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My new exhaust setup with dual low profile cutouts
My car is lowered 1.5 inches which makes ground clearance important. The car also has a tunnel mount torque arm, which makes fitment issues with an exhaust even more challenging. I have SE headers because they are an amazing product with excellent ground clearance, fitment, and they are stainless. In addition, I had the following goals in mind:
-Compatibility with MWC short torque arm and 3.5 catback x member
-Compatibility with SE long tube headers
-No fuel smell from inside the cabin when cutouts are closed
-Best possible ground clearance
-Dual low profile cutouts for option to eliminate exhaust flow restrictions caused by components used to quiet the car/reduce fuel smell
-Quiet as you can possibly make a car with a cam/head/long tube setup when cutouts are closed
So what's the best way to achieve all this on a lowered car?
Why can't you put a single cutout in the intermediate pipe? Well if you do that where are you going to put your high flow cat/s? Again, the point is to remove the fuel smell WHILE having the best possible ground clearance. In the Y pipe? Well the cats are the first thing after the headers. Putting cutouts after the cats defeats the purpose of having cutouts. On top of that, you can expect 2 inches or less ground clearance under those cats if lowered 1.5". This rules out catted Y pipes with a single cutout being in the intermediate pipe. Plus with a single cutout in the intermediate pipe, you need to make a 4" merge. Good luck getting that to clear short tunnel mount X members that actually have good ground clearance. The 3" pipe is a tight fit as is. Want your car to sound quiet compared to open dual cutouts, then by all means put in a single cutout.
True duals? Not an option to hit all the goals listed above for obvious reasons. The setup barely fits and works with a Y pipe as is.
Now comes the Y pipe. I found that the TSP Y pipe works exceptionally well with the MWC 3.5 catback X member and SE headers. All I had to do was cut 1 inch off the Y pipe on each side where it mates up to the long tube headers, and this resulted in the Y merge being moved closer to the front of the car, enabling it to work with the MWC x member without rubbing. It's a very tight fit. You don't need to cut off 1 inch, but by doing so, it gives you more clearance for the Y pipe on the driver side and the Y pipe can be adjusted to not hang as low. That is the only modification that I had to do with the Y pipe is the 1 inch cuts. Why a MWC 3.5 catback x member? Because it has much better ground clearance than the MWC double drop X member. Why a MWC short torque arm? MWC that has 5 positions for adjustment of the pinion angle. The product is amazing and the customer service is amazing as well. I'm not sure how the X member ground clearance is with other short torque arm manufactures or how much adjustment other manufacturers torque arms have, but MWC had what I wanted so I bought those parts and had to make my exhaust setup work around it, which wasn't much of a work around at all thanks to TSP's excellent engineering of their Y pipe. What an amazing piece with as good of fitment as you can get, and with a set of headers that TSP doesn't even produce no less.
Once the TSP Y pipe was bolted up, we determined where the dual low profile cutouts should be welded onto the Y pipe for best clearance/flow. Everything is as tucked up as can be without touching anything while under load.
We then welded in a single Kooks high flow cat into the intermediate pipe. No more fuel smell.
Next week we will be welding in the Magnaflow 14267 and checking how quiet it makes the car with cutouts closed. If still too loud, a pair of Magnaflow 14416's will be added in also after the muffler before the CME tips. I'll update this thread with additional pics and decibel numbers once the mufflers have been installed.
Hope this helps anyone who is wanting to run a short torque arm setup with long tubes on a lowered car that also wants the flexibility provided by low profile cutouts. Low profile cutouts on the Y let you run a single cat in a location in the intermediate pipe that results in noise reduction, good ground clearance, and no fuel smell. This is the first setup I've seen that is able to hit all the goals I had. Not saying that there aren't other options, I'm sure there are.
Are you in a state that requires you to have one cat after each header? Emissions testing? Well then this exact setup will not work for you.
Parts list:
Speed Engineering LS1 Longtube Headers 1 7/8
TSP off road Y pipe
DMH dual low profile electric cutouts
Walker 54064 intermediate pipe
Kooks GE-307540 welded in intermediate pipe
Walker 53061 over the axle pipe
Magnaflow 14267, single 3" in, dual 2.5 out
CME Exhaust tips and elbows
6ldesigns valence
Walker 33272 exhaust clamps
MWC tunnel mount short torque arm
MWC 3.5 catback X member
Last edited by 5.7stroker; 03-23-2018 at 08:01 PM.
Good work man. Did you find the tsp pipe tucked almost too high where the merge is? Mine is barely missing the driveshaft.
I'll have to check and get more pics. I know all clearances were tight on the body but nothing rubs. I believe you extended yours, but with the MWC X member that I have, to get best clearance possible I had to bring it up closer to the headers by cutting 1" off each side. I am running a UMI k-member which is supposed to keep the height of the collectors the same as a factory K.
Today we installed the Magnaflow 14267 and a pair of Magnaflow 14416's. The car dropped from 70 db at idle in the cabin to 67 db at idle. The 70 db at idle had a Dynomax Ultra Flo 17227. To put this into perspective, going from a pair of 12" subwoofer to a single 12" sub is about a 3 db difference on average.
Today we installed the Magnaflow 14267 and a pair of Magnaflow 14416's. The car dropped from 70 db at idle in the cabin to 67 db at idle. The 70 db at idle had a Dynomax Ultra Flo 17227. To put this into perspective, going from a pair of 12" subwoofer to a single 12" sub is about a 3 db difference on average.
Damn bro, you are hell with that MIG! Looks like it was welded by machine!
I have a Strange S60 sitting in my garage waiting to go in the car and my first thoughts is holy crap when the car is jacked up with the rear hanging that the shocks, lca's, etc. are hanging on for dear life!
What’s different about the TSP y that you used it instead of the SE?
The TSP worked with my MWC 3.5" catback crossmember and the SE engineering did not. MWC 3.5 is one of the best cross members for ground clearance. I'm running a short torque arm. The TSP is oval on the driver side just after the collector and has better clearance. However It's not polished stainless like the SE.
The TSP worked with my MWC 3.5" catback crossmember and the SE engineering did not. MWC 3.5 is one of the best cross members for ground clearance. I'm running a short torque arm. The TSP is oval on the driver side just after the collector and has better clearance. However It's not polished stainless like the SE.
Thanks for the info. I see you cut off an inch, but does the TSP y fit SE headers without modification?
Thanks for the info. I see you cut off an inch, but does the TSP y fit SE headers without modification?
I have SE headers with TSP y pipe and I added an inch. I will try and illustrate with 5.7's pics why I added an inch
The area of the underside of the car on driver side just past the cutout is clearanced for the y pipe. As you can see from 5.7's car the y pipe is not positioned in the center of that notch in the subframe. It needs to come back to sit right with the car. Now I understand why 5.7 shortened his because he was trying to get his merge where he wanted it.
If you have the skills its best to buy a good merge and build your own. Thats what I have always done in the past and probably what I will end up doing again at some point.
Last edited by Full-Force; 04-15-2018 at 10:21 PM.
That is correct. If I would have pushed the Y pipe closer to the rear of the car, the merge wouldn't clear the MWC crossmember. It's still good clearance, even in the position that I have it in. That being said, I think a TSP Y pipe with SE headers would work with a long torque arm without any issues. It's when you go to the short arm that it makes the fitment more challenging due to the placement of the x member. Once all this rain clears, I can get a sound clip.
03-23-2018, 07:52 PM
My new exhaust setup with dual low profile cutouts 
