hello-

i'm new to NAM, though i've been combing for sometime. i'm a big Do-it-yourselfer. anyway...to my question for you knowledgeable people. i have a buddy who works at a shop and he said he could build me a custom exhaust for a fraction of the cost. what would be the best piping size, routing, etc? and muffler recommendations? i read alot of good thinks about milltek. also..i know m7 discontinued the AGS for fitment and failure reasons...but would there be away to manufacture one? what would that require? thanks. hope to hear responses. these questions have been plaguing me.

 

Please? Any ideas..?

 

Building your own exhaust is not the easiest of things to do, coming from personal experience, and make it have no flaws. Generally I have seen a 2.5"-3" tubing to really get the right power/sound.

First tho which model mini do you have?

 

Oh...sorry...forgot even mention that. I have a 2005 mcs. The guy who offered the exhaust build has experience but only w muscle cars and such...I've read that some people just route the exhaust straight out, no bends?

 

Some Mini's can go straight through like on my brothers '04 because they do not have the battery located in the boot. On my '06 MCS the battery is located in the boot and will not allow for a straight through no bend exhaust because it would be riding on the ground.

If your '05 is like mine, which I assume it is, you will need to bend the exhaust to route around one side or the other of the batt location underneath. Most of the exhausts I have been looking at have two mufflers but cannot understand why or find the information other than assuming flow/volume.

Hopefully the guy your working with has the ability to do mandrel bends to make sure there is no restriction. If he does not have that ability I would surely do the 3" since the bends will add a little flow restriction.

As for the muffler there are a few options i would suggest staying away from flowmaster they just have issues. Personally I like Borla had good luck with them, good power and sound, magnaflow is not bad either.

Hopefully this helps

 

Thanks for the input. The guy I'm going to get to help me can def do mandrel bends...couldn't we route the exhaust like the one ball set up but w a larger diameter piping with a dual pipe muffler to retain the S look?

 

And what about the old m7 ags system? I never can find actual pictures of it...do you or anyone know what it replaced and how it was routed?

 

You can easily do the one ball set up with the once muffler and still retain the MCS look with larger pipes.

For the m7 set up I am not sure I am unable to locate any good information on it and in all reality the good setups I have found thus far are the alta exhaust which has a single muffler on the passenger side of the batt box, or the others which have the dual mufflers on either side of the box.

http://www.altaperformance.com/produ...xhaust-System-

hopefully others can provide more useful info regarding the m& exhaust than I can.

 

As fas as exhaust goes, I'd say go for 2.75" pipes. There was a period of time were everyone wanted a 3" exhaust. The people that I know of who went for it have since gone back to a 2.75". Back pressure is important with our little engines, and a 3" exhaust is apparently stupidly loud with a mini. I would also say just do one muffler on the side of the battery. All MCS first gens have the battery box, including the 01's. Some people have shaved the battery box and mounted the battery elsewhere. This is a lot of work for little gain, and has only really been done on full on track only race cars, and is usually more for the use of a rear diffuser than a straight pipe. There are many mufflers to choose from, and please do something crazy with the tips!

the ags was a super complicated air intake that was really only cool because of the noise it made. They were not successful. If you want to DIY-it, search for a HAI (hot air intake), basically just a cone filter mounted to the TB. If I were you, I'd get the idea of DIY-ing an ags system... not worth it for one, and a ton of work for two.

 

Cool...thanks so much for the input. I already have a HAI though I'm currently scheming of a DIY CAI. Heat soak sucks. As far as the exhaust...I like the look of the dual pipes out of the back...but what do mean do something cool w the tips? Any tips for the tips? Lol...

 

well I'd love to see what you come up with! I haven't really heard of anything DIY besides the HAI, so i' definitley love to see what you come up with haha. I'm sure the heat soak is horrible!

haha i just mean do something that's creative and new and crazy. like something thats never been done on a mini... if you can figure something out haha. I always like to see people branch out from the realm!

 

I just got my exhaust done this friday. Went with the 2.5" mandrel bent stainless steel straight pipe.
Sounds extremely mean but definetly add a muffler of your choice if you dont want the obnoxiously loud sound and burbles.

As for the route, after having done many computer simulations, i found that the best route is a one-sided (preferably on the passenger side for weight distribution). I found that the dual route is very tricky since you would need to change the diamater of the pipes as soon as you separate the flow. Also having a smooth transition between your single 2.5" pipe and your two smaller pipes is also very hard.

So your best route would be to add your mufflers on the straight part (right after the cat) and then made a nice circular bend on the passenger side.

For my tips, I decided to go with a dual 3" pipes (actual pipes from the exhaust). I also let them stick out about 1.5" past the opening.