About two months ago I had the precat issue on my 2004 R53, the exhaust broke completely off at the precat, most of us know that once this happens you're pretty much looking at a new header... So I thought, why not get a full aftermarket exhaust now that I have an excuse to get one

I Had no option but to drive around sounding like a riced honda for a week or so until I figured out exactly what to get as a replacement and wait until those parts arrived from across the country.. OEM was definitely out of the question, my local MINI dealer had their headers listed for $1200, also my right muffler was quite rusty so I thought it was best to have it all replaced..

So here is what I went for:

OBX ceramic coated header
Pre cat delete with the OEM catalytic welded to the OBX
One ball mod with refreshed tips




The header cost me $180 shipped, I have to admit that I was a bit afraid it'd leak since it was so cheap..




Also make sure the welds don't get in the way of the nuts, I heard that some people go through hell shaving some of it off in order to fully bolt the header on.. Mine seemed to be fine, but still if you're getting one of these keep an eye out for imperfections .. Best is to have it installed before the return policy is up..


I din't bolt/weld or make any of the modifications to the car myself, after getting a killer quote from a local exhaust shop I thought it would be best to hand it all over to those guys, the OEM header was basically rusted onto the studs the guy told me it took him 40 mins to get the broken header off, I'm glad I chose not to deal with any of it..


The one ball mod was quite simple, they removed the rusty muffler on the right side and simply welded a left elbow to the left muffler.. Also, they gave me new tips, I believe they're 2.5", I don't quite remember.. This was all a couple months ago.







So what was the complete cost??
$600

This includes the the OBX header -- $180
New exhaust tips, labor to have the old header removed, new header bolted on, cut OEM cat off the remains of the old header, weld the cat onto the new one and cut old tips to weld on new ones -- $400



I honestly thought it was a bargain since I din't have to touch the car, it also sounds pretty good..

Here's the final result.. (warm start up)


http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...1E56FD7469.mp4

As of now I've driven about 3k miles since I've had the new system installed, so far no problems (knock on wood).

Thought I'd post this on here for those who are looking for a cheap exhaust mods..

Let me know what you all think!

 

Awesome job.

 

Any CEL's? Did you notice any gains?

 

no CEL, second 02 remained intact. I can feel some torque gains, not too sure if its becuase I went from no exhaust to full exhaust...

But I can say its got a bit more responsive

 

Sounds really nice