FI has you covered there for the X. I had their CBE on my 2011 G37xS. Don't get me wrong, Ark has a great system!

 

If you look closely, you'll see it's really ugly, befitting the Frankenstein moniker, and not quite finished...
I'm going to prep it well when it is finished and carefully paint it with red, high-temp enamel, then maybe wrap parts with that fabric-looking header/exhaust wrap...QUESTION: My son's 2010 G37 has Berk HFC's and Invidia Q300 & sounds so much better than my 2013 G37xS right now, with Megan headers, Kinetix HFC's and Invidia Q300 exhaust... if I pop for Berk HFC's and swap them out with the Kinetix, will that make a noticeable difference? The '10 is eargasmic. The '13 isn't yet.

I still plan plan on finishing the Frankenstein exhaust out of curiousity and determination. If the Berk/Kinetix swap sounds good, I may sell the Frankenstein to the highest bidder; but, not without sound clips...

Frank

 

Strange, my second exhaust set-up was Berk HFC and Invidia cat back and it was absolutely awful on my car (first set-up was FI exhaust with the Berks... also too much drone)... tons of rasp and lots of freeway droning. I ended up selling the Berks and putting the OEM cats back in which helped a lot, but ultimately still had too much drone for me. I then Frankensteined up the Invidia and combined it with a Tanabe axle back and that was the near perfect set-up on my car but still a bit too loud. I now have Tanabe Y-Pipe and OEM resonated mid-pipe with the Tanabe axle back and now its a bit too quiet. That eargasmic noise seems to be very evasive on my car, so hopefully you have better luck.

 

Keep up the good work Frank. I'm looking forward to that exhaust clip.

 

That x pipe should actually change the sound a bit. Is that the only change you are making? I don't think it will be all that noticeable

 

This looks like a big change to me.
We shall see!

 

Not to take away from the interesting and creative efforts that Frank is doing here, but this was intended to be a clearinghouse of exhaust information... not Frank's personal Frankenstein thread. He didn't just completely ***** it up with comments, because hey, we all do that from time to time. Instead he whored this thread with personally directed content over the last five months, and took effective ownership.

Now I'm no moderator here, and this thread isn't my lawn... but after a while doesn't stuff like this warrant some clean up?

 

I'll post a sound clip when all is said and done.

Clean on.

Frank

It is sort of finished. Plugged all the leaks yesterday, now the heat shield is rattling.

Here are two unedited clips:

(before I plugged the leaks)

(after... but now the heat shield rattles...)

It's a start to the finish...

 

I did basically the same thing and all it did was smooth out the upper rpm sound. I installed shorter resonators and got a little more growl from that.

What if a mod created an exhaust thread just for his build and then cut/paste our comments over to it to clear this thread?

 

Personally dont mind it. Still fitting of this thread. Its an exhaust option some DIY members might find attractive. While it can easily survive as its own thread, Its still sort of relevant stuff

 

Definitely relevant.
All the information posted will help the other owners that want to refine the sound of their exhaust.

 

Can't wait!

 

I agree. Everything Frank is posting is exhaust related so I feel it is all relevant to this thread. No need for cleaning by a moderator IMO.

 

Close to finishing the MeganVidiaManzo mashup... some holes to patch... from pits to larger defects to fill in. Then I can bolt it up, fire it up, video, and post clip.

In the meantime, I ordered Berk HFCs because my sons '10 sounds soooo much better than my '13... and both have Invidia Q300 CBE; mine have Kinetix HFCs, his has Berk, and mine has Megan headers, which I doubt are responsible for the relative sedate, way less sexy exhaust note in mine. I'll post clips... ordered 4 days ago from moddiction.com. Today they said they contacted Berk and fulfillment was 2-3 weeks out...

Frank

 

Guessing Motordyne still holds the throne for the best catback! I want one, but i don't know if i want to pay 1800 for a set of pipes, lol.