Originally Posted by EO2K (Post 1229790)

Originally Posted by aidandj (Post 1232487)

Yes please!

Columbia Mandrel bending is local to me. Its where I picked up my downpipe material.

Originally Posted by EO2K (Post 1232536)

Sunday was rather productive :party:

I drove up to Gesso's place and arrived much later than expected (about noon.) Pat didn't get there much before I did so I don't feel quite so bad for making people wait. We got started pretty much immediately by ripping out the stock exhaust.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
Steady state highway cruise at 80~ish really has a tendency to heatsoak things. Great big fan really helped pull the heat out of the cast iron behemoth manifold so I could actually, you know, unbolt it.

Not shown, removal of stock exhaust, manifold and installation of turbo, manifold and downpipe.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
Clever muffler mounting trick is clever. This gave us the support needed to figure out where to put the hangers. Not sure where Gesso saw that but holding up the giant magnaflow would have been a challenge without it.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
Gesso using his magical machine to add said hangers to said muffler.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
Much marking, cutting, thinking, cutting again, and tack welding thus commenced!

http://40.media.tumblr.com/197708a0f...oxto6_1280.png
That's no joke... I think we were at this for something like 8 hours? Its insane. We made a lot of quick progress then got bogged down in fitting all the crazy little bendy sections.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
My god, its full of stars!

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
Little lower angle for you. I was not sure that big ass 5" OD resonator was going to fit, but Gesso said we could do it, so we did it! You can see the flex joint in the ARTech downpipe just ahead of the resonator body.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
A small variation on the classic "broomstick test." Exocet can be seen in the background mean-mugging. I think it wants to be next.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
The fitment really is quite amazingly good, seeing as how none of us had ever done this before. I was sure to turn on the flash so I could make Jeffbuc's eye twitch ;)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
On the far left you can see the 180° we had to cheat about 3/4" out of the middle to get things to tuck properly. In the end it really should not matter.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
Here she is on the ground. That far exhaust hanger will get triangulated before everything is said and done.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432004457
So much win! 3" from turbo to bumper. ALLTHEFLOWS! It should be epicly silent as well.

As promised, here is the shopping list:

1 x 4" x 5.25" Stainless Double Wall Angle 3" Inlet Tip ~ DT-30101
1 x 3.00" Mild Steel, 4.00" Radius, 16 Gauge, 180 Deg. Mandrel Bend ~ MS-16-300-400-180
2 x 3.00" Mild Steel, 4.00" Radius, 16 Gauge, 90 Degree Mandrel Bend ~ MS-16-300-400-090
2 x 3.00" Mild Steel, 4.00" Radius, 16 Gauge, 45 Degree Mandrel Bend ~ MS-16-300-400-045
2 x 3.00" Mild Steel, 4.00" Radius, 16 Gauge, 18 Degree Mandrel Bend ~ MS-16-300-400-018
2 x 3.00" Mild V-Band Assembly ~ VBAND-300-ASM-MS
4 x 3.00" OD, 16 Gauge, Mild Steel Straight Tube ~ MS-300-065

1 x Magnaflow PN 12579 5x11x22 C/C 3" I/O w/2.5" dual cores

1 x Vibrant PN 17950 Large Diameter Bottle Style Resonator, 3" I/O, 5" OD body

Notes:

• I think we only used about 1' of the 4' of pipe that I purchased due to the resonators length
• We could have probably used at least one more 18 degree section
• I stole a chassis mounted hangar off another exhaust that was in Gesso's garage to add a 4th hangar location for the muffler
• A couple of cuts will need to be made somewhere along the system to add v-bands to make things a bit easier to remove.

Right now its tacked up and sitting on the floor in Gesso's garage. The plan is to backpurge the whole mess and he can finish tiging up the seams at his leisure. I'm hoping to be there so I can try to maybe screw up some of his hard work :giggle:

Yeah, that's right, its mild. Come at me bro! It was significantly cheaper than stainless and for my needs, it will do just fine. I also found that there was a significant lack of angular diversity when I was hunting for stainless bends. I don't drive in the salt/snow so meh.

V-Bands will make it a lot more modular as well. If the front section with the resonator becomes too troublesome, we can remove it and replace it with a smaller one, or maybe even a high flow cat. This should also be modular enough that if I do something silly like changes horses midstream YET AGAIN the system can change with my frivolous desires.

Keep in mind this is all "practice" for when we spring into action on Gesso's car. I have a sneaking suspicion that exhaust will be very similar to this one. I think we will probably be building something for the Exo and Pat's car as well, depending on how things go.

Once again, I cannot thank Gesso and Pat Cleary enough for the mad romp through exhaust land. Time and effort are very much appreciated :bigtu: :bigtu: :bigtu:

Originally Posted by 18psi (Post 1232540)

it's glorious :party:
that's about as good as it gets for quiet+flow
and you know how much I appreciate quiet+flow

Originally Posted by codrus (Post 1232551)

It doesn't turn all sorts of interesting colors, though! :)

Looks very nice!

--Ian

Originally Posted by aidandj (Post 1232553)

So where do I sign up to just get an extra one of everything you get made/buy...? I'll sign you up for the same thing on my truck project ;)

Originally Posted by Mobius (Post 1232577)

:bigtu:

Originally Posted by relte (Post 1232602)

That looks great. What exhaust hangers are you using? I wish I thought of the cargo strap idea for holding the big ass muffler in place while fitting things up!

Originally Posted by psyber_0ptix (Post 1232645)

...and I just switched to a SM OEM style 4T trigger wheel to run 99-05 code
-_-

Originally Posted by shuiend (Post 1232673)

I order a good amount of stuff from Columbia mandrel bending for my MKTurbo setups. I have been very happy with what I have received. The only thing I don't like is it takes 4-5 days to get to me on the east coast.

Originally Posted by shuiend (Post 1232673)

Building 3" exhausts on the NB is a PITA. Yours looks great though.

Originally Posted by shuiend (Post 1232673)

The only suggestion I would make would be go with aluminized steel over the mild steel. It should last a bit longer, and the cost difference is marginal.

Originally Posted by EO2K (Post 1232726)

Haha! My poor truck :cry:

Originally Posted by EO2K (Post 1232726)

The metal hanger mounts are cut and bent out of I believe 3/8" stainless rod? Gesso can confirm. It was like $10 for 3' of rod or $10 EACH for prebent hangars that only came in a 10 pack. That's just silly. In the end they went together super easy. We used all the OEM chassis mount points plus added one. I'm tempted to add another but we'll see. I need to get a pic of the one we added.

Originally Posted by aidandj (Post 1232729)

It has begun.

Originally Posted by EO2K (Post 1232755)

Oh thank god its FTE, I didn't want to sign up for another forum.

Originally Posted by Monk (Post 1232757)

I did.