Want to beef up my V8
Discussion
Basically i want to make my CLK55 AMG sound like a V8 should.
Ive done a bit of research and it appears the americans seem to remove the secondary cats and middle silencer, I've had a look at some youtube clips and they do sound awesome, but its hard to tell just how loud it will be? i don't want it excessively loud at idle or when cruising, but to sound like thunder when i put my foot down
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-uDk9QF0XU )
Do we think this will be too loud with both removed?
Ive had a quote from power flow who would do it for £160. But I'm on holiday in a few weeks and it would give me something to do myself, but probably won't save a lot of cash my the time i add up the materials.
Ive had a look under and it looks like this:
The pipe diameter up to the resonator is 2.5" and 3" out to the back box.
So I'm thinking i could cut just before the cats, Cut Just after the resonator. Then it should be a nice straight run between the 2. Fit a 2.5" into 3" Y pipe somewhere along there. and weld it all up.
I think that is Mild steel used? So no point using Stainless steel?
So what do you think guys? Do i have a go at this?
Cheers
Ive done a bit of research and it appears the americans seem to remove the secondary cats and middle silencer, I've had a look at some youtube clips and they do sound awesome, but its hard to tell just how loud it will be? i don't want it excessively loud at idle or when cruising, but to sound like thunder when i put my foot down
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-uDk9QF0XU )Do we think this will be too loud with both removed?
Ive had a quote from power flow who would do it for £160. But I'm on holiday in a few weeks and it would give me something to do myself, but probably won't save a lot of cash my the time i add up the materials.
Ive had a look under and it looks like this:
The pipe diameter up to the resonator is 2.5" and 3" out to the back box.
So I'm thinking i could cut just before the cats, Cut Just after the resonator. Then it should be a nice straight run between the 2. Fit a 2.5" into 3" Y pipe somewhere along there. and weld it all up.
I think that is Mild steel used? So no point using Stainless steel?
So what do you think guys? Do i have a go at this?
Cheers
Given the legality and warning light concerns raised by cat removal on a modern car (anything post-1990ish) I would start by taking the rear silencer boxes off. Run it up the road like that (assuming the rest of the system is secure on its hangers) and see if you like the sound. Then it should be simple to fabricate some tail pipes to replace it.
Personally I would never cut the factory exhaust (unless it was knackered or cheap to replace!) as you may want to return to standard if you ever sell up, or get tired of waking the neighbours on your early Sunday morning drives. Any bits you replace should start and end at a flange or slip-joint
Personally I would never cut the factory exhaust (unless it was knackered or cheap to replace!) as you may want to return to standard if you ever sell up, or get tired of waking the neighbours on your early Sunday morning drives. Any bits you replace should start and end at a flange or slip-joint
It is only the secondary cats i intend to remove, so there are still the primary cats. i would think this should surely be enough to pass emissions for a 2001 car?
Also the lambda is before the secondary cats so i don't think this should effect things after it should it?
Oh and I'm reasonably handy with a welder, so will keep the boxes and could always weld them back in.
Also the lambda is before the secondary cats so i don't think this should effect things after it should it?
Oh and I'm reasonably handy with a welder, so will keep the boxes and could always weld them back in.
I would do nothing that affects the road compliance personally which excessively loud exhausts will. Could be a remap would improve power or if you really want an increase supercharging would do it. You may find it better to buy a modified car.
Removing exhausts will make it louder (and unroadworthy) but ime unless you remap the system will probably reduce and not increase the actual power.
Removing exhausts will make it louder (and unroadworthy) but ime unless you remap the system will probably reduce and not increase the actual power.
Steffan said:
I would do nothing that affects the road compliance personally which excessively loud exhausts will. Could be a remap would improve power or if you really want an increase supercharging would do it. You may find it better to buy a modified car.
Removing exhausts will make it louder (and unroadworthy) but ime unless you remap the system will probably reduce and not increase the actual power.
If op is anything like i was, he will be doing it for the noise not the power.Removing exhausts will make it louder (and unroadworthy) but ime unless you remap the system will probably reduce and not increase the actual power.
I removed the secondary cats on my CLK500 (mainly because one had broken and I didn't want to pay £1k+ for a new exhaust. It made it rumble like a v8 should, but it was no more intrusive than with the cats in place. It still passed all MOT's and the emissions were fine. However, this was before the new MOT laws.
Dodsy said:
Removing the cats may give you MOT issues, and depending where the lambdas are it could throw a fault light on the dash. Maybe just lose the silencer and see how it sounds ?
Surely the best solution if you're that worried about the noise?Lop the back boxes off, fire it up see what happens? You might not even need to do any welding.
Benbay001 said:
Steffan said:
I would do nothing that affects the road compliance personally which excessively loud exhausts will. Could be a remap would improve power or if you really want an increase supercharging would do it. You may find it better to buy a modified car.
Removing exhausts will make it louder (and unroadworthy) but ime unless you remap the system will probably reduce and not increase the actual power.
If op is anything like i was, he will be doing it for the noise not the power.Removing exhausts will make it louder (and unroadworthy) but ime unless you remap the system will probably reduce and not increase the actual power.
, and from what I've read i may actually loose a bit of low down power due to lack of back pressure?JoshyS said:
Surely the best solution if you're that worried about the noise?
Lop the back boxes off, fire it up see what happens? You might not even need to do any welding.
Except then you'll have exhaust gas venting underneath the back of the car. I'd be surprised if there is not something in the MOT about that, not an issue when you are driving, but I wouldn't want to be stuck in a traffic jam with hot exhaust gas accumulating under the back of my car.Lop the back boxes off, fire it up see what happens? You might not even need to do any welding.
Loud exhausts on a V8 are great.
For about 10 minutes
By that I mean that sometimes you want to hoon about like the good ol' Duke boys but it's also nice to be able to cruise the motorways for hours with it all nice and stock (quiet)or turn up somewhere without looking like a massive t
t.
If you are just after the noise and handy with the old welder as you say, have you considered fitting electric exhaust cut outs?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rCT5FfwBl0
Noise when you want it and leaves all the cats on for emissions/MOT purposes.
For about 10 minutes
By that I mean that sometimes you want to hoon about like the good ol' Duke boys but it's also nice to be able to cruise the motorways for hours with it all nice and stock (quiet)or turn up somewhere without looking like a massive t
t.If you are just after the noise and handy with the old welder as you say, have you considered fitting electric exhaust cut outs?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rCT5FfwBl0
Noise when you want it and leaves all the cats on for emissions/MOT purposes.
Mastodon2 said:
JoshyS said:
Surely the best solution if you're that worried about the noise?
Lop the back boxes off, fire it up see what happens? You might not even need to do any welding.
Except then you'll have exhaust gas venting underneath the back of the car. I'd be surprised if there is not something in the MOT about that, not an issue when you are driving, but I wouldn't want to be stuck in a traffic jam with hot exhaust gas accumulating under the back of my car.Lop the back boxes off, fire it up see what happens? You might not even need to do any welding.
I had a w210 e55 AMG a few years back. All the mods were done by the previous owner (cost a fortune to get even 30bhp extra!!!)
Exhaust mods were a Magnaflow system and X pipe. This sounded lovely with these alone, I wanted it a little louder so looked into deleting 2 of the cats (has 4!!) but got advised against that by someone who'd done it as his now sounded like an old '60's/70's yank muscle car! If it was my second car I'd have gone for it but not as a daily
Other mods to get more oomph were a sprint booster, and custom remap which gave 381bhp & 429ft/lbs. went pretty well
Also tried out a couple different air filters but went back to the normal MANN drop in ones as these were better.
If you've noticed the performance has dropped try swapping the MAF out as this made a huge difference to mine. My 0-60 kept getting worst after trying some K & N panel filters and ended up around 8 secods!! New MAF (genuine Bosch not cheap ebay job) new standard filters and took it instantly back to 5.3 and quarter mile was 13.3s so happy with that!
Other mods I looked at was headers and a pulley kit from AMS in the states but ended up selling the car when I lost my job
Exhaust mods were a Magnaflow system and X pipe. This sounded lovely with these alone, I wanted it a little louder so looked into deleting 2 of the cats (has 4!!) but got advised against that by someone who'd done it as his now sounded like an old '60's/70's yank muscle car! If it was my second car I'd have gone for it but not as a daily
Other mods to get more oomph were a sprint booster, and custom remap which gave 381bhp & 429ft/lbs. went pretty well
Also tried out a couple different air filters but went back to the normal MANN drop in ones as these were better.
If you've noticed the performance has dropped try swapping the MAF out as this made a huge difference to mine. My 0-60 kept getting worst after trying some K & N panel filters and ended up around 8 secods!! New MAF (genuine Bosch not cheap ebay job) new standard filters and took it instantly back to 5.3
and quarter mile was 13.3s so happy with that!Other mods I looked at was headers and a pulley kit from AMS in the states but ended up selling the car when I lost my job
I did something similar to my E39 540i, had the rear silencer replaced with a straight through Powerflow pipe.
Before: http://youtu.be/Vp2FrzOqMbY
After: http://youtu.be/mFD27iz4LrU
The sound was much improved without becoming a pain. The noise insulation on the 540 is almost too effective and you have to have the windows down to hear the best of it. You do see pedestrians looking around for the sports car as this normal looking estate rumbles by!
Before: http://youtu.be/Vp2FrzOqMbY
After: http://youtu.be/mFD27iz4LrU
The sound was much improved without becoming a pain. The noise insulation on the 540 is almost too effective and you have to have the windows down to hear the best of it. You do see pedestrians looking around for the sports car as this normal looking estate rumbles by!
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