I've looked around the web and seen some pretty steep prices for after martket exhaust kits. Are the prices for higher end exhaust setups justified from a performance standpoint, or are they just for aesthetic(looks and sound in paticular) purposes?

I just wanna know if this will be a worthy investment for my 98 SC3

 

I would only recommend an exhaust for performance if your car has forced induction on the I6. The gains are minimal for the price IMO. With some of these systems costing close to or past $1000 you could piece together a na-t kit and see more gains on a stock exhaust system.

 

how much performance are you after? unless you want to turbo or s/c it, just get a good muffler shop to make you an exhaust system. that way, it's cheapr, you get to pick the muffler and tip styles, and the performance will be the same as those mega buck big name systems; if your muffler guy knows what he's doing.

 

thats what I did...2 ebay knock offs $35, 3'' mandrel bent pipes from the cat back, for $180 from a shop here in houston

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

I don't have any plans on a 1 or 2JZGTTE swap at the moment. I was just wondering if the more expensive systems were worth the dough From what I gather from the reples; it isn't - unless you're going na-T

Most likely the route I'll be going. Just have to find some decent headers.

 

Spending the money for an exhaust on an n/a SC300 is definitely a waste of money. The stock exhaust system is plenty large enough to capacitate near peak performance. Any money spent will present extremely marginal gains. A perfectly designed exhaust system for an n/a SC300 would net less than 20hp for the same cost of a cheap turbo kit that can net 100hp.

I would save the money you want to put onto exhaust now and use it for a turbo kit later on the stock exhaust. Turbo kit on stock exhaust >>> Premium exhaust on stock motor >>> Ebay exhaust on stock motor.

 

If you really just want exhaust for whatever reason, get it custom made with legit mufflers that would be cheaper

 

good Muffler brand choice. I use the Magnaflow stainless steel polished "straight-through" design mufflers and everyone always comments how they like the sound of my exhaust .