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If I'm being honest I think the better option would be a good fitting stainless y pipe that does "not" drop down off of the driver header and the driver side pipe has flattened areas where needed on driver side and the pipes angles upward toward the merge to position the merge higher. The merge would then have a dual 3" in and single 4" out. I would do a 4" cutout then reduce it back to 3" to connect to the catback. I have already built that y pipe out of aluminized years ago.
This but with a 4" outlet
This and the resonator idea
Cats help with sound but so do resonators. Resonators are less than a tenth of the cost and straight through.
I like your idea. If I'm going to use that flowmaster Y, are you suggesting then to just make my own pipes that go from the headers into that Y? Sounds much better than buying a $400 Y pipe only to hack it up. Also this will ensure that the merge is positioned where it needs to be, which is before the cross member. My only other concern then is the clearance of using a 4" electric cutout in the common location on the I pipe. I wonder how much ground clearance there will be with a 4" cutout. Here's nitroused383 setup:
[QUOTE=5.7stroker;19764354]I like your idea. If I'm going to use that flowmaster Y, are you suggesting then to just make my own pipes that go from the headers into that Y? Sounds much better than buying a $400 Y pipe only to hack it up. Also this will ensure that the merge is positioned where it needs to be, which is before the cross member. My only other concern then is the clearance of using a 4" electric cutout in the common location on the I pipe. I wonder how much ground clearance there will be with a 4" cutout. Here's nitroused383 setup:
The 4" would be in the I pipe you should be able to easily clear things, most of the fitment issues come from the pipes off the header because of that stupid *** frame rail on the drivers side.
Since you already have a chopped up Y pipe use it and chop it some more. Unless you get some mandrel bent pieces and build one out of aluminized steel to keep it cheap. Most shops cannot bend pipe without squishing/crushing it so I'd buy mandrel bent pieces and weld them together. Figure out what is cheaper and run with it. Plus the flowmaster is not stainless so I'm not sure but it may be challenging to weld it to your stainless. You'll have to ask your exhaust man.
While you're jacking with the Y pipe squish it on the driver side like my Lanes duals were so you can push it up quite a bit closer to the body. You could likely do it in a vise. Mark it where that bar comes across on the driver side and squish. Not bend but squish. That way it looses no flow. The cross sectional area will remain and flow just fine
You could weld two of these together at the oval then each end of it would be the round side and stick it in the driver side where that rail is and push the whole Y pipe up higher on that side. Or squish yours for free. You could even heat your pipe up put a 6" or so long piece of 2x4 on that area and whack it with a sledge and make a nice drop down flat spot that won't hurt flow. I wish I had a better pic of what I'm talking about so it didn't sound so bad. Squishing/bending etc sound bad but the way I've seen it done works great and looks good.
Found a pic of my old setup that had better ground clearance behind the header on the driver side than anyone elses setup that I saw at the time. All the Y pipe setups I have seen since drop down and back up or just down off the driver collector and then the ground clearance is ****. There may be one out there that doesn't, I just haven't seen it.
Also I've seen a lot of people put rubber hose etc on their Y pipe in this spot to keep it off the body of the car, mine didn't need that at all. I had ground and body clearance.
Found a pic of my old setup that had better ground clearance behind the header on the driver side than anyone elses setup that I saw at the time. All the Y pipe setups I have seen since drop down and back up or just down off the driver collector and then the ground clearance is ****. There may be one out there that doesn't, I just haven't seen it.
Also I've seen a lot of people put rubber hose etc on their Y pipe in this spot to keep it off the body of the car, mine didn't need that at all. I had ground and body clearance.
Yes all pipes for these cars need that flat spot or something similar in them. With the proper tooling it can look a little better. I usually put my pipes in a vise with a block of wood and flatten the pipe out oval shape.
Yes all pipes for these cars need that flat spot or something similar in them. With the proper tooling it can look a little better. I usually put my pipes in a vise with a block of wood and flatten the pipe out oval shape.
That would work great. I kept thinking vice. The two pieces of wood was what I didn't think of.
That would work great. I kept thinking vice. The two pieces of wood was what I didn't think of.
Honestly the pipe you posted a pic of works just fine. I am certain zero power loss. Nobody is gonna see it anyway.
I will eventually buy a hydraulic press and when I do I will get a 3" I.D. section of heavy wall steel pipe to use as a die for the pipe to sit in and a flat piece of steel to use as the press to make a professional flat spot in top of the pipe to clear the under side of the car in the two areas that need to clear.
Honestly the pipe you posted a pic of works just fine. I am certain zero power loss. Nobody is gonna see it anyway.
I will eventually buy a hydraulic press and when I do I will get a 3" I.D. section of heavy wall steel pipe to use as a die for the pipe to sit in and a flat piece of steel to use as the press to make a professional flat spot in top of the pipe to clear the under side of the car in the two areas that need to clear.
The pic and the flaking black paint make it look worse than it was. It was actually nicely shaped. but I agree, it'll flow the same since it was squished down and outward, the flow area is the same just a different shape.
The pic and the flaking black paint make it look worse than it was. It was actually nicely shaped. but I agree, it'll flow the same since it was squished down and outward, the flow area is the same just a different shape.
I'll have to mock it up but it's looking like a 4" cutout even in the I-pipe won't be any more ground clearance than two 3" cutouts on the Y. If the end goal is to have the car as quiet as can be until the cutouts are open, I'm thinking that that area in the I-pipe can best be used by having cats put in there and a resonator, which you can't do if there's a cutout there and a 4" to 3" reducer.
I'm thinking basically this in stainless since the Y merge will be before the crossmember, and the indentations on the pipe are where they need to be for best clearance.
5.7, I'm going to try to straighten out this piece that came with the speed eng pipe tomorrow. Instead of dipping down where it comes off the header I'm going to attempt to make it straight then I will ovalize the pipe where it passes under the rib in the floor. Will probably also ovalize the other piece of pipe where it passes under the second rib in the floor before the merge. Dipping down off of the header it totally unacceptable.
because there is one bend in that pipe that needs to stay. The bend at the end that connects to the y pipe. Its stainless, already got bung welded in, already flared, etc...
In the pics below of the "stupid pipe" as I call it that comes with the speed engineering y pipe you can see the one bend that needs to stay because its straightens out the angle of the driver header. The other pic shows just hw much drop is on the pipe when I hold the end of the pipe that connects to the header straight. Its over an inch drop. An inch is a mile on these cars! I also have the TSP Y pipe and its close to working with the speed engineering headers but not quite. I could make it work as is but it wouldn't fit the car the way it was designed to. My suspicion is that the the end of the TSP collectors on their headers comes back a little further than the speed engineering headers because to make the TSP y pipe fit the car right I have to nearly pull the y pipe off of the headers with only 1/4 to 1/2" of the y pipe on the collectors. It looks like I need to add an inch to the driver end of the y pipe and about two inches to passenger side.
5.7, I'm going to try to straighten out this piece that came with the speed eng pipe tomorrow. Instead of dipping down where it comes off the header I'm going to attempt to make it straight then I will ovalize the pipe where it passes under the rib in the floor. Will probably also ovalize the other piece of pipe where it passes under the second rib in the floor before the merge. Dipping down off of the header it totally unacceptable.
Looking forward to seeing how well your changes fix the clearance issue.
Is the other pipe from Kooks or TSP? Did you purchase it new? Too bad it's not a direct fit to the SE headers. It doesn't look like it's oval shape on the driver side either? Do you have it on hand as a backup option if you decide to not go with the SE after making the adjustments?
11-07-2017, 07:33 AM
TSP 
