Final Exhaust Decision

ATplace2be

ATplace2be

Member
Hey guys, I've spent enough hours browsing the forums to find exactly what I'm looking for to burn holes in my eyes, so I'm just gonna post my question here.

I drive a '14 1.4 ltz as my daily driver and I'm looking to give my baby a throatier tone. I'm a delivery driver and I commute to work, so not being too obnoxious in town and reducing highway drone are my top priorities.

As I said before, I've done a lot of reading here on the forums looking for the best options and I've come down to these three options that I think best represent what I'm looking for:

1) Delete 2nd cat, keep res, delete muffler -- I can always swap in a muffler later if it's too loud
2) Keep 2nd cat, delete res, delete muffler or add straight through muffler
3) 2nd cat delete, res delete, Borla/Magnaflow muffler

I've been down to my local muffler shop and all of these options are within my budget. What are your thoughts? If you know of something that would be even better (especially if you have a sound/video clip) please let me know!
 
H

Hectic

New member
Can't speak on the 1.4, haven't got far enough of doing my exhaust yet. But with my 1.8, using a ZZP catback I had the second cat delete, resonator and muffler and it was too quiet for me. I then deleted the resonator and it was perfect for me. Loud and throaty. Popping / crackling as the revs dropped in first. Hard throttle and high RPM shifting from first to second would give a decent pop for a auto in manual mode.

With the 1.4, I would assume it would be slightly quieter as the turbo will keep the drone down a bit. Since your doing delivery driving and don't want to be too obnoxious, I recommend keeping the muffler.
 
ATplace2be

ATplace2be

Member
Just got home from the muffler shop...

Went with the 2nd cat delete and muffler delete, but left the res alone. Sounds AMAZING. Good and throaty on start-up, not too loud, and only has a bit of drone between 1500-1700 rpm. Zero interstate drone. Exactly what I wanted. Will post a clip here shortly!
 
ATplace2be

ATplace2be

Member
jrtsphoto said:
Definitely sounds like a great choice, and for the price I might just have to keep it in mind


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Way cheaper than ordering a catback system online. It would’ve been closer to $80 but I tacked on the exhaust tip which was like $40 by itself


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W

WearyWeasel

New member
ATplace2be said:
Way cheaper than ordering a catback system online. It would’ve been closer to $80 but I tacked on the exhaust tip which was like $40 by itself
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Wait I'm so confused how you got it done for so cheap. Did you not have to buy or replace anything? I mean just an aftermarket down pipe or a mid pipe is like $200 w/o labor.

What did you ask them for? Just say "hey can you cut out the muffler and 2nd cat from my exhaust system?" lmao I'm so confused and need some direction. I don't even care about the sound from mine as much as some performance gains.
 
ATplace2be

ATplace2be

Member
WearyWeasel said:
Wait I'm so confused how you got it done for so cheap. Did you not have to buy or replace anything? I mean just an aftermarket down pipe or a mid pipe is like $200 w/o labor.



What did you ask them for? Just say "hey can you cut out the muffler and 2nd cat from my exhaust system?" lmao I'm so confused and need some direction. I don't even care about the sound from mine as much as some performance gains.
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Well, first off, you’re not going to get great gains from exhaust modifications generally. Unless you’re building an all-out racer, there are easier and more cost-efficient ways to get better gains — a BNR tune would be a great place to start for real gains.

Secondly, I didn’t buy an overpriced aftermarket exhaust kit. I literally went to the muffler shop and had them cut out the 2nd cat, leave the res, cut the muffler, and add an exhaust tip. Everything that got cut was replaced by 2.5” pipe. Additionally, apart from the exhaust tip, I didn’t pay extra for stainless piping — like the system from ZZP, for example.


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W

WearyWeasel

New member
ATplace2be said:
Everything that got cut was replaced by 2.5” pipe. Additionally, apart from the exhaust tip, I didn’t pay extra for stainless piping — like the system from ZZP, for example.
Click to expand...

That makes a lot more sense, thanks. My area uses a lot of salt for snow and ice so I'd rather go stainless. Which likely means ZZP or something, which sucks because if I go cat back instead of turbo back I feel like I'm half assing it and it's not even worth it unless I can afford the full system (since again, I don't care about the noise much as long as it's a better and only a little bit louder than stock).

Thanks again for the info and good luck with yours.
 
ATplace2be

ATplace2be

Member
WearyWeasel said:
That makes a lot more sense, thanks. My area uses a lot of salt for snow and ice so I'd rather go stainless. Which likely means ZZP or something, which sucks because if I go cat back instead of turbo back I feel like I'm half assing it and it's not even worth it unless I can afford the full system (since again, I don't care about the noise much as long as it's a better and only a little bit louder than stock).



Thanks again for the info and good luck with yours.
Click to expand...



Best of luck to ya from Indiana!


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