SC430fun

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stainless-Performance-Exhaust-Kit-Cat-Back-02-08-Lexus-SC430-4-3L-69171-/400940849090?fits=Model%3ASC430&hash=item5d59efd7c2&vxp=mtr
Is this a Magnaflow system? I am looking to purchase a full cat-back soon, or at least the muffler assembly with tips and Ill have the remainder of it assembled.

I also thought about going for the Magnaflow setup, and using the blue tips from the Megan kit, if I can get a pair of those separately.

Bgw70

Adding to mademedoits comments...
It is a magnaflow kit, 16917. He quoted me $640 shipped.

Are you guys going to remove the third cat?
If so, how will you bypass that piece?
Will you purchase a bolt on bypass or will you have a muffler shop weld in a piece?

Bgw70

No worries, I too think the environment is important! I was wondering because I have read that some SC430s only have two cats. I believe that might be in Europe.
Can anyone confirm?

ShawnOk

iTrader: (1)

Would like to see and hear your results. Please post a video once completed. Thanks!

ShawnOk

iTrader: (1)

I have a 2002 and mine had the 3rd cat. I deleted the resonators and third cat and my sound is pretty nice as it stands. I know the concerns about the environment and when I talked to the muffler shop they said removing the third won't alter the emissions output sine there are two remaining, but that could have just been a selling point. Anyway, for $60 my exhaust sounds pretty aggressive. I get lots of compliments.

SC430fun

I dont think removing the third cat will cause any issues. That exhaust from the muffler back is identical to the exhaust I made for my Tbird where I removed the third cat and resonator and installed an x pipe, and never caused any smog issues even here in Los Angeles. Removing the old stock Ford mufflers and installing the new magnaflows and it ran just as clean if not cleaner than stock. Now obviously its a different animal, but the SC430 is a ULEV to begin with, so if doing the exhaust (properly) creates a little more pollution, I doubt its anything sizable. There are many 4 cylinder cars that do not even have the same ULEV status.

I will double check to be safe, because I am beginning to wonder if I should do the same thing for my SC, and put together a system with Magnaflow mufflers, and custom tips. Just removing the third cat and leaving everything behind it alone for now, and getting the great sound and other benefits of the upgraded exhaust?

Is it common for people to use glass packs on these cars? I heard some SC430's running around in the past, that sounded like a glass pack was integrated into their setups with the aggressive sound it made.

Bgw70

Why would someone suck or become a dickbag for removing the third catalyst in our cars. It might be nicer to just ask them not to do it because you are concerned about the environment...

We do need to be good keepers of the environment but let's face it, driving a car with a V8 is much worse than a person driving Civic Hybrid which gets close to 40MPG vs our SCs that get around 20MPG.

SC430fun

I tend to go for REAL power-adders, and skip on the bull**** ones that only add 1-2 hp; its just not worth it. I had no idea that the third cat in this car actually makes a difference. I DO believe you, and I am not arguing over whether it does add to the crap in the air or not on the Lexus, I was just pointing out that I had some different experiences with my other rides, particularly the Fords. I had worked on many cars in the past with all kinds of extra smog crap on them (on top of what was apparently needed), that did not work to well, and my early 80's Prelude was one of them with junction boxes to connect groups of vacuum lines - I ended up removing some of the empty boxes after they cracked and leaked and replaced the segmented lines with longer vacuum lines, and finally got the car to smog after, I had this issue even more so with domestic crap made in the 80's and 90's... On the other hand, being a Lexus its much more refined than most other cars on the road, so if they built it this way, it is this way for a reason. I am finding levels of refined design on my 9 (2006) year old, 117k miles SC430 that I dont see even with newer cars. The idiot that wrote the Top Gear article online about this car, was well, an idiot. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but this guy was obviously biased against it. Yesterday I had some new M4 trying to play with me, and I ignored it.. He would have handed me my own ***, but in reality, that guy is going to have a car that consumes a lot of oil, needs extra TLC on top of the strict maintenance schedule, and STILL have plenty of **** breaking regularly. I have a feeling that most of the money I spend on this car will be adding upgrades, and fixing the cheap body work and paint job in the front, but I will probably just spray the car blue and maybe even go for the rare Lexus Violet Blue if i can.

On my Tbirds and Lincoln Mark VIII (32v Cobra engine), I actually ran cleaner out the exhaust during my smog test with my performance exhaust system consisting of Magnaflow mufflers, true dual 2.5" pipes, x pipe, high flow magnaflow universal cats and everything else I mentioned. It was not until I got headers/custom collectors that my Fords started running with more crap out the pipes oddly enough. When I look at it in hindsight though, it was probably because I replaced very old cats with new ones weeks before the smog, that possibly could have been semi-clogged. I did have the same results when I moved this exhaust system over to the 2 other Tbirds, and then to my Mark VIII. (3.8 v6. 5.0 v8, and 4.6 v8 DOHC)

I am merely exploring the idea amongst many others - I just got the car a month ago, and was a bit shocked that the internals of these Toyota V8's cant handle much power despite the great reliability of them although I do remember in the past hearing that about the Tundra 4.7. My previous car with the Cobra engine (Terminator, and Coyote are the newer versions) was able to handle up to 700hp stock, forged parts, titanium valve-train, and that engine sounded downright wicked (one of the best American engines ever made) and not really sounding much different than a new Mustang with an exhaust. If removing the third cat does not do **** and makes it run more dirty, then Ill avoid. I just want to get the exhaust right the first time and not have to constantly evolve my exhaust system like on my previous car which cost me about $1700 throughout the years when I got new ideas. It should be much easier though since I am making about 135hp and almost 140lbs torque less roughly in the Lexus, so I was going to try focusing more on sound when I make the jump and buy the parts needed to complete the exhaust system upgrade.

I really like the Magnaflow and will probably just go with it, but the one thing I was stuck on is the muffler. I almost wanted to use more standard mufflers on it, so I could use the same style Magnaflows I used on my Fords. Either way, even if I go custom, everything from cat back to the muffler would be similar if not the same. It doesn't seem like there is enough room, or even reason to pursue a true dual setup.

The muffler in the Magnaflow kit, I see the 2 exhaust pipes connecting to it, but is the exhaust flow shared within 1 big chamber before the exhaust exits the tips? I like the straight through, non chambered design of most of the magnaflows and borlas (which are actually pretty similar), but the sound wont be as deep, but then I would probably would have droning on the freeway. I had a loud, deep drone sound between 65-75mph on the freeway (after installing x pipe), and was not able to use my phone even with a headset. The x pipe really made the gas pedal more responsive, I was surprised! LOL, it really pissed my ex gf off a lot when she couldnt wait until I got home to ***** and yell at me over whatever.

I am going to get under my SC today to check out the exhaust and the wheel wells. When I got the car, the idiot mechanics at the dealer did not screw in the wheel drive passenger side, and it flaps around and drags against the tire and ground and drives me nuts. It really makes noise when I reverse the car and turn the wheels to the left. People look at me in public when they hear the noise, because it sounds like I am running into a car next to me. The wheel well is semi-destroyed and shredded and have the remaining part of it zip tied in place to protect the wires behind the best I can for now. I have to get a new wheel well asap, and a new clock spring harness so I can use my horn, and take care of my flickering and intermittent HID's (probably ballasts). I have been using my voice and yelling for the past month, and people just look at me like I am crazy, even when they almost hit me! I don't plan to do too many mods to the car, but it will be slowly over next couple years.

Thank you for the input, and I will check back later today after I get a good look at my car!!

SC430fun

Good point!! Using the same logic, a person would be a dickbag just for driving a V8, when you could be driving a 4cyl and/or hybrid.. lol

I am going to call the guy on ebay since he is in CA and appears to have a shop about an hour or two from me. It would be nice to take a drive out there to look at the exhaust system in person. If he does not have to ship it to me, he may give me a better deal on it.

I did double check and the car is ULEV, which is pretty damn good and is a testament to the engineering Toyota used in development. I have a 99 Honda Accord that is SULEV, but its a 4cyl with about 160hp, and despite having only 50k miles on it, I can only max out at 28mpg best on the highway. Unfortunately since the car was not driven much, it was the final nail in the coffin to the already shoddy transmission in that car (some years had issues with the auto trans).. $2800 later, its rebuilt and beefed up so it will not have the same issue again in the future - I would have dumped it if it didnt have so few miles. I wanted an SC for a long time, but the trans issues in the Accord is what pushed me to finally look at Toyota/Lexus, and I have been getting nothing but compliments on the car. I had 300k on my Lincoln (an LEV) and decided it would be better to put the money into something newer, even if its got a lot less power. Despite there being a large number of them on the road in LA, it catches a lot of attention with the hard top retracted. I have gotten up to 26mpg consistently on the highway so far with my SC, and I have not even fixed all the assorted minor issues yet.

Thank you guys! I appreciate you taking the time to help me out with the decision process. Otherwise I would probably go back and forth for several months over this upgrade

SC430fun

Sweet rides! And my skin is pretty thick, so I know it was nothing to take personal

I looked at the thread link you sent me, and the exhaust I heard in the video sounds exactly like the SC430's I heard ripping around LA. Does your Magnaflow system sound the same as the one in the video?

I like the other systems, but I am thinking a magnaflow setup with some minor enhancements and those headers would unlock a similar amount of power. If I can drive out for the exhaust and get it for $600 or a little under, get the Megan tips (or similar), collectors and Ill be sure to incorporate an X pipe in there. If I do end up going custom, I will go for those same mufflers, which looked identical to the ones on my Tbirds, and Lincoln. I wanted to have a little extra room so when I play with the motor in the near future, I don't have to enhance the exhaust again.

If I can get the headers for a decent price, I will be able to get a little help and put them in for little to no cost. I have another car to use so I don't have to freak out and rush anything if I take that leap.

tromly

Keeping it real!

Bgw70

Did you purchase this exhaust?

SC430fun

I didnt get the exhaust yet.. im getting the weapon r intake in the next week or less and will do the exhaust by early november hopefully. I just got into a good new job so it will be a lot easier to do now. I am very curious to hear how my car sounds with the intake and ram air tube setup, and since there does not seem to be many around with this kind of intake, ill be documenting the whole process from start to end including a video of how it sounds.

All the dumb little issues like my shredded wheel well, flickering headlights, and other cosmetic issues is being finally worked on now. I dont want to jinx myself but this car has not skipped a beat and ive already put over 5k miles on it since July! Other things like maintenance is currently being done and planning the timing belt in next month or two. I have been really enjoying the car to say the least though.. i got this car very cheap because if the stupid issues but most of it is pretty straight forward to fix so far. Will be installing aftermarket bumper cover by next year, sanding the silver paint off the car and fixing few dents, and painting it blue either midnight or the lexus violet blue.. when i am done my car will be like the $27k sc430 I was drooling over at the dealer but ill have spent half that amount to buy my car.

Im debating between custom exhaust like i had on my fords or going for magnaflow and modding that with megan downpipes and x pipe possibly..

Since I am working again and have $$ coming in, now ill be posting a new thread on my project car with the list of things needed to make eveything right and taking pics and updating as I knock out these tasks..

Hopefully this post does not look too strange since I used my phone to do it..

Bgw70

It reads just fine!
I have been thinking about the exhaust again after hearing the car from Japan, the YouTube video posted in the other thread.
Now I know my car would not sound like the car in Japan, but it sure would be nice to hear it more than I hear it now. Which is nothing.
Here is the cool thing about it, this is my wife's car and she keeps telling me she wants the car to sound more like my 2000 Trans Am!!!
So, if I want to make the purchase, she is already convinced it should happen.
If I do it, I want to delete the third cat, I know ShawnOK did it and need to look up his thread to find out what he used to bypass the third cat.

Harold57

Wow, that's amazing. Most women prefer the quiet engine and would complain about the extra noise. (I know mine would.)