4DRHTRD said:
I would save the $$ on having him reinvent the wheel on downpipes, have him do a cat back instead for you. Make sure you do some type of resonator and then tailpipe mufflers or you'll be very unhappy.
I completely understand you wanting to support your local guy, it make sense and I do that alot but only when the local guy can do something for me that is custom but LESS expensive than what's on the market.
I had my own downpipes made because LMS was charging $1K for catted pipes at the time and there's no way I was paying that much for 2x4' pipes and two cats that wouldn't pass emissions so I worked with a local manufacturer to make my own and offer them for less to the end user. Now look we have $800 catted downpipes that pass emissions from my guy AND LMS started using our cats and dropped their price to the same as ours. This is a win for everyone IMHO.
Whichever way you go with it, just make sure you do some tests on the sound, these cars sound funky if you do the exhaust wrong.
Let's not stretch the truth here on what transpired.
Here is the rundown on our Downpipes. Our SHO Downpipes were the first available on the market, and out for well over a year before any other pipes were available on the market. As such, they were designed with an older generation of High Flow Metal Matrix cat that was great for performance, and durability, but would be guaranteed to set a light due to it's design.
In the interim, some Companies started experimenting with high flow cats whose primary purpose in life were to try to not set a monitor failure.
Our supplier was not satisfied with this first generation of cat, and there for chose to stick with the tried and true high flow cat that had been successful for years and years. After the second generation of cat was released, our supplier started testing them again, with a great deal of success, but it still would set a light occasionally as remember, they are a high flow cat.
Our supplier is on it's third generation of this cat today, and it has much improved over that first design, having the best loading in the industry for top level durability, while maintaining exceptional flow. But it is NOT the same cat as anyone else in these category. Rather than using an off the shelf piece, they had the cat custom made to meet their standards.
With all of that said, no downpipe, regardless or what high flow cat it has, is emissions legal, nor emissions compliant. These are intended to be for offroad use only. It is just as
illegal removing the factory cat, regardless of what it is replaced with unless it is specifically CARB or EPA approved for that specific application, and you must have documented proof of failure of the OEM cat. With that said, the only way to ensure that a cat will not set a light would be to use a cat that is designed just like stock, meaning since the factory converter is not a high flow, and not a metal matrix cat you must use a ceramic OEM style cat which obviously, would not increase flow at all. Any high flow cat has the potential to set a light, it just may take a different set of circumstances to trigger it than another make. Our goal, since it is a race part, is to provide the most durable piece out there, rather than focus on cheating the system.
As for our pricing coming down, this coincided with the release of our Explorer Downpipes. Since we now had three distinct product lines available, we were able to reach a volume level that allowed us to save money on the pipes, which we chose to pass on to our customers.
At the end of the day, our supplier goes out of their way to ensure every aspect of our pipes are made in the USA, from the tubing, to the welding rod, to the cat, and clamps. Something that we always strive for in all of our products.
