I would like to add my own experience for those who are planning to mate this with their
stock catback system like I did yesterday, because after I got my car apart and my stock downpipe removed I realized it's a little more confusing (at least it was to me) than the info I could find online and it caused a bit of a panic at first, and it's still not 100% clear to me if how I installed it is proper. Perhaps Ron or others can give some additional feedback.
Ron sells a
3" to 2.5" (and stock exhaust) downpipe adapter for this application. Here's my conversation with Ron when I asked if the adapter is necessary when attaching to the stock catback.
SirThomas88 said:
Hi Ron, I just want to confirm with you about your 3" catted downpipe..
To run this on my stock exhaust, will I need any additional hardware? It appears not by the description on the page, but I see you also sell a 3" to 2.5" adapter that you sell separately, and I'm not sure from the description for the catted downpipe whether this is included in your catted DP, or not needed at all.
Thanks,
JT
ron@whoosh said:
there is a reducer ring included that does help seal against the stock exhaust flange "but" the proper way or best way to make it seal properly is by using the adapter kit sold on the site
Based on this I decided to forego the adapter piece.
When we (my friend and I) got the OEM downpipe off (a real PITA) and lined up the new one, I noticed that the provided exhaust gasket does not line up with the flange of the stock catback and doesn't look like it'll make a seal, which, admittedly, should have been expected, except that I assumed based on my convo with Ron and the limited info on the product description that it would fit both a 3" exhaust flange and a 2.5" flange. The info Ron provides in this thread above also seems to imply that the provided gasket will work fine when he says:
Pic #3 and Pic #4
If you have a 2.5" system like COBB or many other systems or even a stock exhaust you will use the supplied "ring" for proper sealing and fitment. The inside diameter of the ring is 2.5".
Once you place the sealing ring in the recess of the downpipe, place the gasket on top, then seal against the flange of the exhaust with the supplied hardware.
As you can see from the photo above, the gasket doesn't line up with the flange. Obviously a major exhaust leak would occur installing this way.
So then the question came, are we supposed to use the OEM gasket instead? Or are we supposed to use BOTH gaskets? In Ron's statement, its not clear whether he's referring to using the supplied gasket or OEM gasket or both. Well the problem here is that the OEM gasket alone is too thin to cover the supplied adapter ring. (Sorry no pic).
We considered using both gaskets along with the included adapter ring, with the supplied gasket against the adapter ring and the OEM gasket against the stock catback flange. This didn't seem like it would work properly and I was very skeptical of this. The outside diameter of the OEM gasket is barely wide enough to cover the inside diameter of the supplied gasket, which would cause a leak. There's just not enough overlap to be confident in this. (Sorry no pic)
In a bit of a panic I had tried reaching out to Ron, thankfully in emails he provides his cellphone number in his signature, so I tried calling and then texted, he didn't get back to me right away until after we put the car back together.
DECISION: We noticed that the provided adapter ring, when mounted in the Whoosh catback, sits just slightly thicker than the 3" flange and isn't flush. We figured this is to allow it to make a seal by "crushing" the metal adapter ring against the whoosh 3" flange and so we decided our most likely best course of action was to use the adapter ring against the downpipe and use ONLY use the OEM gasket and bolted the catback and downpipe together. (Sorry no pic again! Ugh.)
RESULT: Drove the car home last night and everything seems good so far with this setup (used the provided adapter ring with the OEM gasket, did not use the provided gasket). So far, doesn't seem like there's any exhaust leak, no codes, etc, car feels and sounds great.
It was a Saturday afternoon and I'm sure he was busy having a life but Ron did get back to me just a half hour after I completed the install and he texted me this:
ron@whoosh said:
Most use the reducer ring (flat side facing stock exhaust flange). Bevel toward downpipe. Use both the metal OEM and supplied gasket. Line up and center best you can."
So I'm really not sure what's best way, I assume that given Ron's vast experience compared to my limit experience that his way is probably correct. However I'm still very skeptical that the two gaskets used together would provide a good seal and so far using just the OEM gasket and crushing the adapter ring is holding up fine (only drove 1 hour so far though). It's too early to text him this morning but later today I'm going to text him back and see his thoughts on using only the OEM gasket.
I'll probably be picking up and installing the 3" to 2.5" adapter eventually. I'll see how the OEM gasket and adapter "crush" ring holds up in the meantime. If an exhaust leak here does occur the worst that will happen is it'll sound terrible and maybe the car won't drive quite as well until I fix it, and replacing this part is very easy compared to the rest of the install!
Thanks to Ron for getting back to me as quickly as he did and also thanks to Jason at
Dizzy Tuning for being available on a Saturday in my panic to help answer questions based on his experience even though it's not his product.
Hopefully my experience will help others planning to install Ron's downpipe to OEM catback avoid any headaches or consternation. His product looks great, the sound difference is modest but noticeable and I love it, and also at $300 - $340 for a new high flow catted downpipe you really can't beat that price!
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