Nissan Titan Forum banner

My exhaust findings!

323K views 596 replies 193 participants last post by  Jlennon89 
#1 · (Edited)
First of all, if one of the mods finds this useful enough to make a sticky on it...great. If not that is fine too.

I have received quite a number of PM's lately asking about exhaust. I do not mind them, in fact I enjoy helping people out and answering their questions. If you have questions after this post, still feel free to ask them, I will answer.

I know that there are many peole on here who know more about exhausts than I do as far as the technical stuff. But, in the last two months I have done around 40 dynos with many different combinations of modifications and exhausts. The systems that I have had include the following now:

1) Full Stock set-up with 22" magnaflow muffler
2) Magnaflow Catback
3) Gibson swept side
4) Borla Dual
5) Flowmaster 40 series
6) Flowmaster 70 series
7) JBA single exit

For 2007 Titan Owners: You have the best set up from what I found with my previous 2005 model. That is a true dual in to a single out muffler. It produced the most torque of any of my systems. You can do a muffler swap with Magnaflow part number 12580 (satin stainless) or 14580 (polished stainless). This is a dual inlet/single out muffler that is wide open straight through design. I will be putting this muffler on my 07 titan in the near future after doing a baseline STOCK dyno. I need to get some miles on her first. One thing that may need to be noted. In installing this muffler, it is best to cut the drivers side pipe about 2 feet before the muffler and again at the muffler. Now take this pipe and rotate it 180*. THis is because the muffler has a center to center inlet width that is 3" less than the stock muffler.


I will provide what I observed during the whole process to try and help others determine what is best for their needs. When I mention drone, I am extremely sensitive to the frequency that exhaust emits. So your level of hearing may be different than mine.

1) The full stock set up with the 22" magnaflow provided great numbers. The hp and torque increase from stock was 8 and 14. Sound was a little louder than stock and there was noticeable drone to me at 58 to 62 mph. Bang for your buck can not be beat here. Once again I ONLY changed out the muffler. Part number 12586 (satin finish stainless) or 14586 polished stainless). If you want to go with the 18" magnaflow part number 12256 (satin) and 14256 (polished).

2) Maganflow catback single exit provided the best gain period with the STOCK titan. The numbers on the website of 18 and 22 were factual peak to peak numbers. Not a play on numbers like many manufacturers do and show how much you gained at a certain rpm when you actually gained on 2 or 3 peak horsies. One odd thing that needs to be realized with this set up is it uses the STOCK Y-PIPE. I tried this set up with a custom 3 1/2" Y-pipe and lost a lot of torque. drone once again, is pretty noticeable at speeds mentioned above.

3) Gibson Swept Side is in my opinion a great all around exhaust for a couple of reasons. One it does provide medium gains in hp and torque. But two it has a great sound with almost no drone. It is louder than stock at WOT, but at start up it is just a deep tone that sounds great. But if you want something that is loud and mean, this is not for you. Gains 12 hp and 14 lbs.

4) Borla dual. It sounds really good to me. Cruising speeds had no drone, drone was only around 45 mph. the gains in hp were comparable to the gibson (12), but the torque gain was very minimal (9). But it is a very clean sounding exhaust that will please MANY and the finished look is very nice.

5) Flowmaster 40 series did not stay on for an entire day. Drone felt like my head was going to cave in. I greatly apologize for not being able to tolerate it to give a full evaluation, but the drone was heavy between 40 and 70 mph to me. And that is where I drive 90 percent of the time.

6) Flowmaster 70 series. Very good sound. Not to loud, drone was minimal around 1600 rpms. Provided nice hp gains that were equivalent to Gibson and Borla (12 hp and 8 lbs of torque), but once again the torque gain was very minimal. This exhaust at wot was definitely able to turn some heads with its volume and I did notice a couple of pops after going WOT and then letting completely off the gas. So it performs like the Gibson and Borla but has a little more agressive sound than both of them.

7) The JBA provided the best gains AFTER the header install. I do not have perforamnce numbers with the stock exhaust manifold, because I purchased this system AFTER headers. Previously the Magnaflow had the top gains hands down, but after the headers, this one etched out on top by 4 hp and 6 pounds of torque. I think that JBA did a good job matching their systems up. One thing that is interesting though is the muffler that came with it was a K & N muffler. The Y-pipe is smaller than ALL OTHER catback systems at 2.5"...EXCEPT where the bend in the tubing is and at the Y. The bend in the tubing on the drivers side expands to a little under 3" and then shrinks back down and it seems to act like a velocity channel. And the Y has two 2.5" pipes that come together to a 3" collector. There is some drone at 1600 rpms does not matter the speed, but it is definitely tolerable to me. This is a fairly loud agressive exhaust but is still not up with the Flowmasters or Bnaks.

I have another one that I will be adding the dyno numbers on in the near future. I got a magnaflow 2.25" dual in/ 3" single out muffler and ran two separate pipes to the muffler. Just in front of the muffler I put in Magnaflow resonators to help quieten down the truck. So I no longer have a y-pipe and it is set up like the 2007 Titan exhaust but with a wide-open magnaflow. I am now producing the best times the truck has ever produced and am very happy with the sound of it. The extra resonators did help reduce the in cab noise and drone is acceptable for the first time since adding the long tube headers.

So one conclusion that I was able to come to is that the 5.6 loves small pipes. That is where the low end torque comes from as does the max torque. It is funny that the 3 systems that produced the best numbers (hp and torque) used the smallest diameter Y-pipe and 2 of those were with the STOCK Y-PIPE and the other has the same diamter as the stock y-pipe. The dual systems lost speed in the lower range (below 40 mph) and I am convinced that is because of the minimal torque gains and I believe loss of back pressure. So if you want pure sound, the duals are the way to go. But if you want performance, the single exits with the smaller Y-pipe proved to be the best. But if you must use duals, use 2 to 2.25" pipes.

This was done on a Dynojet Dyno and times were tested with my Beltronics FX2 accelerometer.
 
See less See more
1
#3 ·
Thanks Shailey,

All of these comparisons are to a stock system????

Thanks!!!!!!!!

Chief
 
#4 ·
Wow Shailey! thanks for all the hard work you've put into this. Im impressed with your results as im sure every one else is too. Did you have a cai on when testing these exhausts? The reason i ask is i installed the Gibson swept side after the K&N drop in and the butt dyno says i lost low end torque, i have since replaced the stock air filter and believe ive gained it back does that make any since? Do you recall the torgue gain on the gibson i must have missed that one. Sorry for the long post man. Thanks Roy
 
#5 ·
I am terribly sorry, I should have explained a little better by what I meant when I said stock. I meant without the headers and computer reprogramming. I had completely reset the computer back to stock. The a/f ratios were in the 13 to 13.5 range under wot and idle test showed 102% and the timing was at 16*. I had the stock exhaust manifold and ecm and I had installed an Airaid cold air intake and poweraid TBS.

The torque gain on the Gibson was 15 lbs. of torque peak to peak. And the Borla produced almost the same results (12/14).

And Chief, yes this is compared to the stock exhaust system. The only variable that changed (when comparing these dynos) throughout the entire process was the exhaust from the rear cats back.

After I got the headers put on, I decided to try the JBA system just because of the gains posted on the website. I thought, hey, magnaflow was truthful, maybe they are too. So I bought it and the gains were very close to the manufactureres claims over pure stock. So I have actually found during this process, 2 manufacturers with numbers that are not misleading. I hate reading things like you gain 25 hp and 35 lbs of torque. Then in the small print you find out that peak to peak might only be 5 hp and 10 lbs of torque. Sure it is great to get higher numbers at certain spots in the rpm range, but I want the peak numbers to go up.

I will be trying out the Bassani exhaust shortly and will add to this list.
 
#530 ·
I recently installed the CherryBomb cat back dual exhaust for the for the 2007 nissan It ha 2.5 pipe all the way out to tips and sounds really good, It seems to have a pretty good seat of the pants feel though I havent dynoed it . You might want to check it out theres about a hundred dollars difference less than other systems and it looks good too.
 
#6 ·
Thanks Shailey, no need for apology. You are only helping out.

I'm just very interested in the comparisons to stock. The only mod I have done is to split the pipe into 2 AFTER the muffler. It's because I feel less backpressure is going to make you lose overall. I want it quiet and to be honest, I don't have much interest in making mine faster.

What you are saying seems to support the backpressure/torque issue, but it also looks like some gains can be had with the right system.

Thanks again for all the hard work!!!!!!!!!!

Chief
 
#7 ·
Thanks again shailey. I never heard of bassani, learn alot from this forum from guys like you.
 
#8 ·
Shailey:
Where any of those tests using a X Pipe. I am running a 2.5" X-pipe (after the cats) with all 2.5" pipe. It goes into 2 FM 40 series and stright out the back. All exhaust components are 2.5" except for the 3.5" tips. Do you think the set-up I am running is costing me low end torque? I also have the AEM and I will be putting a Helix power tower on soon. I also have the Active tuning ground kit.
 
#9 ·
I did not run an X pipe on any of them. And the two dual setups that I did try were also 2.5" pipes and I lost low end torque on both (figured because of higher times with the FX2 accelerometer). The FX2 times all of your speeds in 10 mph increments so I was able to see that the times were slower up to 40 with the dual system set up. Which leads me to believe that low end torque was lost. Now, once the truck got going it seemed to pick up drastically, but not until about 40 mph.

More than likely the Helix power tower will help recoup that lost low end torque. I found through dynos that the tbs in 3rd gear dynos, did not hardly show a noticeable increase (3 and 5). However, I am pretty certain that the tbs is designed to operate in the lower rpm range because with it on, 0-60, 1/8 and 1/4 mile times all came down. So the hp and torque increase is more noticeable in the range below 3150 rpms.

Hey float, here is a link to the Bassani page:

http://www.bassani.com
 
#11 ·
Some people are hard to convince that large free flowing pipes always yield more
power. I had a similar experience on a '97 Tahoe that had three cat-backs. The OEM
had two 2.0" pipes going into the muffler. The Gibson had two 2.5" & the Borla two 2.25".
The Flowmaster had a Y-pipe & one inlet pipe for the muffler. The Gibson with the largest
pipes lost low end power & the net result was zero. The Flowmaster & Borla did not lose
low end power & gave a small performance increase.
 
#12 ·
Mercury175 said:
Thanks man. You have allot of great info. I'll be getting my timing advanced 2 degrees as well. Should that give more low end as well?? Once again, thanks.
2* timing advance wil help with the low end. Just make certain and run good gas and I do not necessarily mean high octane. Because there have been several on here that have continued to run 87 and not lost their timing, but the first time the engine detects a ping, it will retard the timing back a degree at a time. I do run 93 in mine just to make certain that I do not lose the timing since I have put my ECM back to the lean a/f ratio and 18* timing.

Titan57 you have a great point and I will be honest, I was one of those people. I thought that bigger was better and I found out differently on this engine. I think that with the higher performance engines that are really pumping out the horsies would benefit more from a 3" or even 4" piping depending on the motor and output.

Jeff has done Vipers and Vette's (along with some F body cars) that are producing ridiculous amounts of power and they do best with 4" piping. But mine lost out the ying yang with the large diameter pipe.
 
#13 ·
I didn't want to risk losing low end power on my Titan as I had on two previous
trucks. I can't put into words how p...off I was to lose low end power on a truck.
Sacrificing low end power to gain on the top end may be OK on a car, but
not on a truck...IMO.
 
#14 ·
Thanks for sharing the info Shailey. Was the Flowmaster 70 Series the dual-outlet kit or a custom job? And are the 2WD stock resonators still in place?
 
#16 ·
This is great info, especially for a newbie like me. I do have a question though. On the exhausts with the Y pipe what was your A/F ratio in the lower RPM's compared to the Magnaflow? I'm curious if the Y pipe losing torque was caused by the ECM not compensating correctly or if the reduced backpressure is causing a scavenging problem?

Also, is the Magnaflow a single 3" with a straight through muffler? THeir website says it's a 3.5", but I can't believe that is the ID of their pipe. Sorry for all the questions. I'm thinking about saving a few $$ and welding up my own catback.
 
#17 ·
With the ecm set back to stock, my air/fuel ratio was running in the upper 12's to 13.2 with all of the systems including the complete stock. Now after I reset my ecm back to match my mods, I got the ratio back down to 11.5 to 11.8 which is much better for performance. I do not remember the piping being that big. Hang on. I just pulled the instruction sheet that came with the system and the pipe on the magnaflow was not a 3.5", the tip was, but not the piping. The pipe that came directly out of the stock y-pipe was 3" and all of the clamps were 3" clamps. That must be a typo on the website.

The muffler is not a complete straight through design. It is offset in/center out. Hope that this helps.
 
#18 ·
Thanks a million!! What a great read, since that is likely one of my next mods I found that very usefull.
Well written.

Scott
 
#20 ·
2006 Titans catback ?

Does anyone know if something changed, for 2006 model ? I'm looking up Gibson, and can't find fit for 2006 model. Then I've read on other site, that Gibson was offering free catback to 2006 titan owners that would let them use there truck for testing.
 
#21 ·
shailey said:
Glad to help. In a couple of more days, I will have the same results on cold air intakes. I have 5 to test now.
I have a special request for when you are testing the intakes. A couple folks have had good "butt dyno" results by taking the stock airbox, taking out the snorkel, making a 4" hole and using a homemade 4" snorkel into the fender and adding a K&N drop in. Do you have any interest in seeing how this air box mod stacks up with the CAIs?

Thanks,
Mike
 
#22 ·
I will look at the fender well tomorrow and see. My first thought is no and I will explain why. The majority of the air is going to come from the front of the truck and the collector that the stock airbox uses is pretty good with a little modification. I cut the top out of mine where it enters the air box so the air goes straight up toward the filter instead of into the bottom back of the box. But to limit the amount of total airflow to a 4" tube, may actually restrict the amount of air available to the intake box. I will look at it tomorrow, keep an open mind and think about it.
 
#23 ·
shailey said:
Glad to help. In a couple of more days, I will have the same results on cold air intakes. I have 5 to test now.
Lookin forward to this one too Shailey! Your CAI tests are with ecu set back to stock settings?
 
#25 ·
Shailey,

Where abouts is Cleveland, TN??

I have a brother-in-law who lives outside of Memphis, actually in Mississippi just over the border.

Steve
 
Top