Are there any downpipes > 2" diameter?

[deevergote]

If you're doing the welding yourself, then it makes sense to try it. The only way I could see that as being unwise is if you're paying someone to do it for you!

[masospaghetti]

There we go. Good thing I'm not a welder by trade or I would be homeless and hungry. But it fits.

I had to cut part of the double-walled pipe because it had been pinched and was vibrating, hence the ugly patch before the collector. I'm going to grind down the welds and paint so it should a bit better when I'm finished.

[masospaghetti]

Any experience with Thermal Research Exhaust? They have a cat-back kit for the CB7 and looks like a legitimate manufacturer (USA-made). Shipped from Andy's Auto Sport for $499.

I like to support the home team as long as it's actually better...

http://www.andysautosport.com/produc...B123-C121.html

[deevergote]

I have no experience personally, but Thermal has a good reputation for being quality. It's a brand that I'd feel comfortable buying myself.

I'd avoid Andy's though. They're known scammers. They sent one of our old moderators a body kit for the wrong car once. Gave him a hard time about returning it, and I believe they actually made him pay return shipping! A few other members have gotten wrong parts, or no parts at all... met with awful customer service. They were also prominently listed on the Wings West website as a known distributor of knockoff Wings West parts. Too damn shady for my liking. If you do order from them, just be aware that it's a risk.

[Corweena]

Yeah.....Thermal R&D is a great brand. But their Accord stuff has been long discontinued (I contacted them a while back about it, since they are local to me). So I doubt its even in stock. I wouldn't risk ordering it, and have a hard time getting your money back with Andy's Autosport's reputation.


Because their catbacks are discontinued and now hard to find, you're probably better off just buying a muffler, and having a custom exhaust made up with it. Will end up cheaper too most likely.

[Rilas]

You can always get some KTeller piping which is already mandrel bent for our car. Pickup a resonator and a decent muffler and just have it welded up. Probably one of the best exhausts you can get for the price.

[masospaghetti]

That sucks that the system was discontinued, can't say I'm surprised though. Thanks for the tip about KTeller.

The downpipe still doesn't look great but the paint gives a big improvement.

[deevergote]

That looks much better after paint! And who cares how it looks... it's under the car. As long as it works!

Yeah.....Thermal R&D is a great brand. But their Accord stuff has been long discontinued (I contacted them a while back about it, since they are local to me). So I doubt its even in stock. I wouldn't risk ordering it, and have a hard time getting your money back with Andy's Autosport's reputation.


Because their catbacks are discontinued and now hard to find, you're probably better off just buying a muffler, and having a custom exhaust made up with it. Will end up cheaper too most likely.

If Thermal's Accord stuff has been discontinued, I wonder if this is yet another example of Andy's selling knockoff parts... I wouldn't put it past them!

You can always get some KTeller piping which is already mandrel bent for our car. Pickup a resonator and a decent muffler and just have it welded up. Probably one of the best exhausts you can get for the price.

Is KTeller still around? That was a name that got mentioned quite often around here a while ago. Haven't heard much for a few years, though. My friend has some KTeller exhaust piping. I can't recall if he installed it, or if he's waiting to do it still... but it looked like good quality stuff when he got it.

[Corweena]

Pretty sure they are. I plan on buying a kit after my swap when I step up to a 2.5" exhaust. From what I've seen, they make a great product and the bends are actually in the correct spots lol.

[masospaghetti]

I went ahead with the Yonaka catback kit, I considered the KTeller piping kit and a Thermal muffler and resonator but that involves quite a bit of extra fabrication and I lose the nice flanged connections. Maybe down the road I'll replace the muffler.

Also considered using a test pipe in place of my stock catalytic converter. But, I decided to fab up a bolt-in converter using a universal 2.25" Eastern converter and chopping the flanges off of a cheap eBay test pipe. Hopefully this exhaust will produce some noticeable gains at higher RPM.

[CyborgGT]

The build quality on my Bisimoto header was so bad that I had to have the two pieces welded together to prevent leakage

You can't blame build quality on a leaking slip joint. It's next to impossible to seal metal-on-metal when they cycle cold to extremely hot. Pretty basic science that metal expands when it gets hot and contracts again after it cools. That's why pastes have been created specifically for slip joints. Yes, there are slip joints done better than many of Bisimoto's, but none are perfect. I'm so tired of hearing this, I had to comment.

And yes, Kteller is still around. I got a stainless 3" CB kit from them a year ago. 3 inches only for the back half of the system with the sharp bends (header collector to first 90* will be 2.5"); I figure with this and some Summit Racing V-bands, I can interchange parts fairly easily down the road for either maintenance or sound experimentation. Looks/feels like quality steel, but it is heavy. That said, I'm expecting it to do a better job of containing the noise than most aftermarket cat-backs, for example, with comparable mufflers. Just be sure to look up their eBay store; the prices there are often cheaper than on their website. And as a heads-up, mine took just over two weeks to arrive.

[masospaghetti]

I have to say, if I were to do this again, I would have gotten a cheap eBay downpipe to hack up.

Finished fabricating my new converter. Here is the old and new. Yonaka exhaust comes tomorrow to complete the setup.

[wagon-r]

You can't blame build quality on a leaking slip joint. It's next to impossible to seal metal-on-metal when they cycle cold to extremely hot. Pretty basic science that metal expands when it gets hot and contracts again after it cools. That's why pastes have been created specifically for slip joints. Yes, there are slip joints done better than many of Bisimoto's, but none are perfect. I'm so tired of hearing this, I had to comment.

I completely agree. But I'm not talking about the slip joint leaking a bit. I'm talking about major misalignment. The two pieces of my Bisimoto header weren't even bent at the same angle.

[CyborgGT]

That's pretty weak. You at least get your money back?

[wagon-r]

I bought it used, so I was stuck. But at least the cost of welding plus what I paid for it was still slightly cheaper than buying a new header from Bisimoto. And the upside is that it doesn't leak at all.