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eBay of all places. I was looking for a Y-pipe to adjoin to my Top Speed Y-back in order to completely replace my stock system. The Top Speed has a great sound for the price but I was looking to bump up the volume a tad while making it sound a bit more aggressive. As we all are aware, most of the aftermarket Y-pipes out there are either expensive due to the name attached to it, comes with poor fitment, insane drone, etc... Being a AWD owner only makes the pursuit that more difficult since there's limited options available to us vs. the RWD community.
I looked into Y-pipe vendors and keyed in on their ratings and mandrel bent pipes ONLY. The vendor I discovered offered a SS 304 mandrel bent Y-pipe option for $109.00 (free shipping) that included all the necessary gaskets, bolts and even....heat wrap and SS Zip ties! The two cat openings measure in at a hair over 2.5 and the Collector opening was a hair under 3'' coming in at 2.9''. Going into this project, the 3'' opening was on my mind given all the reports of drone that comes with a collector of that size. I figured for the price I'd take the risk and see what happens.
It took about 1.5 weeks to arrive and was packaged exceptionally well. Welds were all nicely done and had the stack of dimes around each flange and the collector area. When compared to the Stock Y-pipe, the dimensions were identical which translated into easy install (which it was). I wasn't going to wrap the pipe but decided to do so (mainly because I've never done a wrap before and wanted to see if I could do it) but decided to go ahead and do so to see if that reduced any potential drone.
I'm happy to report that I experienced barely any enhanced drone inside the car when performing a short cruise holding at 60 MPH and the RPMs hanging around the 2k-2.5k range. All in all, I'd say I achieved my goal and the exhaust sounds a lot more aggressive and has the pops and gargles I was looking for. For the price, I'm very satisfied with the quality and results of this product.
I will mention, the car was a bit sloppy when I took it out after the install. A standing throttle rev would cause hang and hesitation. I performed an ECU reset and a throttle body re-learn (to cover all my basis) and the issue cleared right up and revs returned to normal.
Mods: Might need to tailor the title...I had no idea what to call this product since it came from eBay and the seller was from Super Motor? Vendor was Auto_parts_home
Stock vs. aftermarket Cat openings Stock Cat opening @ 2.25 ID Aftermarket @ 2.5 ID 2.3 OD piping for the aftermarket pipe all the way through. This is down by the collector (seen in the back) 2.3'' OD up by the flex pipe. Upside down photo of the collector. 2.9 ID Inside photo of the collector. Hardware that came with the Pipe Pictures of my wrap job. Very satisfied with the way it turned out; especially being my first attempt. Anyone with experience will have to let me know what they think and if there's areas to improve.
Lastly, a short video of the exhaust.This is with the car warmed up and after the ECU reset. I have a video of a cold start but I'm having issues with it sending to my email due to the length. I'll try to get it up at some point.
After driving with it for a few days, the tone is definitely more pronounced with the Y-pipe. Basically takes the TopSpeed Y-Back sound and gives it a little bit deeper of a tone. The cracks and pops are also a by-product of the Y-pipe. Before, I could get them here and there but it wasn't consistent or as pronounced. You can compare the standing revs in the attached youtube video @ the 0.38 sec. mark vs. my video
On the negative side, the practically non-existent drone with the stock pipe is noticeable when loading in the 1.8k RPM range. Think going up a hill in 5th (7AT) at 40. That said, the window is very small, 1.8-2.0k, and only prevalent when in high gear and the load is too high. Drone isn't present from gears 1-4 no matter what part of the power band I'm in. In any other situation you either don't hear the exhaust at all (so it retains that feature from the stock Y pipe) or it sounds how you'd want it to sound.
Thats a great reveiw and a great deal...I grabbed a cheap y pipe from rock auto for about that price but it didn't come with any of the hardware, heat wrap or gaskets...and it came with zero packaging...rockauto literally slapped the shipping label to the metal pipe and sent it out...its been ok for a couple of years now but after a track day a year or so ago all the flanges warped and weren't sealing..I put on some extra thick gaskets and high heat RTV and it s been great since....if it fails agian I'll probably grab this deal.....be sure to update this with a long term reivew hopefully yours has no warping
Thats a great reveiw and a great deal...I grabbed a cheap y pipe from rock auto for about that price but it didn't come with any of the hardware, heat wrap or gaskets...and it came with zero packaging...rockauto literally slapped the shipping label to the metal pipe and sent it out...its been ok for a couple of years now but after a track day a year or so ago all the flanges warped and weren't sealing..I put on some extra thick gaskets and high heat RTV and it s been great since....if it fails agian I'll probably grab this deal.....be sure to update this with a long term reivew hopefully yours has no warping
So far, so good. The flanges mated pretty snug but fit to everything. I could maneuver the Y-Pipe just enough to fit the provided gaskets in. Thin coat of RTV used as an extra layer of insurance.
I'll update as I put miles on it and take pictures if I can. Very interested to see how the sound changes when Test pipes go in.
I believe thats the same Y pipe I have. I got it from ebay and the vendor was named Blackhorse Racing, which was supposedly the same brand as the Y pipe, but mine lacked the wrap. Looks the same judging from the collector. The collector is what convinced me to purchase. I wanted the merged 3inch section as short as possible. In my mind that would be less restrictive than one with like a 12 inch long 3 inch dia section. I already had z1 test pipes when I installed that Y pipe, and I experienced a real nice power improvement with it, more so than the test pipes. The down side for me was the exhaust got really raspy after this mod. Real dirty ugly sounding rasp at anything above 2k Rpms. I intend to add some wrap to my Ypipe to see if that helps, since the metal on these ebay Ypipes is pretty thin, I think the wrap might help. I changed out the rest of my catback already, and that has helped remove a lot of the rasp, but under WOT it still gets sloppy sounding. Anyways, for the price its a great deal, and better off than the restrictive stock Ypipe.
So far, so good. The flanges mated pretty snug but fit to everything. I could maneuver the Y-Pipe just enough to fit the provided gaskets in. Thin coat of RTV used as an extra layer of insurance.
I'll update as I put miles on it and take pictures if I can. Very interested to see how the sound changes when Test pipes go in.
I believe thats the same Y pipe I have. I got it from ebay and the vendor was named Blackhorse Racing, which was supposedly the same brand as the Y pipe, but mine lacked the wrap. Looks the same judging from the collector. The collector is what convinced me to purchase. I wanted the merged 3inch section as short as possible. In my mind that would be less restrictive than one with like a 12 inch long 3 inch dia section. I already had z1 test pipes when I installed that Y pipe, and I experienced a real nice power improvement with it, more so than the test pipes. The down side for me was the exhaust got really raspy after this mod. Real dirty ugly sounding rasp at anything above 2k Rpms. I intend to add some wrap to my Ypipe to see if that helps, since the metal on these ebay Ypipes is pretty thin, I think the wrap might help. I changed out the rest of my catback already, and that has helped remove a lot of the rasp, but under WOT it still gets sloppy sounding. Anyways, for the price its a great deal, and better off than the restrictive stock Ypipe.
That's odd. My tone just deepened and added a bit of drone as explained above. The metal wasn't thin and compared to the OEM pipe, I'd say it was the same thickness. Definitely didn't feel as though it weighed any less. Seller was Auto_parts_home. I'll see if I can get any sort of WOT videos to post. https://www.ebay.com/itm/173653191315
Originally Posted by ezbme
Did you get the 10 to 20 hp increase?
Lol if I did I didn't feel it. Mainly upgraded in order to wake the exhaust up a bit more and to allow it to breath better after the two 'Air' mods. Plus, tuning is coming this summer so I'm getting it all the help I can. just have testpipes to install before that and I'll basically be done with the car.
I've seen reports of cracking but to be honest, for $100, I'll roll the dice. It isn't a header so the heat isn't the same intensity as it would be coming off the engine block; and it's located on the underside of the car where airflow is plentiful. I understand why you brought it up though. Good Source.
I hear that tuning won't effect Exhaust. So you can tune or not tune but anything you do to the exhaust won't change because of tune, only mods like air intake, cams, turbo, supercharging would be need a tune.
That would mean swapping the exhaust and test pipes would be pointless but that isn't the case. The stock piping is restrictive and an upgrade to 2.25-2.5 yields measurable results. If more is coming in with breather mods you want to move more out right? Replacing the Y pipe will probably yield but 1-2hp realistically and you're right; but when the entire system is concerned, upgrading the piping from the Y back is a must if you wish to maximize HP gains. Being that I have CAIs, and a ported IM I figured I'd spend the $100 and maximize what I can get. Could be the difference between 299 and 302 whp which, doesn't mean much, but makes me happier to know what I did eclipsed 300whp.
The Ypipe oddly seems underrated as a power mod, but my rear tires would disagree as to it being a Minimal gain mod. Not saying this added 20hp for me, but I would image at least 10hp, along with possibly 10-15Lbs of tq. After adding this my rear tires would spin 2 gear while already running at 20mph like nothing. It was like an instant response of tires spinning at the second my foot flicked the gas pedal. Maybe it was a combination of the test pipes finally able to flow better since the factory y pipe is so restrictive and was just holding back the flow gained from the TPs. The collector on this ebay Ypipe is pretty much 3 inches, while the stock ypipe collector is 2.5 inches, then the upper section on the stock Y is a measly 1.75 inches compared to the ebay one at 2.5 inches. Thats a pretty significant increase in diameter I'd say. Attaching some pics of the stock one being measured. Excuse the bad pics, but its just a reference to prove how tiny that stock pipe is in comparison.
01-12-2019, 03:57 PM
