grimreaper;1146184 said:
^ there is a reason, some of the crowd like to do their own thing, (not particualry bad or good) some like to follow and let others make mistakes. Some help set those limits most of us follow and some ignore them completly. It comes down to the owner, do you have $$$ to spare to play with different settings and tunes and plugs at higher then stock boost? Do you mind rebuilding everytime you make a mistake and a ring breaks or piston explodes? Lessons have been learned on the 7m, and Listening is cheaper
Supradj not aiming this at you.
IJ did, that's why anytime he speaks you should usually listen.
On the OP's notes...
1) I dunno where this got started, but the torque from our cars come from the TURBO. After my full exhaust was installed it spooled much earlier and torque is much lower in the powerband (I can shift a 2K RPM and I'm still accelerating faster than most other people). Personally I like the dual tip look of my exhaust, but it's personal preferance (Raptor Racing).
2) This is my personal opinion, so don't take it as a flame, but put a cat on the car. It will be louder without one. The performance gain over a testpipe is minimal. It doesn't pollute as much and you don't piss off drivers behind you. In my book there are only two reasons people run a testpipe: too cheap to buy a good cat, or are running leaded gasoline.
3) A downpipe/elbow combo just adds another joint, go with a downpipe with integrated elbow. Looks like you settled on a DDP, but I have one and if I could do it again I'd get a recirculated one because it WILL leak a bit all the time. Raptor Racing also makes a very nice one that's ceramic coated...
4) If you want any power out of the car, you need to replace the DP/elbow.
5) Stock manifold is fine.
I run OEM Denso spark plugs because I got them from the dealer for cheaper than NGK platinums. I also run OEM wires since the NGK wires where the same price but didn't come with the wire looms and the OEM wires are very well made.
I've run coppers, never noticed any difference in power or smoother idle, but they wear quicker and I don't like doing spark plugs...
On a side note, you'll probably have the boost go up after doing the exhaust, so make sure you have the headgasket is taken care of, and you might develop boost leaks from the increased pressure as well...
