Hey ppl,
Im in a bit of a pickle right now. I want to get a muffler installed on my 96 civic. I was talking to my mechanic and he said it would be better to install a complete exhaust system rather than getting a Ractive muffler or sumin' like that. I dont really want to change everything cuz im more interested in the sound :-) What do you guys think?
He also said that it would be easier for him to do that as opposed to welding the muffler on. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

I never actually bought a full cat-back exhaust. Sounds like your mechanic is either not a muffler/exhaust guy or is lazy. I went with the universal N1 muffler and just had the rest of my piping made. It's not a big deal to get a universal muffler and just integrate it into your exhaust, especially if you're not looking for performance gains. All they have to do is hack off your muffler, weld new hangers onto your new muffler and weld it onto the existing piping on your car. They might have to expand the piping on the muffler so it will slide over your existing piping, but that's common. Just spend the ~$150 on the muffler and get them to install it. Very simple process.

 

westcoast has a good point. but you also got to look at as if you put a universal muffler on and if you use your stock pipes, they are going to eventually rust out. i ran into the same problem. the who had my car before me put just a new muffler on and eventually the stock mid pipe started to rust out and broke loose, i ended up putting an Apexi World Sport 2 cat-back exhaust on my car, it sounds and runs better. dont settle for the first thing you see. i did alot of research and pricing before i bought an exhaust.

 

This is true for any piping though. As long as the welds are sprayed with some high-temp paint then they shouldn't rust for quite a while. If your current piping is rusted out, then you would either be better off buying the entire cat-back OR just have the muffler shop run some piping for you. Like I said, I've never bought a manufactured exhaust...

 

so why not get a nice sound and some performance out of it? and yea it would be easier to install than welding the muffler on

 

:chuckles:

Ya, the whole 2-5 whp you'd get on a Civic.

 

this is what WILL happen. (what happend to mine)
I agree completly with westcoast, just get one custom made. Just make sure they dont use crush bent and make sure you spend a good amount on a decent muffler and it will come out better then an aftermarket system.

 

hey it's better than nothing lol

 

Not for $400+ when you could have your own made for half of that. :shrug:

 

Agreed, I'm having my pipe mandrel bended today. Pipe 30$ The shop next to where I got the pipe is doing the bends for 40$ all I need now are the flanges and gaskets. Figure about a hundred bucks for every thing minus the fart can.