Mandrel or press-bends.. does it really make a difference?

[Skinny]

The whole exhaust is coming out and all new stuff going in. CIA headers followed by a high-flow cat and a new muffler which I haven't decided on yet. I can get a single pipe from the cat all the way to the muffler done pretty cheap at my muffler shop (they hook me up pretty well ;) ) but the only thing is they can't do mandrel bends there. Would a 3" press-bent pipe all the way back be any different than a 3" mandrel bent pipe all the way back? I think the 3" pipe alone is pretty big for the amount of exhaust my car emits, so I don't really think that the tiny bends would make much if any difference there. Am I way off here or what?

[Cale]

If you were running some sort of boost... then it might make a fraction of a difference.

[Skinny]

I am running nitrous, but I don't see it making any difference.

[ June 19, 2002: Message edited by: 96BeastV6 ]</p>

[slacker69]

well how much is he gonna do the 3" press bends for cause for 90 bucks u can get the mandral bent ones from summit

[Skinny]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by slacker69:
well how much is he gonna do the 3" press bends for cause for 90 bucks u can get the mandral bent ones from summit<hr></blockquote>

Maybe $50 to make the pipe and put it on the car... maybe less

[ToddBoe]

I had the similar situation i bought 2 90 degree manderl bent ends instead and just cut them down till they worked it was alotta going under the car and then back out cut alittle more off then back under for a test fit i also have the CIA Headers on the car as well just finished up the install last night what a freakin mess cause of them 2 90 degree bends let me tell ya uggg i used the 3 inch edelbrock cat back exhaust but cut out the section that they reduced down and put in a 3 inch peice so i have true 3 in all the way back haven't fired it up yet was to tired when i got done last night to do so but i'd recomend doing the manderl bent ones if you might upgrade later it will save ya the expense of doing so later and i asked a shop about bending me a pipe like that in 3 inch they said no 2 90 degrees can be bent they told me they would have to do 2 45's :mad: so i said to heck with it and did it myself

[pgriffith]

Get the mandrel bends. It is money well spent. I have had both. Trust me. Specially if you are running nitrous. A 3 inch mandrel bent system will be very nice. I added the mandrel bends and I noticed a HUGE difference with the nitrous. It hits twice as hard with a free flowing exhaust. NA performance is about the same. Sounds alot better too.

[Steve Caroccia]

I just did this 2 days ago!!!!!!!

Got a Borla that did not come with an s-pipe. You can get (2) 45 degree or (2) 90 degree stainless steel (last forever) from SLP for $50 (although you are going to wait like 3 weeks to get it. The shop CAN mandrel bend it but it will crinkle a little, but the crinkle is in the flow direction. I got 2 45's and they bent them with minimal crinkle to 75 (they were afraid of the turn so they over bent them). I would say 60 degrees would also fit!

If you got a 3" cat and a 3" catback, then I would recommend 3" all the way around.

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