this exhaust to be installed next weekend
 

I now have the last piece of the puzzle to install my new to me used exhaust. Headers/performance cats along with Dansk muffler were purchased from local guru Jake Raby and the cat delete pipes from Meir ( thank you ). I weighed the exhaust pieces and the total is 54.8 pounds. I will weigh the OEM bits to compare weight but I assume there will be a weight savings. Jake said I would get some performance increase mainly from the deletion of the rear cats but if I get a little more pop, some weight savings and a little more growl out of the exhaust with no drone I'll be a happy camper :D. I think realistically maybe 4-5 hp but the weight savings ( I hope ) will help also. Long weekend next week for the holiday so she'll be up on the lift. hopefully all will go well. Snapped a few pics so you see what I will be installing.

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Tell us more about the "performance headers"! Who makes them?

I have no idea I don't see a part number or brand stamp anywhere on them. Jake told me he removed them from a dead S a customer brought him. Whoever made them the welds/bends are very nice with either 200 or 300 cell cats. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

They look like factory headers with the side exits from the cats.

Can you expand on that ? What are/were factory headers ? The tubes/welds on the headers I'm going to install are much nicer than the somewhat crude OEM exhaust manifolds currently on the car.

Today was the day to start the adventure known as an exhaust swap. Placed the S on my scissor lift and started at the muffler. I contemplated removing the rear bumper but decided to plow forward and be stubborn and struggle. It only took about 20 minutes to remove the top nuts for the top muffler mount. Then moved onto the clamps, no big deal here I powered through with an air impact. I did treat all the nuts with PB Blaster the night before. Struggled a little bit removing the muffler but the right combination of cursing did the trick :D . Then onto the rear cats no struggle here everything came apart no issues. Now onto the OEM headers. First I unplugged the O2 sensors, took me a few minutes to figure out the " tab " to push to remove the connector. All O2 sensors came out with no issues. I'm happy to report no snapped bolts :cheers: . OK now everything is removed now time to start installing items. Did the headers first with new metal gaskets and a coating of Loctite 510 as recommended by a local guru. Went in no problem but wow it's tight in there !
Then I installed the rear cat delete pipes no problems there other than the supplied hardware was crap :mad: I'll probably replace in the future. So now I'm almost home and I go to mount the Dansk muffler and the bracket on the muffler won't fit the transmission ...........crap ! After studying the situation I was able to use some parts from the OEM setup and the Dansk to make it work. I ran out of time to complete today and I have to make a Home Depot run for a few spacers but she'll be done tomorrow. When buying used you know you might run into issues so I wasn't concerned. All pipes went together as planned and the exhaust tips are centered in the opening. Tomorrow I hope to update with road trip results :D

Today I installed the new exhaust, ran into a few issues with the Dansk muffler bracket apparently meant for a different model :mad: . Anyway after modifying the mount using a combination of Dansk and OEM pieces she's centered and all pipes hooked up. Tomorrow I'll finalize everything and report back with road test results :D Fortunately no snapped bolts/nuts and didn't have to remove the rear bumper. But man my arms/neck are sore !!! Very thankful that I have a scissor lift this would have been ugly on jack stands :p

Sorry for the double post I thought I was having computer issues.

The bracket for that Dansk exhaust is for a 2.5 as you've since found out. I had one and was going to modify to fit but ended up selling it and doing a Carnewal modification instead.

Yesterday I completed the install. Did a little modifying with some home made spacers and utilized a combination of OEM and Dansk brackets. The muffler is rock solid and centered in the opening and is straight looking at it from the side. When I first fired her up I had a smile on my face as she has a nice mild growl at idle. I let her warm up for a minute or so and then started blipping the throttle........nice ! So then I was off on the maiden voyage. Throttle response is good and the sound from idle to 5000 rpm's is a little louder than stock, has a little bit of a raspy growl and NO drone :D . From 5000 to 7000 she seems to settle down to a quiet howl I like how she sounds. Driving around town I bogged it down a little around 2200 - 2800 to see if I could induce drone but nothing I'm happy to report. I do think I hear a slight leak at both slip joints for the rear cat delete pipes so I'll be adding the 2 " NAPA clamps that are talked about in other exhaust threads. So overall impressions are she sounds better, a little bit louder than stock, no drone and I'm sure I saved some weight so what's not to like ? She is not loud but that's not what I'm looking for. I still have to weigh the OEM bits but just feeling the parts in my hand I'm guessing 20-25 pounds saved. I'm a happy camper. :cheers:

With the stock exhaust, did you have the very common 3k rpm vibration, especially when decelerating, and if so, did the Dansk fix the problem.

I may not have enough seat time to answer as I just picked her up in January. I don't recall a vibration at 3k but I know I don't have one now.