6G Celicas Forums

Since there is an exhaust thread pretty much every other day, I thought it would be good to make one for those looking to make their own custom exhaust. Many people tend to go this way because the aftermarket systems for our cars are becoming more and more difficult to find. Let's begin?

What size piping would be best for my GT/ST//GT4/etc?
This question really depends on your goals for the car, and what you do with it. My typical rule of thumb that has worked best for me, is 2.5" and below for N/A vehicles, and 3"-3.5" for turbo'd vehicles. The bigger the piping on an N/A, the more bottom end you will lose, however, you will gain better top end. Find your trade off point.

What about mufflers?
This is where it gets interesting. The muffler you use will determine how your car sounds. There are many different ones out there, and different types. You can have the traditional canisters, which you see mainly in the tuner scene, then there's the Magnaflow/Flowmaster type. Here are pictures showing each:

Canister:


Flowmaster/Magnaflow:


The difference in these mufflers comes from inside. Quality mufflers will have better construction and better quality inside baffling, which will bring out nice sound from your exhaust. Cheap mufflers like the ones you see on Ebay will use sound metallic and tacky. My personal recommendation if you choose to get a canister would be either the Megan Racing N1 replica ($70-$80 on Ebay), or the OBX B10 ($50-$60 on Ebay).

How do I get the piping?
Now here comes the fun part. After you've purchased your muffler and decided on your piping size, you get the piping itself. You can buy DIY exhaust kits online, which are fine if you know how to weld, but otherwise I recommend going to a local exhaust shop. From here, you can tell them what you're wanting out of your exhaust system, plus you can customize your muffler placement/angle, as well as the design of the piping, so that you can get the most straight piping possible for your setup. I paid $130 for 2.5" piping on my Supra, this included the piping itself, a resonator, and the labor to put everything on. You will want to get piping from the cat to the back of the car. Basically they cut the piping off from where it runs into your cat, and then weld on bigger piping. Many exhaust shops will NOT condone the removing of your cat, nor do I condone it. This brings problems with emissions, as well as state inspections, not to mention your car will sound like crap. I highly recommend getting a resonator added in with your piping to ensure a better sounding exhaust, you'll be glad you did it.

Here is my final result with my Supra:









I hope this will give you guys a better understanding on what to look for and get when wanting to get an exhaust system.

-Matt

This post has been edited by GotToyota: Aug 26, 2008 - 9:44 PM

The only one I've seen on 6GC.

Fwiw; I went to a single exhaust after my headers were installed.

Here's a link to the last few pics I had of the dual exhaust: New Exhaust Install

This post has been edited by KAOS: Apr 1, 2011 - 8:10 PM

totally gunna miss the duals

thanks for that givin me some ideas on how i wanna go about it

Alright, kind of resurrecting this, but I have a few questions that I haven't seen answers to after going through this thread.
First off, how much HP does one realistically stand to gain from installing a catback setup? Does that change if the cat is included in the upgrade? Or is this more a simple issue of finding the right sound?
I have a 7a, and I'm thinking about doing a straight-pipe 2.25" setup from the cat back without a resonator. With a good muffler, will I notice any performance increase?

It's a very small increase at that. I went from stock to after market header and down pipe, deleted cat and 2.25 piping. I'd like to say at most you will gain 7whp maybe more with a tune. The stock 7a produces so little power that it doesn't make a drastic difference, especially if you are only doing a cat back.

i did a custom 3" exhaust for my st215 with a cxracing 3" flex pipe a cxracing 3" cat 170mm hks with a 5" tip sounds pretty gud

Alright, so basically on a 7a it would be pointless to do a full exhaust from the header back? So just a catback would give the same sound effects? Would including a new cat make a difference, or could I not get much better than stock?

From a performance stand point I wouldn't even waste time doing exhaust work on a stock 7a. I'd just save to either swap or boost it THEN do exhaust. If you just want it to sound a bit more aggressive though perhaps someone can chime in since I've never heard how a catback setup sounds.

for 7a, easiest and cheapest way to gain power by exhaust is to put on an ebay header, cat delete or gut it and put it back up, and an after market muffler.... not a lot of gain, but a noticeable difference... intake helps a little too (experience talking, ive got a 7a with this done)

Hmm, well that's some good info. I guess I'll just not worry about exhaust so long as I'm packing a 7a. Eventually I'd love to throw a 3s in, but until then I won't ride around all bark and no bite; that's what makes us different from Honda guys after all.

I'm preparing to get a full exhaust, anyone know of a good system or set-up that produces well and sounds deep? I wanna keep a $500-$600 price range. Any suggestions would be much appreciated guys! Thanks.

buy the materials and have a "good" exhaust shop make it. use mandrel bends not crush bends

Check about 11 topics down. There's a dedicated topic for this with all the info you could want. Assuming you have a NA ST, you'll probably want 2.25 inch piping from the cat back with a resonator. As far as mufflers, it seems that's just a matter of preference. I happen to think a gutted cat sounds cool and race-like, but some people hate the sound.

for a custom exhaust make sure you use good resonators, aftermarket brands that offer it are vibrant and magnaflow, cus greddy for example doesn't sell it separately. if you want a quieter sound you get the oval type resonator and a longer length for example. for your muffler canister, use a good one from tanabe, apexi ws2, magnaflow, etc. they come as universal mufflers so that you can pipe it yourself or if you can get a branded one off another car like a greddy, then cut it off that and custom pipe it after with proper hangars. i would also recommend a custom downpipe since our stock ones are pea shooters, reason i say that is you are defeating the purpose of putting a 2.25 or 2.5 exhaust pipe when the stock downpipe is like 1.75. I felt a difference in sound and feel when i changed this.

and use a good pro bend instead of those lousy bends mentioned by Smaay. wish i could sell you my 5zigen catback, but it would cost a pretty penny to ship it back to the mainland.

This post has been edited by trdproven: May 14, 2011 - 1:38 AM

I'm sure you have a pretty sick set-up but yea my price range has to stay where it is. But I'm no genius about knowing what exhaust set-ups are good and what are bad. I don't want that ricer sound in the high rpm's so what muffler do you reccommend aftermarket wise? And also I need a new exhaust manifold, so I looked into a header and only found that ebay header, which is short a few inches or so hooking up to the cat pipe? What would be your ideal set-up?

I see, its a ST didn't catch that, i recall seeing pure bolt on headers before, you can't find anymore?

My ideal setup would be an ultraquiet resonator from vibrant, and for the muffler, a tanabe universal, apexi ws2 universal, or a cut off a greddy one thats not being used but then again if you could that means the greddy resonator would be there too.

If you plan to get headers, sound will change, a bit louder, sometimes raspier, cus you lose the 1st cat at the exhaust manifold when you replace it. and if yours is not a cali version celi, which has 2 cats, then that would be the only cat you have thus you have no more cats making it straight piped for the most part. Ill tell you that with a cat it sounds better but if you want better flow, remove it, kinda changing the sound a bit, but if your only for sound, the setup mentioned above will work well. it'll be deep and subtle. generic mufflers and resonators have high pitch raspiness

This post has been edited by trdproven: May 15, 2011 - 10:54 PM

First off, what do you by cutting off a greddy muffler? And I have the base 7A-FE engine in mine and so a header will make it sound louder? Is it a loud annoying sound that will take the exhaust sound away? Mainly I want a rich clean and deep sound coming off my car, I know our cars aren't the fastest but I wouldn't mind gaining a new increases from the exhaust as well. So do you suggest de-cating it or keeping the cat on? Get a new one? And yea about the header... do you know if there are more blot-on's anywhere if I decide to go that route? ALSO I def. want my muffler being angled out to the right a bit, I don't know if there is a term for this kind of muffler. I think you know what I'm talking about.

This post has been edited by CelicaST96: May 16, 2011 - 7:06 AM

No no the header make the exhaust louder. And he is talking about cutting a Greddy exhaust off of another exhaust setup. Look for the corolla header for the 7AFE it has to have a section welded on to attach to the stock exhaust but if your going with a full custom exhaust it won't matter anyway.

If it were me since your taking the cat away when you get the headers then I would add one later in the piping. Atleast that is what I plan todo. But it is your car do what you want.

Add one what? A Cat or header? And is the Corolla Header sufficient and worth the money? Will having a header make more of a "riced out" sound or will the exhaust just be louder, not annoying?

i have heard even material of the header makes a difference, cheap stainless steel won't sound as good as DC headers for example. I think he meant to add a cat later, although the cats main purpose is for emissions, it does assist with the overall sound of the exhaust.