Magnaflow Exhaust

[Schmidtty_boy]

Hello everyone! I have talked to magnaflow a couple times now on exhaust kits for our beloved hondas. They continue to tell me there is not enough demand... as in lack of phone calls, blogs, etc. relating to a demand. So my mission is to stir some people up, get y'all to make some calls, or cover some internet sites with interest for an exhaust kit. I am thinking a 3inch kit would be so nice, cheaper and easier with a single outlet but would not be opposed to dual exhuast... So here is the contact info for you:
muffler@magnaflow.com
Tel: 1.800.824.8664
Fax: 1.949.858.3600

[N_Jay]

Originally posted by Schmidtty_boy
Hello everyone! I have talked to magnaflow a couple times now on exhaust kits for our beloved hondas. They continue to tell me there is not enough demand... as in lack of phone calls, blogs, etc. relating to a demand. So my mission is to stir some people up, get y'all to make some calls, or cover some internet sites with interest for an exhaust kit. I am thinking a 3inch kit would be so nice, cheaper and easier with a single side outlet but would not be opposed to dual exhuast... So here is the contact info for you:
muffler@magnaflow.com
Tel: 1.800.824.8664
Fax: 1.949.858.3600

Why?

124,000 miles, 6 years, Chicago salt, and still a solid exhaust.

[Schmidtty_boy]

Because the exhaust is fairly restrictive on our rigs. A little better flow would mean better gas mileage, little more power, and magnaflow has good tone without being obnoxious sounding.

[N_Jay]

Originally posted by Schmidtty_boy
Because the exhaust is fairly restrictive on our rigs.

Shown by?

Originally posted by Schmidtty_boy
A little better flow would mean better gas mileage,

Probably not

Originally posted by Schmidtty_boy
A little better flow would mean . . . little more power

Insignificantly, if at all.

Originally posted by Schmidtty_boy
and magnaflow has good tone without being obnoxious sounding.

OK!

[marcucci]

Look at the No Loss Exhaust article by David Vizard I posted here:

http://www.ntpog.org/articles/

When it comes to exhaust, flow rate for a given pressure drop is everything. For a race vehicle you want to maximize flow in the peak power band, basically where you are operating the motor most of the time.

The rule of thumb is 2.2CFM per HP. So, given a rough figure of 250HP you would want ~ 550CFM of flow at a minimal pressure drop. To achieve that you will need about a 3" pipe or ~ dual 2" pipes and a single 550CFM (or better) muffler) or dual 225's.

So you're right. But how often do you drive your Pilot at 5400 RPM? That's where peak power is made. That's going to change some with the exhaust but it will probably go up in RPM, not down. Generally when you uncork a Honda you can increase power some but it comes at the expense of low end.

Also keep in mind that unless you look at the exhaust as a system you may not gain much.

If you go to a 3" exhaust I can almost guarantee you:
1) you will trade low-end (power below 5400 RPM) for top-end
2) you will find minimal gains by retaining the stock exhaust manifolds and b and merge pipes

Note that the trade in low-end power will directly result in reduced economy in the same RPM band.

You will make more noise and if that's what you're going for you can achieve that. You can also remove the resonator and put in a free-flow muffler to achieve that. Just the muffler will probably make for the deepest tone.

I've done a fair bit of exhaust system design... if you want to achieve this, any good muffler shop can do it for you. If you want to stay with stainless or mandrel bent (it's silly to do anything that's not mandrel bent) you will pay more but probably no more than getting an aftermarket mfr to commit to what would be a relatively small market.

You can also work with someone like kteller.com or vrsexhaust.com to make a "kit", it would be cheap and any shop could put it on... plus they will do any material and any size you want.

I'd like to hear what a Honda SOHC V6 sounds like with a nice exhaust but I'm not sure I want to hear it on my Pilot I drive about 2 hours each day.

[Schmidtty_boy]

Okay, I realize you have a point there... but I would really like to see some performance parts (including a turbo or supercharger kit) come out someday for these things, and thought exhaust would be a good starting place. I own an auto repair shop in West Fargo, ND, and neither I nor anyone else in town does 3 inch mandrel bends, so I thought I would put Magnaflow to work. I used to do a lot of tinkering back in the day with performance upgrades and although I know the gains are minimal if you only upgrade one area, the biggest restriction in our engines is the exhaust system from the manifolds, cats, and less so the piping on back. I would love it if they made "headers," downpipes, and more, but am only asking for a starting point here. My reason's are minimal, but if a cat-back kit was available for around $400, I'd probably buy it, and hack off that 3rd cat while I was at it.

[marcucci]

Originally posted by Schmidtty_boy
[B]Okay, I realize you have a point there... but I would really like to see some performance parts (including a turbo or supercharger kit) come out someday for these things, and thought exhaust would be a good starting place.

I'm with you on that one. Someday I'll develop my own kit if no one else brings one forward. I'm amazed at the lack of development work on the Honda V6s as with such a large displacement I think they have a lot of potential. Like other Honda motors I'm not aware of any serious achilles heels that would prevent good boosted performance.

I own an auto repair shop in West Fargo, ND, and neither I nor anyone else in town does 3 inch mandrel bends, so I thought I would put Magnaflow to work.

I know that Kteller and VRS already do a lot of Honda systems, granted they are intended to be clamped or welded (not as nice as some) and do plenty of 3" mandrel bending. What I did for my Trooper that the Pilot replaced was to buy the bends from Summit or JC Whitney and then weld it up myself. Didn't look as nice but I was able to get exactly what I wanted and flange it nicely for <$250 or so including the muffler.

As for the cats, I'm not sure how much monitoring the ECU does of the cat performance. I *think* they just monitor the performance of the third cat. I, too, would be interested to see what the motor is capable of with proper headers, no cats, and a pretty open exhaust.

[Schmidtty_boy]

The "third" cat, according to Alldata, and that there is no post cat o2, is not monitored by the PCM. Other than the legal consequences (which can be spendy), no problem to remove it.

[efine]

I posted this on a different thread in relation to Gas Mileage, and I did my MAGNA-FLOW mods before I found this site. While under the car, I only saw one Cat., a resonator, and a muffler, not three Cats! Where are they?
Good luck... efine

Gas Mileage

All I can say is:

2005 EX-L...just purchased. One owner, lease turnback, CA car, clean as a whistle, w/17,142 miles.......$18,400!. This car is so clean, when I put the new Honda Hitch on, the empty holes that had nuts welded in place on the underside of the body didn't even have any dirt in them!!]
I put in a K&N air filter ($50.00), tore off the stock resonator and rear muffler & rear heat shroud , put in a stainless MagnaFlow Muffler at the resonator spot, and ran a custom bent, stock diameter size pipe, out the back ($248.00 installed). Gave it a small boost in giddy-up, a growl when you push your foot down and at startup which is not noticeable at cruise. Just returned from a 657 mile trip. I filled up at 10 PM just before the freeway on-ramp on the return trip and travelled over 300 miles on that leg straight home, North on I-5 from south of Portland, OR, to Bellingham, WA in one shot..26 MPG Highway at 70-80 MPH most of the way, with cruise control on as much as possible (est. 95% of the time). Yes, I double checked my math!
I also added Techron Fuel-Injector Cleaner to the tank (Costco buy), put 36 PSI in all four, new Oil & Filter, & new Honda Oil in rear end just before I left.
It will take me a while to re-coup the $300.00 spent on the mods from the gas savings, but I usually keep my cars for 10 years, so I figure it will come back to me eventually.
If you want it to be even quieter, you can put a MagnaFlow resonator on as well, but I can't say exactly how much quieter it would be, or what the MPG change might be. The reason we put the new muffler in the resonator spot instead of at the back where the old one was, was to eliminate that tinny, brapping sound most of the "tuner" cars make with their mufflers at the back and a large hole protruding from under the bumper. This, and the suggestion to use stock diameter pipe, came from the chop shop kid as a way to reduce and "tune" the noise without having to add the resonator.
Good luck.
E

[A6Pilot]

Originally posted by efine
While under the car, I only saw one Cat., a resonator, and a muffler, not three Cats! Where are they?
E

The other two cats are incorporated into the exhaust manifolds. Because of where they are located, they light off very quickly, and are one of the reasons the car is classified as ULEV. Because of their location and function, you can forget exhaust manifold mods without engineering on a scale far exceeding the powertrain engineers at Honda.

Think you're up to it?

Efine,
Your mpg figures are absolutey incredible! Maybe you should have someone look at your mods and submit everything to the EPA. 26 MPG under the conditions you have mentioned is an incredible 50% or so better mileage performance than what most folks driving similar Pilots can expect to achieve at your listed 70 to 80 mph.

Wow! Maybe you should think about getting a patent on the mods and make some dough with your engineering magic. I'm sure Honda would be your first customer. Good luck.

[iivtecracerii]

theres plenty of things available in the accord and TL worlds. im sure most of the stuff can be made to fit the pilot with minimal modification.

high flow precats, precat deletes, new j-pipes. although 3" piping sounds kind of big. most TL and accord guys ive seen are using 2.5".

[efine]

A6PILOT:


Thank you for the info on the Cats...before I came in tonight to read your post, I installed the Tranny & P. Steering Cooler uprgrades for the Tow Package. While underneath, I followed the exhaust and saw the Cats just off the manifolds. Great new tech, but wouldn't want to be the one to change them.
I sent you a rather lengthy reply earlier, but for some reason, it did not post!
Suffice it to say that I stand by my figures.
I believe I had some very good conditions that night:
Didn't notice any wind, but it usually blows S to N, and I was travelling N.
Fairly flat topography, 55 deg ambient temp., no heat, no ac, just radio and headlights.
Little traffic, almost all cruise control, only one stop to exchange urine for more caffine at a rest stop.
No Roadrunner starts and no Wiley E. Coyote stops.
Checked MPH with my GPS...out of 4 vehicles I have tested, this one was the only one who's speedo read the same as the GPS's, and I did my calcs on the gas station drive using Trip Odo B. Trip Odo A clocked the whole trip, differed from the GPS an insignificant 4 miles, out of the 600+ I drove.
I did not use cheap, no name gas. Shell and Chevron 87 Octane, and added Techron FI cleaner to the tank going down, and to the added gas for the return trip.

BTW, your smart a** remarks that basically call me a liar are quite juvenile. In gratitude for the informaition I have gleened from this site so far, I have reported what I have experienced in the hope that it may benifit others as well. If you've got something to say, all it takes are some simple, polite questions and answers, just like most of the other people seem to make on this forum.

efine

Originally posted by A6Pilot


The other two cats are incorporated into the exhaust manifolds. Because of where they are located, they light off very quickly, and are one of the reasons the car is classified as ULEV. Because of their location and function, you can forget exhaust manifold mods without engineering on a scale far exceeding the powertrain engineers at Honda.

Think you're up to it?

Efine,
Your mpg figures are absolutey incredible! Maybe you should have someone look at your mods and submit everything to the EPA. 26 MPG under the conditions you have mentioned is an incredible 50% or so better mileage performance than what most folks driving similar Pilots can expect to achieve at your listed 70 to 80 mph.

Wow! Maybe you should think about getting a patent on the mods and make some dough with your engineering magic. I'm sure Honda would be your first customer. Good luck.

[GreenMachine]

Originally posted by efine
I posted this on a different thread in relation to Gas Mileage, and I did my MAGNA-FLOW mods before I found this site. While under the car, I only saw one Cat., a resonator, and a muffler, not three Cats! Where are they?
Good luck... efine

Gas Mileage

All I can say is:

2005 EX-L...just purchased. One owner, lease turnback, CA car, clean as a whistle, w/17,142 miles.......$18,400!. This car is so clean, when I put the new Honda Hitch on, the empty holes that had nuts welded in place on the underside of the body didn't even have any dirt in them!!]
I put in a K&N air filter ($50.00), tore off the stock resonator and rear muffler & rear heat shroud , put in a stainless MagnaFlow Muffler at the resonator spot, and ran a custom bent, stock diameter size pipe, out the back ($248.00 installed). Gave it a small boost in giddy-up, a growl when you push your foot down and at startup which is not noticeable at cruise. Just returned from a 657 mile trip. I filled up at 10 PM just before the freeway on-ramp on the return trip and travelled over 300 miles on that leg straight home, North on I-5 from south of Portland, OR, to Bellingham, WA in one shot..26 MPG Highway at 70-80 MPH most of the way, with cruise control on as much as possible (est. 95% of the time). Yes, I double checked my math!
I also added Techron Fuel-Injector Cleaner to the tank (Costco buy), put 36 PSI in all four, new Oil & Filter, & new Honda Oil in rear end just before I left.
It will take me a while to re-coup the $300.00 spent on the mods from the gas savings, but I usually keep my cars for 10 years, so I figure it will come back to me eventually.
If you want it to be even quieter, you can put a MagnaFlow resonator on as well, but I can't say exactly how much quieter it would be, or what the MPG change might be. The reason we put the new muffler in the resonator spot instead of at the back where the old one was, was to eliminate that tinny, brapping sound most of the "tuner" cars make with their mufflers at the back and a large hole protruding from under the bumper. This, and the suggestion to use stock diameter pipe, came from the chop shop kid as a way to reduce and "tune" the noise without having to add the resonator.
Good luck.
E

Great mileage! We just got back from a week in the Seattle/Tacoma area. We borrowed a family member's 2005 Pilot. We drove from Tacoma to Leavenworth and back. We had 5 people and the back filled with luggage up to the top of the backrests of the 2nd row. After traveling up Snoqualmie pass and up and down the hills/mountains on highway 97 and all the way back, we average just at 22mpg for the 395 miles in that tank. We also used the A/C a fair bit as it was rather warm on the eastern side of Cascades. I was very happy with that mileage.

[scuba steve]

i live around the corn from the magnaflow HQ.

i think a custom exhaust is better than a kit.

if i could get 21-24 mpg on my '03, i'd be a happy camper.

[beato1]

i have 60 k on my '05. i have been getting 25-26 mi/gallon on the highway ever since using k & n air filter last year. my last trip to boston (400 mi) when i took my son back to college gave me 26 mi to a gallon with three passengers and a/c on at all time. i used to get 22-23 mi for this trip before switching to k & n filter.