler and small pipe.

-R

Re: Finished installing a cheap "racing" catback exhaust
 

If you purchased a cheap exhaust off Ebay or online it probably needs modified somewhere along the line, as I have purchased many of these exhaust systems myself! However with that being said you need to take into consideration the size of the exhaust pipe. Most aftermarket exhaust systems found on ebay usually sell 2.5" or even 3" pipe which would effect the routing in some cases. You also need to think about suspension if you go with the bigger exhaust system with these smaller cars.