Well I'm pretty sure I was the first person to get an OEM exhaust setup from Mark so I guess I'll give a few pics and a small review. Pics are with a camera phone but u get the idea.
As far as a review goes being that I needed a small amount of fabrication anyways to fit my rear i had to do some cutting but had that not been the case it would have fit nice. I got the 3 in because I'll be turboing it this winter and it still fits high and tight I havent had any issues with it banging or botteming out. I matched it with a cherrybomb as a resonator and a dynomax super turbo muffler and I'm so much happier with the soundand look than my old ricey magnaflow fart can. Mark was great to work with and I'll deff be doing more buisness with him. On with some pics.








heres some fitment shots kinda hard to do under the car


and one with my dads ls1 swapped 76 vette in the background for good luck


thanks again to Mark at OEM would have done this earlier but been busy and no interwebz
I'll take some better rear shots of the z24r concept rear later if people want to see it I suprisingly never took any ha
comment, flame , do what u will

dude i love the idea with the mega ramps killer what kinda framing did u do to support that weight. exhaust looks good

interesting way to keep a car off the ground. seeing how your under body looks rusty crusty; are u gonna high temp paint the exhaust? oh, and i would like to see a z24r concept rear?



WiGM-Tuners member.

I got the ramp and lift idea from my dads corvette fourms
2x12x12 top and bottem
11- 2x12 x 1 vertical supports every 14in or so
3 in deck screws
about 150 bucks all together not to bad


the rust and everything will be painted and taken care of later this winter cars gonna be worked on quite a bit late winter early spring

No V-band clamps?




219whp - I <3 whine

nice man, if i ever do exhaust this is probly what i'll go with.

btw if ya need any help on the car hit me up, i'm probly not far and i don't do much

Tinkles wrote:No V-band clamps?

right... and its not 18 bends welded together either. so what? one piece mandrel bent owns all.

looks awesome, zack. i am loving the way its nice n tucked up in there like it should be.

how loud would you say it is? i would love to quiet my car down to near stock, and i pretty much wanted to set it up exactly like you have yours. so if yours is pretty quiet i will more than likely go through with it.

did you lose any power with having the 3" on an n/a motor?



Stand in the corner and SCREAM with me!!!!

z yaaaa wrote:
right... and its not 18 bends welded together either. so what? one piece mandrel bent owns all.

Oh i forgot that the flush welds rob horsepower and that v-bands are junk because they seal better than any other exhaust clamp...




219whp - I <3 whine

v-bands are only useful if you plan on taking you're exhaust apart ten times a year. zack planned AHEAD and got the three inch for his turbo set-up. id be willing to bet this exhaust stays on the car for a long time.

and the welds dont rob hp, you're right but it sure is one hell of a cheesy way to do it. sure it might hold, sure it'd be fine but why bother when you can pick up a one piece unit for under $300 for a 3" in 304 stainless?



Stand in the corner and SCREAM with me!!!!

Lol, okay brad...... I'll just let you believe what you want too.




219whp - I <3 whine

thats fine n dandy. i just dont see how you can think a bunch of welded pieces together is just as good quality wise as the same piece but made as ONE.

do dc sports, magnaflow, flowmaster, hell even OBX, megan racing or even pacesetter's catback systems have a bunch of pieces welded together? nope. all one piece units.

does borla? does thermal? nope.

why? because they are PROFESSIONALLY built.

i rest my case.



Stand in the corner and SCREAM with me!!!!

z yaaaa wrote:thats fine n dandy. i just dont see how you can think a bunch of welded pieces together is just as good quality wise as the same piece but made as ONE.

do dc sports, magnaflow, flowmaster, hell even OBX, megan racing or even pacesetter's catback systems have a bunch of pieces welded together? nope. all one piece units.

does borla? does thermal? nope.

why? because they are PROFESSIONALLY built.

i rest my case.

No, its cause they are MASS built.

It is much easier to create an exhaust from one solid piece of pipe that to weld each piece together, especially now a days with automated mandrel benders.

You ever see a PROFESSIONAL built exhaust? It will absolutely never be one piece of pipe, its always welded from smaller pieces to ensure a perfect fit.

I'd like to add that by PROFESSIONAL, I don't mean some high end mass produced company like Borla or Thermal, which do make a nice exhaust.

I mean from a PROFESSIONAL exhaust shop.

nice pipe, if that what makes exhaust looks like I might have to pick some up

If I spent that much on an unnecessary header I'd assume v-bands are necessary for every application too.

Clearly I'd know no better.

newt wrote:

z yaaaa wrote:thats fine n dandy. i just dont see how you can think a bunch of welded pieces together is just as good quality wise as the same piece but made as ONE.

do dc sports, magnaflow, flowmaster, hell even OBX, megan racing or even pacesetter's catback systems have a bunch of pieces welded together? nope. all one piece units.

does borla? does thermal? nope.

why? because they are PROFESSIONALLY built.

i rest my case.

No, its cause they are MASS built.

It is much easier to create an exhaust from one solid piece of pipe that to weld each piece together, especially now a days with automated mandrel benders.

You ever see a PROFESSIONAL built exhaust? It will absolutely never be one piece of pipe, its always welded from smaller pieces to ensure a perfect fit.

i could see you're point valid on a car that requires a bunch of bends. our cars simply do not. all we have is the around gas tank/up over axle and that is it. again i ask... how would a 6 piece section that fits well better a one piece section that fits equally as well?



Stand in the corner and SCREAM with me!!!!

newt wrote:No, its cause they are MASS built.

It is much easier to create an exhaust from one solid piece of pipe that to weld each piece together, especially now a days with automated mandrel benders.

You ever see a PROFESSIONAL built exhaust? It will absolutely never be one piece of pipe, its always welded from smaller pieces to ensure a perfect fit.

Yea, we sure as hell don't have the $75,000 for the mandrel bender we'd like to have in our shop. Do all our exhaust fit the cars 100% per the customer liking before they leave the shop? Bet your ass they do!

How many people do you see on their knees at cars show looking at someone's exhaust? Maybe a handful the entire shoe.If its a custom exhaust, more or less they are fabricators themselves and enjoy cutom craftsman ship, not a mass built product anyone can buy from Jegs, Summit, etc...

You guys with terrible looking dirty engine bays and rusty under carriages are bitching about more welds when that is most likely the LAST place people are going to pay attention to if your trying to impress anyone.

lol cody... i know you have seen pics of my engine bay. my undercarriage is going to rival that of you're sedan's pretty soon.

wouldnt someone that is anal enough to chrome the gas tank straps want to have a one piece mandrel bent exhaust?



Stand in the corner and SCREAM with me!!!!

z yaaaa wrote:[
how would a 6 piece section that fits well better a one piece section that fits equally as well?

I could tear into that statement with several different examples/reasons... Do I want to? No.

If the guy is happy with his exhaust that is all that matters.

Edit:

As far as the gas tank strap chroming goes... that minimal. The owner of RD Fabs has his exhaust polished to a mirror finish. With tig welding since the welds are smooth, they are scotch brited smooth and they all become blended together to look like one.



Even has mirrors to show it off. Its the same process we do to our intakes which you can't tell they were welded unless you look inside them.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Monday, December 21, 2009 6:50 PM

Joe Schulte wrote:If I spent that much on an unnecessary header I'd assume v-bands are necessary for every application too.

Clearly I'd know no better.

Neither do I. I just love wasting money...



Brad, where are you getting this one piece deal? Every mass produced mandrel bent exhaust comes in 2-3 pieces. The ONLY exhaust that i have seen that was truly one piece was Cody's that RD Fabs produced. But all those welds are points of failure, right? So RD Fabs is insane for including a lifetime warranty on their work???




219whp - I <3 whine

you do realize i am talking about the bent section that matters, right?

not where the muffler attaches or where it bolts to the cat section... right?

i would think you were smarter than that...



Stand in the corner and SCREAM with me!!!!

My exhaust bends are one piece then too. Adam didnt cut ribs in the pipe, bend it, and weld it up.

I am smarter than that, but for a good 10 round bought i have to come down to your level.




219whp - I <3 whine

2 questions:
- looks like aren't running a cat, if so how are you getting rid of the o2 sensor? won't it throw a check engine light?
- what size overall is that resonator?

car looks good, interested in the z24 concept thing myself.
your rims are very similar to mine, what are they?

Nice exhaust, if that cherry bomb is anyhtign like the one I had on my old mini truck I'm sure it sounds good.

I just wanna see how the centered up duels look underneath there...