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Looks great if it fits that application it should fit our third gens right? It would be nice!
Sorta... It appears to require relocating the panhard brace to make room over the axle. Also 4th gens have the front subframe rails splayed out more toward the rockers, while ours pretty much hug the sides of the trans tunnel back to the trans crossmember.
The driver's side header collector would hit the frame rail in a thirdgen. So the entire left pipe from the collector to the X would have to come over so it's hugging the transmission to fit a thirdgen.
Looks like both sides would have to be cut just ahead of the X to clear a thirdgen. Easy enough to plumb that couple feet, but it's not a direct bolt-on.
I'm usually a cheap bastard and build everything myself, but $450 for all stainless dual 3"... that's a smoking deal. Cut it off at the X and make whatever you need to hook it up to whatever you want...
The only problem I see otherwise is that 4th gens had slightly longer, curved rear bumpers so the dual tips might look a little funny on a 3rd gen (I've had a 4th gen quad tip TA/Formula setup as well as a WS6 on a 3rd gen TA and most people liked it, I eventually wanted my tips to line up better with my rear bumper)
If the Blackheart was 3 inch I'd be all over it. Thought there was a Holley rep that posted on this site? The Panthers relocation is not a big deal. For the price that is cheap though.
Dual 3" is extreme overkill for 90% of street driven cars. Great price, for a dual stainless setup, but it will be LOUD. I'll bet it drones like crazy!
I might just order this. I'll make it work somehow. Just what I was looking for. Just looks like the front pipes need to be cut back and shorten that wide swing out. It says this is a true x pupe design. I have a mustang that had a h pipe. When I swapped it for a xpipe it was night and day the sound.
Last edited by IROCZ1989; Mar 29, 2018 at 09:54 AM.
Not overkill for a turbocharged small block, and the turbo will kill some of the drone, I'd bet that this thing would sound just right.
Cost wise I was thinking the cheapest way to build something like this is to get 2 intermediate pipes and then put the rest together. If you're buying new and stainless this would be cheaper than buying the parts to make the setup and 90% of the "fitting" and "making it work" would be done for you.
With the mufflers that close to the tips it may not drone at all. I've only had drone issues when I've got a length of tail pipe after the muffler, and then it all depends on length of the tail pipe.
Dynomax made a 2 1/4" dual system from what I remember.
Used this on a cam only L98 build with long tubes. Had to modify the front section to connect to long tubes as the kit is designed to use stock manifolds but worked well
I think years ago there was a company that used to advertise in magazines a true DUAL setup like this for 3rd gens. For some reason I'm thinking the company was called Cobalt or Cobald or something like that.
I went full custom after talking with my fab guy. He told me it's a bit of work to get them to fit a thirdgen. They do but the money spent to fix it to work plus cost of kit is the same if you went all custom.
With the amount of back and forth it would take to order bends to try, I think for $339 even if I use half of it it would save time and money. I'd rather modify something that's 80% close than order a million bends and splice it together, to then find out I need more bends .
With the amount of back and forth it would take to order bends to try, I think for $339 even if I use half of it it would save time and money. I'd rather modify something that's 80% close than order a million bends and splice it together, to then find out I need more bends .
-- Joe
I have to agree. Using long tubes and dual cats, you are most of the way to the X-pipe anyway.. yeah, you might have to mess with the tips to get it right, but that's hardly unexpected.
DR.K.
With the amount of back and forth it would take to order bends to try, I think for $339 even if I use half of it it would save time and money. I'd rather modify something that's 80% close than order a million bends and splice it together, to then find out I need more bends .
-- Joe
This. I bought this system with the same mentality. I think I might even have enough material to fab up the front portion of the exhaust. I paid $450 and can't believe it can be had for $340 now. Its 300 series stainless too (far different than 400 series, almost impervious to corrosion). The welds are decent and the tips are actually really well made. The poor Chinese folks making these must make them without any wage at all.
This. I bought this system with the same mentality. I think I might even have enough material to fab up the front portion of the exhaust. I paid $450 and can't believe it can be had for $340 now. Its 300 series stainless too (far different than 400 series, almost impervious to corrosion). The welds are decent and the tips are actually really well made. The poor Chinese folks making these must make them without any wage at all.
The Chinese have been investing billions of dollars in robotic manufacturing over the last 15 years. That's kind of the big joke, You've got folks in the US that are complaining about crappy Chinese worksmanship when the reality is some guy who's been welding for 20 years making headers on a jig it's not going to have the same level of quality as a robotic welder on a machine that bends everything within tolerance.
Look at your average hooker or hedman headers, kind of crappy welds, flanges that are really flat, etc. By a pair of $75 stainless Chinese headers. Robotic TIG welds, laser cut flanges that are perfectly flat, etc.
Some stuff from China sucks, don't get me wrong. But the exhaust stuff has been really good.
The Chinese have been investing billions of dollars in robotic manufacturing over the last 15 years. That's kind of the big joke, You've got folks in the US that are complaining about crappy Chinese worksmanship when the reality is some guy who's been welding for 20 years making headers on a jig it's not going to have the same level of quality as a robotic welder on a machine that bends everything within tolerance.
Look at your average hooker or hedman headers, kind of crappy welds, flanges that are really flat, etc. By a pair of $75 stainless Chinese headers. Robotic TIG welds, laser cut flanges that are perfectly flat, etc.
Some stuff from China sucks, don't get me wrong. But the exhaust stuff has been really good.
100% true. Even more so with MIM and Injection Molding. Every industry relies on Asian suppliers nowadays, I work with them daily. I have no doubt that speed engineering is using that supply chain to offer a cost effective system, I am amazed that this system is so well built given its low volumes of production. The material cost alone is likely half its value. Most of their aftermarket automotive stuff is trash (the money is just not there) but I am surprised by this exhaust. I am sure it a large firm that churns out systems for various OEM's yet has capacity to run short-run aftermarket stuff. To your point, once the robots are in place, the setup and programming is minimal to crank out variations. Far different than most parts that require unique tooling. Very cool.
This. I bought this system with the same mentality. I think I might even have enough material to fab up the front portion of the exhaust. I paid $450 and can't believe it can be had for $340 now. Its 300 series stainless too (far different than 400 series, almost impervious to corrosion). The welds are decent and the tips are actually really well made. The poor Chinese folks making these must make them without any wage at all.
Getting ready to finally install this exhaust. Will be fabbing near the crossmember, will let you know what kind of clearance I get and install difficulty.
I am in the process of installing this. It seems to tuck up pretty high, but I had to cut the pipes in front of the X chamber. Now I need some bends to make that transition to the down pipes. Also the rear driver side pipe is not long enough, the piece that runs where the original muffler was. I think on 4th gen cars the rear body is curved, while ours are straight, so to get the SE supplied mufflers installed the distance is greater. I will get some pictures tomorrow.
Got details in the first 30 seconds of the video. Ground clearance isn't great, but someone with more skill could probably fit it up better. I went with the "get it installed, tweak it later" approach. Overall fairly happy with the purchase, but I will say that holleys full bolt on kit makes plenty of sense at $500 more. Saves you on labor/time.
Did the kit have enough tube to make it work or did you have to supplement some additional? Also, you said you added some baffles? Do you have a part number for those? I'd love to see some pics of how you made yours work. I've had this kit laying around for years now and am trying to get it in the care this spring.
Last edited by ShiftyCapone; Apr 12, 2021 at 12:23 PM.
Had to buy 3' of 3" 304 Pipe from Summit to tie it up. Here's the baffles. Do yourself a favor and install them the first time.
Don't have much pics for the kit the way I put it together (hard to take pics without a lift). But this is the pic I used to model mine.
Worth noting, you can pretty much get away with one extra pipe from the header side to the X, but ground clearance suffers. Maybe when I get to an actual shop they'll make it better.
Thanks for the info. That routing looks very doable. Are those baffles restrictive? I've actually never seen anything like that before. I assume you put them somewhere in the rear? I am going to run cats which should also help tone it down some.
Thread where there's discussion on the baffles. I threw mine in the pieces after the X. Took a little grinding to get them in but they basically slide right in.
As I mentioned in the thread above, it probably created some restriction.
Here are some of my install. Still ongoing, alot of trial and error fitting. You can see where I added a piece of pipe to the driver side exhaust. I also need to modify the hangers to get the mufflers to tuck up higher
Hanger mods I cut the x pipe More hanger mods Need to add a piece here, not pushed up in place yet.
BigDog- how did you mount the mufflers? With the hangers they supplied they are way too low. Also did you mount the mufflers exactly parallel to the rear frame rails? That picture you posted looks like they are angled?
Mounted everything up with the supplied hangers. Only one that really needs adjustment is on the driver side tip. Hangs lower than the passenger for whatever reason.
Was your hangers and rubber connectors the same as mine? You can see from my pictures how much they hang down. I was going to cut them and reweld them back to shorten the distance.
Yep sure were. The tips sit a bit higher, so it helps tuck everything up in better. The part that I don't like is the middle of the car (behind the X) droops pretty low. Won't be able to lower this car much
See how the tips lined up below:
