I have a 02 ls430 and was wondering if anyone had any good idea for a good exhaust system for a ls430. I was thinking of taking off the resonators and mufflers but was not sure. Let me know what yall think.

 

With the exception of a few brands like Tom’s there are generally very few aftermarket full exhaust systems sold for a pre-facelift LS. From what I understand most people are going to custom route - removing mufflers and resonators, sometimes fabbing their own - kind of a personal preference on how big or small you want to go with it.

also be careful in choosing your exhaust tips - again pre-facelifts do not have exhaust cutouts in the bumper so you will need to either have them sit below, have the bumpers cut to create cutouts, or get a rear lip/bumper.

 

Tom's and TRD have systems but they are all used and were never sold in America. Fujitsubo has a system also, again, not sold in North America and the performance gains aren't worth the price or the wait times. As stated, you're best bet is to find a quality exhaust shop local to you and get something custom.

Are you going for performance gains, noise, or both?

 

I've never understood fooling around with the exhaust system of these engineered and refined to the N'th degree cars.

 

I am mostly going for noise, but perfomance would be good. I have thought of deleting my resonators and getting new mufflers though.

 

Well there is a lot of these threads already and you’re gonna get A LOT of opinions about what should or shouldn’t be done. That said I have a modified exhaust and this is a super brief rundown of what I’ve found and will give you a straight answer…

There really isn’t any good feasible full exhaust for these cars and the few that have been made in the past are way too expensive.

Do a custom exhaust if you are going to.
Easiest is a muffler delete, not too loud, minimal drone around 1900rpm.

Past that generally people delete the Y-pipe and third cat and add an X-pipe and your choice of resonators and mufflers. Some do straight pipe, I personally think it sounds bad but that’s just an opinion.

I wouldn’t do larger than 2.25” pipe, no reason to, probably would lose power, stock pipe is around 1.9” in areas.

I did 2.25 pipe dual keeping front cats, H-pipe which I’ve gotten flack for but idc, it sounds good, Vibrant resonators, and tips. I have some drone around 1500rpm (measured with phone it’s 97hz & 107hz depending on gear/speed) was gonna do J-pipe which I made but with space requirements and a 10hz range I’m fabricating a helmholtz resonator. It’ll sit next to the vibrant in back. Has a lower Q and wider range. Outside of that my exhaust makes me smile a ton. It is not too loud and I don’t notice any loss of power. Was gonna dyno before and after but at $150 each visit and a 6 week wait I didn’t. Will do PPE headers next and plan to do a Harrop HTV1900 supercharger and ECU tune which will probably change tone but I’m excited to find out.

Don’t let anyone tell you what you should do with YOUR car. Have fun and good luck man!