Ok, I am tired of not having many choices for cat-back exhausts for the xB so my buddy and I are working on a system for all of us xB owners.

The shop the work was done at is Boost Factory in Bloomington, MN. My friend Chuck owns it and his shop mainly does turbo systems, but he can fabricate anything.

Here are pics of the progress so far.....

The center section, test fitted and welded together and positioned under the car.


Chuck, fitting the muffler.


Chuck, bending up a hanger.


The over the rear suspension section test fitted and welded up.


The stainless tail pipe.


The center section out from under the car so Chuck could finish the welds.


The product I applied to the exhaust to make it a little stealthy and to help protect it.


Another side of Chuck. :-P


Muffler inlet compairisons.


Tail pipe compairisons.


Center section outlet compairisons.


Center section compairisons.


Mounting the finished center section. Notice the stock hangers are used.



Mounting the muffler. Notice how all the stock hangers are used.




And the tail pipe.



I am not quite happy with the sound right now but I believe a resonator spliced into the center pipe will take care of the problems.

I will post a sound clip once I am happy with the sound of the exhaust.

Also, once I am happy with it, the system is gonna get pulled off my car and sent in to get measured up. Once measured up, Boost Factory will have the pipes pre-bent to fit the xB and then it can be sold as a kit.

Please keep posted to this thread for updates, also post in here if you are interested in buying a kit so I can guage interest in this.

 

Questions...

What type of muffler is being used?

What is the diameter of the tubing?

I assume you are going to use a larger diameter resonator with the kit?

Will this be a full stainless steel exhaust?

I assume this will have to be welded to the stock catalytic converter?

Will a tip be added to the final product?

Will all the bends be mandrel bent?

What is the estimated cost for the completed system?

Thanks for taking the steps required to bring something new to market.

 

no offense but this thread makes me love my strup axleback even more

 

What type of muffler is being used? The muffler on my prototype is an IMCO which is a Borla knockoff. The kits will probably use Borla mufflers.

What is the diameter of the tubing? Tubing is 2.25", plenty big enough for N/A engines. Later we will probably release a 2.5" kit for turbo applications.

I assume you are going to use a larger diameter resonator with the kit? Yes, the resonator will have a larger diameter than the tubing, they have to to do their job.

Will this be a full stainless steel exhaust? No. Stainless is not needed but I suppose it can be an option. On my prototype, the muffler and tail pipe are stainless and the rest is aluminized with high temp black paint to prevent rust. I am also looking into ceramic coating options.

I assume this will have to be welded to the stock catalytic converter? No. It clamps on after the cat. All you have to do is cut the pipe after the cat and this one slide on. The exhaust we are designing uses all the factory hangers as well.

Will a tip be added to the final product? Yes, I will probably have a tip chosen for the finished product.

Will all the bends be mandrel bent? Yes, it will be mandrel bent throughout.

What is the estimated cost for the completed system? The price we are shooting for is $325-$375 plus shipping.

Please note: Systems that I will be selling will not be a bunch of pieces welded together like my prototype. We are doing this to get the proper bends and measurements then we will have it measured out and pre-bent in our kits. The kit will probably consist of a center pipe, the muffler, the tail pipe, and a tip. If we can't get over the suspension with the one center pipe, it will have an additional piece before the muffler.

 

Why do you say this?

Enjoy your 1.5" exhaust from the factory resonator to the rear suspension.

 

Thanks for answering the questions. And I know that the resonator will be larger than the tubing. I guess I should have stated my question more clearly. What I was wanting to know is if you were going to be using stock or stock diameter resonators, or larger aftermarket resonators. Judging by the diameter of the exhaust system, I assume it will be a larger aftermarket unit to mach the tubing diameter.

 

i might have considered this last week if i could have seen the finished product cause i was looking for a cat-back but zero-1000's cat-back is being relased by the end of the month and i already placed my order

 

Sweetness. More options!

 

I'd like to see the system done with a different muffler, like the Strup universal.

 

The resonator will definately NOT be the stock one, it will have larger inlet and outlets to fit the larger center pipe.

I am looking into other muffler options as well. I am going to make sure this thing sounds just right before I sell it. I might also do something like Techtonics does with VW exhaust systems.... They have 3 muffler options for each exhaust system, Flowmaster, Dynomax, and Borla, and I like that.

I am also being picky on tips. I don't want this think looking cheap.

 

Sure, keep asking questions if you have them. And keep posted as I add in updates.

 

You should look into the Strup muffler too, we get a discount on that.

 

Ok, I looked at the Strup universal muffler.

I don't want to go that route with the muffler, I am trying to stay away from the canister-style muffler and do a chambered muffler that is mounted high up and out of view.

Look for more updates the Saturday or Sunday. I should have the resonator in and a tip selected.

 

quality, style, overall garunteed performance and superb sound... no rasp at all!!!
i never said i like the fact that i have 1.5 for the mid section. if you make an actual bolt on mid section i will be interested in buying.

 

I'm working on the no rasp this week.

As far as making it so you could use your alxe-back system, that probably won't happen. We am using a chambered muffler and mounting it as close to the floor of the car as possible to keep it up and out of sight. It might be possible if the Strup axle back section reaches over the rear suspension far enough and you cut the flange off of it so you can clamp it onto the center pipe we are making.

 

Ok,

I have the resonator in it and a tip on it and it sounds good. I will post pics of the tip and a sound file in the next day or so.

The final kit is gonna be made for me by Heartthrob Exhaust, the leader in hot rod exhausts. Their headquarters is in Litchfield, MN about 80 min away from me.

The final kit will have 3 muffler choices and 2 or 3 tip choices. I will have more pics of the choices shortly. It will be a week or two before I can get pricing for you guys but pricing is also affected by the amount of interest in this so once I get the sound clip up I want you to tell me if you want a kit.

Keep posted for updates.

 

Alright, standby for finished pics and a sound clip but in the meantime I have the parts and options going into this kit.

Mandrel bent 2.25" tubing from the cat to the muffler with a resonator on the center pipe. This section will be sold in aluminized steel and stainless as a more expensive option.

The pipe will expand to fit a muffler with 2.5" inlet and outlet. There are three muffler options.
Standard kit: IMCO aluminized muffler
Upgrade to kit: IMCO stainless muffler
Other option equal in price to standard kit: Heartthrob Turbo muffler

And here are the tips available. The stainless one is only slightly more money.

Chrome tip.....


Stainless tip.....


The kit will be available without a tip as well. If you go that route you will just have a 2.5" tail pipe.

 

Do you have any soundclips of your finalized product or the final version of your prototype?

 

I was just about to ask the same question. The interest is there, pending the soundbytes.

 

I currently looking for a muffler system to purchase in a few weeks. I can't what to see + hear more about your product. I guess I'll wait and add some more money to my bank account in the mean time